The Cooking Book. Editor in Chief Victoria Blashford Snell

This book is breaking my desk. It isn’t just heavy; it’s condensed neutron heavy and requires two hands to lift. Drop it and it might go through the floor like a cartoon grand piano and not stop till it gets to the boiler room. Its weight is in knowledge. A thousand ‘every day’ recipes that are easily achievable and remarkably varied and that can turn a non-cook into a chef and take a middling cook up a lot higher. Read more

Learn the art of making squid ink pasta at Caldesi

La Cucina Caldesi, London’s family-run Italian cookery school, offers Italian-themed food and wine courses, as well as children’s activities. Winter 2008 courses include ‘Fresh pasta & sauces’,’30 Minute Italian Menus’, ‘Pizza Making & More!’ Several new courses include ‘Giancarlo cooks’ and ‘Sunday Market Kitchen.’

Funnel cakes prove to be a great success in Hampstead

Original American Funnel Cakes started to be imported into Europe last year and after a very busy summer at numerous events and fairs, many people have now started selling them in pubs, catering trailers and restaurants, across the UK, however Hampstead people seem to enjoy them the most. Funnel Cakes are popular around the United States at ballparks, fairs and festivals, markets, school fetes; essentially, anywhere people meet.

Tuck into these tasty little numbers: no guilt required

Life’s just too short to spend time totting up calories, so thank goodness for the new range of snacks and smoothies from Calories Exactly. Perfect for the pre Christmas diet, Calories Exactly is all about great tasting, pre-portioned, normal food and drink that counts all the calories for you and shows them clearly on the front of the pack, whether it’s 100, 200 or another exact amount.

Up box transforms lunch boxes into gourmet picnics

Say goodbye to boring box lunches filled with sandwiches and potato crisps. At UP Box, menu items from twelve different countries offer city-workers an alternative to high-carbohydrate fayre. This week, Chef Ron Laity is adding a Japanese food box to the global menu.

Neighborhood grocer to stock exclusive olive oil

Muswell Hill residents can find speciality foods in their own neighborhood now that owners of the Clissold Arms gastropub have opened a grocer next door. Sleepy commuters can stop by Clissold Grocer to pick up hand-roasted coffees and teas, breakfast pastries, homemade granola and freshly squeezed fruit juices.

Goodman in Maddox Street

To Goodman in Maddox Street where the concept of a Russian steak restaurant is in full swing at a special press dinner. Named after Benny Goodman, the Russian/Jewish jazzman, it’s actually part of a chain that began life in Moscow in 2003. Of course we in the UK are used to the idea of hard people from the frozen North selling us steaks, after all we’ve had Aberdeen Angus steakhouses in London since Putin was a boy.