Paper Palate

A much less scary cover this month, as the OFM picks five chefs to watch - including Gordon Ramsay’s head chef at Hospital Road, and cover girl, Clare Smyth. The other chefs and restaurants you should be checking out are Robert Thompson at Waldo’s (Berkshire), Tom Kitchin at The Kitchin (Edinburgh), James Sommerin at the The Crown (Wales) and Tristan Mason at The Orrery (London).

Originally for Christmas, Nigel Slater lays on a feast of vegetarian recipes, such as beetroot frittata, chard and cheddar tart and pumpkin tortilla. A selection of chefs also offer meat-free recipes for the big day and beyond, including globe artichokes baked in foil with thyme, from Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray of River Café fame.

Crisis is a UK charity for the homeless and The Crisis Cookbook contains recipes from some of the world’s top chefs. The selection in the OFM is of puddings and includes Ferran Adrià’s simple apricots with icecream as well as recipes from the likes of Joel Robuchon, Heston Blumenthal and Rick Stein. I tried out Shaun Hill’s chocolate cake - a dense, fondant-like creation containing little other than chocolate, butter and sugar!

The requisite thought provoking material comes in the form of an article about the lab-enhanced superfoods of the future. There’s already some very scary chocolate available in Japan.  It’s called GABA and contains gamma-amino butyric acid (hence the name). The acid occurs naturally in the human brain and has been shown to have a calming effect (on beagles, post menopausal women and students). From the article, it seems that often the link between science and marketing claims is tenuous and that many of the products available (and marketed) elsewhere in the world will struggle to be promoted in the EU in a similar manner. It also sounds as though food labelling is set to become more obscure and confusing, as marketeers attempt to sell some very highly processed foods.

Unsurprisingly, a peek in Alain Ducasse’s shopping basket reveals little in the way of processed food. Despite the rich food, such as Jabugo ham, clotted cream and champagne, the contents get an overall tick from Dr. John Briffa.

The authors Lionel Shriver, Augusten Burroughs and Kate Mosse all talk Christmas and there’s an interview with Rowley Leigh, whose new restaurant, Le Café Anglais, has just opened in London’s Bayswater.

The issue finishes with (possibly) the two most important gastronomic items: cheese and wine. Alex James tastes his way through a variety of cheeses, with Harvey Nichols’ truffle brie, Dayleford Organic’s mature cheddar, La Fromagerie’s buffalo mozzarella and Villarejo manchego all scoring five stars. Mind you, there are an awful lot of four star cheeses there too …

Tim Atkins wraps up with 25 top wines for Christmas.  Ranging in price from just £3.48 a bottle up to £20 there’s something for all budgets and tastes. Mind you, for the New Year there’s little need to go past the champagne!