Category Archives: Food

Give families cash to feed their children, there’s overwhelming evidence it works | Arthur Potts Dawson

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Vouchers and money to buy food bring families the dignity everyone deserves, as the World Food Programme has shown

Dignity is not a word that you would normally associate with your weekly supermarket shop, or with planning how you might be going to feed your children each night.

But right now, when families are under intense pressure to find enough money to keep food on the table and ensure their children have access to a healthy and nutritious diet, dignity is something we should all be demanding for those who depend on others for the means to feed their loved ones.

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‘Not that good’: Montreal restaurant’s brutally honest menu pulls in the customers

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Feigang Fei, who runs the Aunt Dai Chinese restaurant, says patrons appreciate his bracingly frank descriptions of the food

In the cut-throat restaurant industry, most business owners boast that their dishes are the best in town.

Feigang Fei, who runs Aunt Dai Chinese restaurant in Montreal, has taken a different approach, with a menu offering bracingly honest descriptions of the dishes on offer.

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19 brilliant vegan recipes – from orange poppy seed cake to ‘smoked salmon’

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Halfway through Veganuary and running out of ideas? Here are some reader suggestions of comforting but easy meals to add to your repertoire

This cake has passed the vigorous “visiting non-vegan children” test with flying colours. Preheat the oven to 180C. In a bowl, stir together 375g (1½ cups) plain flour, 190g (¾ cup) sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, ¼ tsp salt, 1½ tbsp poppy seeds and 125g (½ cup) almond meal (or finely chopped almonds). Add 190g soy milk, 2 tsp orange extract, the zest of 1 orange, 60g (¼ cup) olive oil and egg substitute equal to 1 egg, then stir together gently until just mixed. Pour into a lightly oiled 20cm (8in) cake pan and bake for 25-30 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Make an orange icing using icing sugar and some of the orange’s juice, then spread over the cooled cake. Simon Perry, cyber-sales trainer, New South Wales, Australia

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Sour power: 17 delicious ways to cook with lemons, from sponge cake to sorbet

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Nothing says ‘summer’ like the scent of citrus. Brighten your winter with these mouth-watering recipes for pasta, pudding, slow-cooked pork …

It’s always lemon season somewhere. Even across Europe the harvest period is so long – running from November to July – that it would make more sense to speak of a brief off-season, and even then I’m sure you wouldn’t notice any shortage.

But for what it’s worth, we are now embarking upon the more lemon-saturated period of the year, and those fancy, expensive lemons with the leaves still on are just starting to appear in shops. They bring a strong note of summer to the dark winter months, and to almost any dish you make with them. Now is the time to expand your citrus repertoire.

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Yellow mealworm safe for humans to eat, says EU food safety agency

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Move paves way for high-protein maggot-like insect to be approved for consumption across Europe

Yellow mealworm finger foods, smoothies, biscuits, pasta and burgers could soon be mass produced across Europe after the insect became the first to be found safe for human consumption by the EU food safety agency.

The delicacies may not be advisable for everyone, however. Those with prawn and dustmite allergies are likely to suffer a reaction to the Tenebrio molitor larvae, whether eaten in powder form as part of a recipe or as a crunchy snack, perhaps dipped in chocolate.

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Dutch officials seize ham sandwiches from British drivers

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Personal imports of meat and dairy products banned from EU since Brexit transition ended

Dutch TV news has aired footage of customs officers confiscating ham sandwiches from drivers arriving by ferry from the UK under post-Brexit rules banning personal imports of meat and dairy products into the EU.

Officials wearing high-visibility jackets are shown explaining to startled car and lorry drivers at the Hook of Holland ferry terminal that since Brexit, “you are no longer allowed to bring certain foods to Europe, like meat, fruit, vegetables, fish, that kind of stuff.”

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From brownie bites to fish-finger sandwiches: five great snack ideas for home workers

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Step away from your workspace and try these quick and tasty dishes – it’s the perfect way to recharge

How many times in the working week do you take a proper break? Whether you work formally or not, and whatever your job, we all need downtime. We need to recharge and our brains really need to pause, and to be fed. Stopping work to do something absorbing, such as cookery, has been shown in studies to help us get more done with the rest of the day, and quicker, so you can get on with the rest of your life. You deserve a break. Here are a few simple snacks to look forward to.

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‘Let’s get rid of friggin’ cows’ says creator of plant-based ‘bleeding burger’

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Impossible Foods working on milk and fish substitutes as Patrick Brown pledges to put an end to animal agriculture industry

Patrick Brown is on a mission: to eradicate the meat and fish industries by 2035. The CEO of Impossible Foods, a California-based company that makes genetically engineered plant-based meat, is deadly serious. No more commercial livestock farming or fishing. No more steak, fish and chips or roast dinners, at least not as you know them.

In their place, his company’s scientists and food technicians will create plant-based substitutes for every animal product used today in every region of the world, he promises.

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Albert Roux’s legacy goes far beyond his food

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Impact of culinary expertise Roux bestowed upon his adopted country cannot be overestimated

Albert Roux, who has died aged 85, did more to encourage and foster Britain’s restaurant sector than any other chef working in the UK. The roll-call of names that passed through the kitchens of his Mayfair restaurant, Le Gavroche, which he opened with his late brother Michel in 1967, is the classic who’s who of the culinary cheffing firmament. It includes Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, Pierre Koffmann, Phil Howard, Marcus Wareing and Rowley Leigh, each of whom in turn passed on what they had learned from Albert to so many others.

He was firmly in the business of unapologetic luxury. “We knew nothing of the British indifference to food,” he once told me, of his early years in Britain, “because we had only ever cooked for the rich.” Both brothers had arrived in the country from Paris, as private chefs for the aristocracy, Michel for the Rothschilds, Albert for the Cazalets. It was their employers’ money and contacts that enabled them to launch Le Gavroche.

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Brazilian beef farms ‘used workers kept in conditions similar to slavery’

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Workers on farms supplying world’s biggest meat firms allegedly paid £8 a day and housed in shacks with no toilets or running water

Brazilian companies and slaughterhouses including the world’s largest meat producer, JBS, sourced cattle from supplier farms that made use of workers kept in slavery-like conditions, according to a new report.

Workers on cattle farms supplying slaughterhouses earned as little as £8 a day and lived in improvised shacks with no bathrooms, toilets, running water or kitchens, according to a report from Brazilian investigative agency Repórter Brasil.

Since 1995, the report said, 55,000 Brazilian workers have been rescued by government inspectors from “situations similar to slavery”. While the number of investigations has fallen in recent years – 118 workers were freed in 2018, compared with 1,045 a decade earlier – that does not mean the situation has improved, just that inspections have been reduced, it noted.

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Viva veganuary! 17 delicious ways with tofu – from thai red curry to chocolate mousse

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The high-protein meat substitute is one of the world’s most versatile ingredients. Here’s how to use it in everything from tasty stir-fries to nutritious smoothies

On 11 January 1770, Benjamin Franklin, then in London, wrote a letter to a friend in Philadelphia, enclosing some soya bean seeds (“Chinese garavances”, referring to garbanzos, or chick-peas) and forwarding a recipe for a type of cheese that could be derived from them, which he called “tau-fu”.

Franklin may never have actually tasted tofu, and certainly didn’t know much about making it, much less cooking with it. To some extent this ignorance persists in the west, where tofu is prized as a high-protein meat substitute, albeit one so bland that it is basically a texture awaiting a flavour. Tofu may be versatile, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we know what to do with it and, unless you’re a vegan, it can be hard to get excited about it. If that’s the case, here are 17 recipes to change your mind.

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Chef and Le Gavroche restaurateur Albert Roux dies aged 85

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Member of Roux culinary dynasty died on Monday after a long illness, his family has said

The chef and restaurateur Albert Roux has died at the age of 85.

The founder of the Michelin-starred Le Gavroche and member of the Roux culinary dynasty died on Monday after a long illness.

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21 things to look forward to in 2021 – from meteor showers to the Olympics

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From finally seeing the back of Donald Trump to being in a football stadium – the new year is full of promise

You probably found a few things to enjoy about last year: you rediscovered your bicycle, perhaps, or your family, or even both, and learned to love trees. And don’t forget the clapping. Plus some brilliant scientists figured out how to make a safe and effective vaccine for a brand new virus in record time.

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Comfort and joy: 10 hearty, delicious vegan meals for an icy January – from lasagne to tiramisu

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Whether you fancy a pulled ‘pork’ sandwich or a filling chana masala, these are the meat-free recipes to get you through the first chilly weeks of the year

At this time of year, the air is colder, the nights are longer and all anyone really wants is something warm and comforting to eat. However, if you happen to be vegan, your options can still be embarrassingly limited. Still, never fear, here’s the pick of the best vegan comfort-food recipes around.

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Football, flights and food: how the EU reshaped Britain

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As Brexit’s tangible effects kick in, we look at the impact the EU’s most far-reaching project has had on British society

Historians of the future will judge the politics of the half century before the Brexit transition ended on 1 January 2021. What, though, of social and cultural historians, those who study how we live?

Perhaps the most symbolic cultural artefacts of the last 50 years will turn out not to be a blue flag but a bottle of Blue Nun, a block of mozzarella, a Ryanair boarding printout or a ticket to a Bayern Munich v Manchester City football game.

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French snail farmers lament sluggish year as Covid crisis dents sales

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Escargots are traditional hors d’oeuvre at end-of-year celebrations that account for 70% of business

For France’s heliciculteurs, or snail farmers, 2020 was a desperately sluggish year.

With seasonal festivities all but cancelled, Christmas markets called off, a lack of tourists and restaurants shut down because of the coronavirus crisis, business has slowed to, well, a snail’s pace.

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‘Everything tastes better’: Guardian readers on their culinary discoveries of 2020

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From turning up the heat with exotic chillies to the ubiquitous and ultimately rewarding rise of sourdough, readers share their ingredients of the year

Discovering – or rediscovering – the joy of cooking has been one of the few bright spots of a year spent largely at home. We asked 43 of Australia’s leading chefs, cookbook authors and bloggers to share their favourite ingredient of the year. Their answers ranged from the humble and comforting (flour, mince, red lentils) to ingeniously umami (kombu, chilli bean curd, prawn oil), with native Australian ingredients also making many a No 1 spot (wattleseed, karkalla, cunjim winyu).

Now it’s our readers’ turn to share their finds.

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The food quiz of the year: from sexualised mac’n’cheese to celebrity doughnuts

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The pandemic couldn’t put a stop to pretentious restaurants or angry chefs – but can you tell which was which?

Before we had a pandemic to stress about, bakers in southern India entered Guinness World Records by baking the world’s longest cake. Roughly how long was it?

65 metres

650 metres

6.5km

65km

According to a spoof WhatsApp message that went viral in March, why was the government about to requisition Wembley stadium?

To turn it into a food bank

To host its own version of Bake Off

To cook the world’s biggest lasagne

To use as storage for the nation’s leftover sourdough

Muse in Belgravia, London, was this year labelled the most pretentious restaurant in Britain. Which of these is not a real item on the menu?

Conquering the beech tree (langoustine, pork fat, burnt apple)

Neither black nor white (cauliflower panna cotta, pickled gold raisins, caviar)

A date with Pablo (’nduja, thyme mist, polenta)

Mother’s puzzle (lemon, fennel pollen, yogurt)

Which public figure did Donuts Delite in Rochester, New York, pay tribute to with a special doughnut bearing their likeness?

Donald Trump

Bernie Sanders

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Dr Anthony Fauci

This year the Guardian ran a widely commented on guide to making the perfect burger at home. According to Honest Burger’s Tom Barton, where should the pickle in a burger go?

Under the meat patty

Above the meat patty but under the cheese

Outside the bun, as a side accompaniment only

In the bin – there’s no place for pickles on a burger

What started going missing from boxes of Quality Street after Covid-19 disrupted production lines?

The chocolate caramel brownie

The purple hazelnut caramel

Wrappers around each individual chocolate

The orange one that no one likes anyway

This year Kraft was accused of “sexualising mac’n’cheese”. What had it done?

Placed billboards featuring models bathing in the creamy pasta dish

Set up a promotion encouraging fans to “send noodz”

Added “sexy” anthropomorphic pasta shapes to the package design

Mistakenly advertised its snacks on a pornographic website

What was described by this newspaper as “Jamie’s Oliver’s worst nightmare”?

An EU law banning the use of the word “pukka” on food items

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Uber Eats getting banned from delivering on Vespas

The return of the Turkey Twizzler

Who did chef Tom Kerridge blast as “selfish” and “disgraceful”?

Dominic Cummings

Customers who fail to show up for their reservations

Diners who refuse to socially distance

People who don’t tip

Which would-be food critic came out with the unforgettable take down: “One thing I will say about Italy in general … the food is actually shocking! It’s meant to be the home of pizza and pasta and I really can’t see how”?

Selling Sunset’s Chrishell Stause

Fitness guru Joe Wicks

Love Island’s Molly-Mae Hague

Nigel Farage

2020 saw the return of the “wine window” … but what is it?

A tiny crack in a wine bottle that allows the precious drink to seep out undetected

A house window that uses bottle-green instead of clear glass

A hole in a wall through which wine can be passed to people on the street

The brief period of time in which parents can have a sneaky glass while their kids are napping

11 and above.

100%! You deserve a (socially distanced) meal out to celebrate!

8 and above.

You’ve clearly spent isolation gorging yourself stupid (on food knowledge)

0 and above.

Oh dear, have you spent your year eating nothing but homemade sourdough?

4 and above.

Your correct answers came around as often as an Ocado slot during lockdown

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Ephemeral edible: gingerbread monolith appears on San Francisco hilltop, then collapses

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Christmas day sweet sighting in Corona Heights park attracted visitors who took pictures and even took a bite

Like the other monoliths that have mysteriously appeared across America and the world in the waning weeks of 2020, the one that popped up on a California hilltop on Christmas Day seemed to come out of nowhere.

Also like the others, it was tall, three-sided and it rapidly attracted crowds of curious visitors before an untimely destruction.

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Yotam Ottolenghi’s Boxing Day recipes for using up Christmas leftovers

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Boxing Day BLT, veg samosas with cranberry sauce, and Christmas pudding eccles cakes with marzipan – stylish ways to use up excess food

The thing about Christmas day, as no one’s stomach needs reminding, is that there is always so much food. It is, however, a truth universally acknowledged that the whole point of cooking a great big bird – not to mention enough vegetables to feed twice as many people as are actually eating them – is to be able to enjoy the leftovers the day after. For all the ceremony, and the focus on the food served at the right time in the right place at the right temperature on Christmas Day, does anything, truly, beat the likes of a soft-bun sandwich filled with all the good bits? Gravy sauce for dipping into (and a sofa for sinking into) optional.

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