I, like many in this world, was brought up with the belief that when it came to ketchup, Heinz had it all sown up. Ketchup was something that came of the grocers shelf and you compared it to the product from Heinz. That was it, there was no way through it. A lot of this was pure ignorance, some fr...

In reaction to eating in Nandos the other day, I present a proper Piri Piri chicken. Piri Piri is a South African word for the very small hot chilli. This recipe can be a bit on the firey side, so you may want to be cautious how many chillies you actually use. Like my other recipes, qualit...

Tomato soup is a bit of a big deal with me. We grow our own tomatos from seeds which we get from a fantastic supplier called Seeds of Italy . We grow a good mixture, but always make sure we have plenty of the large firm plum tomatoes that the itallians love for making sauces and soups. If you grow ...

This world famous sauce from Bologna in Italy has, like much that travels round the world, lost it's special character in a thousand pre-packed dishes and bottles. DON'T buy it! Make your own. To do this properly is really not very difficult, though I admit it is hardly the quickest dish out. As ...

Why have I called this Italian Pizza? To differentiate it from other rubbish! One of the biggest problems of cooking your own pizza is the lack of a pizza oven. Not one of those metal conveyer belt things that delivery services use for their revolting offerings, but the blast furnace things...

I came across something called Vietnamese Cobber the other day. This is a fish I have not tried before. It is a little similar to haddock, maybe a little denser. The fillets I had were fairly heavily smoked and had a strong woody flavour; perfect for cooking with the sharp acidity of lime. If...

In a recent case in the European Court of Justice, support to protect the name Parmesan has been given an official thumbs up. Germany had argued that in their country the word Parmesan should mean any hard cheese from any source than can be grated on food. This was rejected. Hooray! Parmesan, ...

I sense a growing backlash to supermarkets in this country that is, from my point of view, very welcome. However, at present, supermarkets are far from worried. The reason is simple, there is almost no competition to draw people away; customers may be as discontented as hell, but if they have no...

The Competition Commission is reporting today in the UK that there needs to be more competition between supermarket chains. They are expected to recommend that Supermarket companies such as Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda release land that they have been squirrelling away so that other supermarket compa...