On The Side

When a chef has acquired a degree of celebrity, people’s attitudes seem to change. One of the most common questions posed to waiting staff is whether the great one is on the premises or whether he personally prepared that terrine/fish/panna cotta. When the answer is in the negative, this often results in hurt feelings. In…

Last Sunday was National Waiters’ Day. I jest not. Who, I hear you ask, thinks these things up? If I tell you that the ubiquitous Fred Siriex is involved you probably won’t be surprised. Perhaps of more interest is the fact that this goes back about 100 years, to Paris and the annual race, the…

Yesterday, two unthinkable things happened. Firstly, I discovered that L and I both had a completely empty calendar. Ladies and gentlemen, in the month of August, this is something which does not happen. With a few mouse clicks I soon remedied that. Three Fringe shows and a bite of dinner (The Outsider on George IV…

To eat well in England, you should have breakfast three times a day. Thus spake W Somerset Maugham, at the time a resident of France. In 1914 he may have had a point. This is a Scottish column. Why, I hear you ask, such a quotation from south of the border? Well, it’s better than…