Chinese takeaways
All this talk of swine flu brings back vivid memories of Hunan during the SARS crisis of 2003. I lived there from the early days of…
On not eating shark’s fin
European Union ministers are demanding urgent action to protect sharks in European waters, because a third of shark species are endangered because of chronic overfishing.  It’s…
World’s 50 best restaurants?
On Monday night I went to the awards ceremony for Restaurant magazine’s annual survey of the ‘World’s Fifty Best Restaurants’. Predictably, and I think deservedly, El…
More talk of Ba Shan…
Time Out published a glowing review of Ba Shan, the latest restaurant in the Bar Shu Group, last week – five out of six stars! And…
Beijinger interview
Interview with me in the Beijinger last week…
Cheese for Chinese
Apparently the makers of Stilton, that delicious blue-veined English cheese, are to start exporting it to China! As is widely known, the Chinese traditionally have little…
Easter weekend
I’m just back from a weekend of unusually traditional English cooking at my parents’ place in Oxford. Roast lamb, new potatoes and a salad with land…
The Jane Grigson Award
My latest book, ‘Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper’, has just received The Jane Grigson Award from the IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals’!
Ba Shan – the first reviews!
The new restaurant, Ba Shan, was the subject of Fay Maschler’s main review in the Evening Standard on Wednesday. And there’s already a review up on…
Memories of Hangzhou
On my last day in Hangzhou, a friend arrived at my hotel with some of that most precious of commodities – new season West Lake Longjing…