Life & style, Issue 619

Culinary year

Donald Reid digests the culinary year in view. That the most widely used phrase to describe the current economic downturn has a culinary connotation is a crumb of comfort to the restaurant world. You can’t dwell on the credit crunch for long without…

Side Dishes

Just two months ago we featured an interview with an ambitious young chef, James Stocks, who was about to open his own place in Edinburgh just a few months after revelations of an over-egged CV had led to his resignation from his high-profile post at…

Taste Test - Christmas cake alternatives

Stollen Margiotta, Edinburgh, www.margiotta.co.uk; also available at the Glasgow and Edinburgh Christmas markets, £4.69 per cake. A traditional German bread-like fruitcake, this loaf represents baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes. A strong…

Food For Thought

Normally, I’m off out for a swim before my daughter Heidi wakes up, so breakfast doesn’t happen, and by the time I’ve paused for breath, it’s lunch. This typically involves miso soup or a vanilla bean and honey smoothie, along with a brie, grape and…