HB&B Blog — France

There are few better teachers – or creative constraints – than necessity. The best of my cooking over the past year has arisen out of leftovers that urgently needed using: wilting spinach and stale sourdough that turned into ribollita, old takeaway pulao that was reborn as fried rice. Striving to avoid food waste has become less a slogan and more a challenge – one taken up with some gusto and humility, and one that has pushed me to the outer limits of my knowledge. There are few better examples of necessity cooking than chilaquiles – stale tortillas sliced, fried into...

I’m not on TikTok (after spending much of the past decade donating large parcels of my brain to social media, I’m moved to defend the last stake of my sanity), but I still get cooking inspiration from TikTok. The most recent: corn butter tomato toast, made by a guy named Pierce on a farm in Montauk. The idea – grilled sweetcorn blended with butter, slathered on toast and topped with freshly salted slices of heirloom tomato – is so ingeniously simple that it astounds me that it’s not already a canonical summer dish. Most commenters seem to agree: “CORN BUTTER?!...

Recently, I came across food writer Diana Henry’s paean to “sofa suppers” – those dishes where there’s “everything in a bowl, no extra relishes or anything, and you only need a spoon”. Henry was never allowed to eat in front of the TV when growing up and only discovered the pleasure in doing so as a working adult. Now, she writes, as the weather dampens and cools (and as the new season of Succession is released), there’s never been a better time to indulge in the cosy ritual. This resonated with me – as much as I like sit-down dinners,...

I love whites and rosés and pét nats in the summer as much as anyone, but I’m also a strong believer in the perfection of a chilled red when the sun finally rolls around. Case in point: Le Grappin’s blissful Beaujolais-Villages Nature 2019, made from grapes sourced from Lancié, just moments from Fleurie (one of 10 areas where premium Cru Beaujolais is made). Beaujolais' stocks have risen in recent years, as tastes have shifted towards lighter-bodied, more subtle and acid-driven reds rather than the previously omnipresent, over-oaked jam bombs. If you haven’t had Beaujolais before, it’s hard not to get on with the grape it’s...

When I started writing this column, the January blues were crashing into spiralling COVID-19 case numbers and deeper lockdowns, but I took hope from the fact that there is surely light at the end of the tunnel. I set out to write about how, in the absence of other options (and with the awareness of the privilege of having dependable shelter and enough food and income right now), it is best for us all to slow down and find relief in warming, home-cooked food and a good bottle of wine and a blanket nest on the sofa. That was the...