Author: Michael McG

Balzano’s in Cambridge is an authentic Italian deli established well over 30 years ago now and still  serving the well-settled local Italian community and everyone else….It has a fantastic bakery where bread is still baked each day and supplied to a host of restaurants and food outlets. I love...

Calvados is an apple brandy from the French region of Lower Normandy. It is made from cider apples, double distilled and often aged in oak casks for a period of time. It is rumoured to have come into being around the time of Charlemagne, the great leader often cited...

Cavolo Nero, originally from Italy, has a distinctive colour and depth of flavour. Once cooked and combined with roasted red pepper and lemon juice and a little olive oil, it takes on a ‘surreal-sublime’ taste, which will stand its ground as a excellent accompaniment alongside any dish of the...

A trivet, also known as a ‘hot plate,’ is an object placed between a serving dish or bowl and a dining table, usually to protect the table from heat damage. In cooking a trivet serves the purpose of cooking a joint of meat with the same care of protecting...

A while ago now I made a promise not to buy another cookery book – as one tends to just buy them and not actually cook from them. Only last week I bought this online and thus broke my promise that I had made a few months ago. This...

Suffolk red poles feature among the cattle grazed on local meadows in and around Cambridge. Having collected the rib of beef late last week, I decided to delay cooking it until Sunday – it’s weight was a mere 4kg, and it had 2 bones on it, cut short. When...

On Sunday we had a simple roast chicken, brought from Waitrose, a local superstore. I did my usual warm fennel salad with garlic, plus roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings & gravy. The great thing about doing a large roast is that one can always come back later that evening for...

A couple of years ago now, one of my best friends, Marco, in Basel, Switzerland introduced me to this little drink.  I liked it so much that I keep a stock in our fridge at home, bought from my local deli. Crodino is one of Italy’s famous drinks, a...

British Regional Food by Mark Hix was the last cookery book I  bought, early this year – after making a promise not to buy another cookery book. It’s fantastic in many ways – unpretentious, simple and has the wow factor in local produce, food, and some classical local recipes. The...

Sunday – a bright crisp morning – not a cloud in the sky! Wonderful for picking quinces! In Cambridge, quince tress abound in unusual locations … on forgotten allotments & doctors’ surgeries and in local gardens. I had been invited to pick some ripe quinces – so I called...