A day in the life of a recipe tester and cookbook assistant.

An interview with Sami Tamini, of Ottolenghi. And a long read from the New Yorker a few years back on Ottolenghi, Tamini and their business.

I loved this post on being an artist. Does one ever feel comfortable with a title? I’ve always wondered about people who easily self-define. I’ve been at conferences where speakers declare ‘I am a sociologist’ or ‘I am an anthropologist’. I’ve never found it easy to declare myself as something. When I was writing my thesis I used to have a mantra going in my head ‘I am a writer, I am a writer’ to remind myself that yes, writing a thesis means you are a writer. But I’ve always been interested in so many things (and maybe because my first degree was in three disciplines) that I have never thought to define myself as one thing over another. Possibly that is the problem.

I love The Little Library Cafe blog, all about books and food, and food in books. I particularly like this week’s entry, which fairly accurately describes the weather over the last few days, especially Friday when the mist rolled in and all was grey and damp.

This review of the #eatclean brigade was the most refreshing piece of writing I’ve read in ages. Yes, some of the items they want you to purchase are slightly ridiculous, and some of their advice is down right dodgy (the evilness of carbs), and some of their smoothies look like brown sludge, but some of the advice given is fairly normal – eat veggies, fruit, wholegrains and the like. (And if you’d like to find out what exactly extreme eating clean is all about, read this.)

It was Pi(e) Day yesterday over in the USA. Those of us who put the day before the month are never going to encounter it but Smitten Kitchen’s chocolate peanut butter tart is worth making any day of the year I think. Also this peach pie has me longing for warm summer days.

I need to make this cake. Possibly in the summer so I can finish it with fresh berries.

A funny interview with Christina Tosi (of Momofuku Milk Bar) about being a judge on Masterchef. (And if, like me, you fall into a wormhole looking at Milk Bar creations and wondering if you shouldn’t attempt to make one, here is a recipe for their Funfetti cake from Bon Appetit.)

A fascinating long read about whales and their culture.

I started reading Isabel Allende’s Ripper over the weekend. I love detective/mystery/whodunit novels and this has been thoroughly enjoyable so far.

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