As Nick and I entered the restaurant, I knew the food could not possibly meet our expectations. “Pig,” a farm to table restaurant located in the countryside near Bath, England, had been recommended by a local friend when she heard that we would be staying in the Cotswolds. “Best meal of my life,” she said,…

I grew up in an atmosphere of food as fuel, though my mother would wince to hear her culinary efforts so lightly dismissed.  But she was in charge of feeding five kids three meals a day, and then a separate meal for my father, who arrived home later.  Our kids’ meals were simple and repetitive – hamburgers,…

I first became besotted with mouth feel sitting to the right of my grandmother at Sunday lunches.  The main course typically consisted of beef tenderloin cooked to a perfect dusty rose hue accompanied by roasted potatoes whose shiny and auburn surface gave way with a gentle crackle to the tender middle.  But the star of…

My introduction to liver was perfectly pleasant.  There was a period in my childhood when liver was a routine dinner entrée.  This was when my mother had 6 children under the age of 10 and was assisted by a mother’s helper.  My memory is a bit hazy on this point, but I don’t think that…