There is a moment that happens in my kitchen, usually about ten to twelve minutes into making mayonnaise, when something shifts.
Not in the bowl. In the room. Someone in the group will notice the mixture beginning to look a little loose, a little oily around the edges. They’ll glance up…

The best tip I ever received about mayonnaise came from Fanny and Johnnie Cradock. In their book A Cook’s Essential Alphabet, Johnnie describes an occasion when Fanny left the mixer beating egg yolks and went to answer the phone — only to return much later to find a thick, almost white batter waiting…

There is a particular memory that comes back to me whenever I make a vinaigrette. It’s late 2009, I am sitting in a diner in the American Midwest — can’t remember which state or town — and my salad order arrives. The leaves are buried. Not dressed. Buried. A lake of thick, pale, pre-made Ranch dressing…

I love a good vinaigrette — one that barely coats the salad leaves and has enough acidity to cleanse the palate. I abhor salads where the leaves are drowning in a sappy mayonnaise soup, something that is all too common in the UK, USA and my mate Yann’s…