Two years ago, in December 2018, I was driving across the country when my car was hit by an HGV. I was spun through 90 degrees, pressed up against the front of the lorry and shunted several hundred metres up the road at fairly terrifying speed until the truck’s brakes finally brought us to a stop. While holding the steering wheel tight I was struck not only by the inconvenience of the situation, but also the overwhelming powerlessness, and the strange sensation of travelling forwards whilst facing in completely the wrong direction.

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Several decades ago (or ‘February’ as it used to be known) my wife and I went for lunch. We dressed nicely and took the train to King’s Cross. From there we ambled through drizzle to Claridge’s and spent several hours eating, drinking and being looked after in the opulent comfort of Davies & Brook,

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We had no idea. But on March 14th, at some point around 10:45pm, we presented someone with their bill for the final time. Before that they had probably had coffees brought to the table with warm almond friand cakes and dark chocolate truffles.

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To mark the occasion of penning my 100th food column for Cambridge Edition magazine’s 101st issue (it’s a long story involving a missed deadline and a wedding) which was released last summer, I put together a list of the tastiest treats that our city has to offer.

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In 2011 I began writing a monthly food column for a local magazine here in Cambridge and midway through last year they published their 100th issue. In celebration of this I put my thinking cap on and came up with a list of 100 truly delicious things to eat and drink in this fair city.

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Here we are, together, in the most interesting of times.

My overriding thought is that by the time you read this, the situation will have progressed significantly from my current location in (what will become) the quaint past. Right now chatter and speculation are all I have to work with.

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It took an hour and a half  of near constant stirring, but the first risotto I ever made was a reasonable success. Aside from the temporal commitment, of course. I realised my mistake several years, and several thousand risottos, later. It was my first sojourn into the real world - a generously appointed kitchen in a shared house in west London. Fresh out of university and brimming with ideas, a gastronomic curiosity that could not be sated.  I made chicken stock and dutifully stored it in the freezer, little cubes of bouillon ready and waiting to be used for ‘enriching a sauce or making a quick noodle soup’ or whatever else the cookbook had said. I went for risotto

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Food is notoriously difficult to get right on screen. Cooking and eating are both multi-sensory disciplines and to successfully render that in two dimensions is no small feat. There are barely a handful of truly great movies on the subject, films that genuinely manage to capture the reality - the purest essence -  of the creation and consumption of food. Many fall woefully short for any one of many reasons: myopic direction, misguided consultant chefs, lack of realism, faux sincerity and the practicalities of filming all present challenges to the gastronomically minded producer.

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At Vanderlyle we take great joy in soups. A small bowl of something intensely flavoured, seasonal and velvety smooth has been a feature of the menu ever since we opened last year. It forms the final element of a series of small dishes and snacks before the main body of the meal begins.

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‘Christmas Day breakfast is the unsung hero of the festive season, and yet, it rarely gets the credit it deserves, forever destined to be overshadowed by sage and onion and chipolatas. ‘

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Collaboration is fun. It creates a crucible of creativity that can lead to unexpected circumstances, results and locations.

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The short version: I’m delighted to announce that, in partnership with chef Lawrence Butler, I’m opening a new restaurant in the spring of 2019 at 38-40 Mill Road, Cambridge.

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We used to make a lot of chips at the Hole in the Wall. 50, 75, sometimes 100kg of potatoes a week would be washed, peeled and hand cut into thick chips. They would then be washed again, often several times, to remove any excess starch (‘rinse them until the water runs clear’ was the instruction) before being slowly simmered in plenty of salted water.

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