Today's live session has now ended, but Allegra will be back for a second helping on September 6.
Allegra McEvedy cooking at home.
Photograph: Felix Clay.Which is the best kind of spud to make the perfect baked potato? How do you stop raspberries going off seemingly overnight? Why do some eggs whites "dissolve" when you poach them while others hold their shape perfectly? Is free-range chicken better than organic? Is it better to cook with unsalted or salted butter? These are all questions I've asked myself. Some of them are old favourites (the poached egg one, I asked myself again this morning), some I wonder with dismay as another punnet of rasps turns into a punnet of pin-mould, and some are new - the baked potato being something I'm currently getting to the bottom of.
Obviously I spend more time thinking about food than most (most of waking and nearly all of sleeping, as far as I can work out), but if I've got this many questions, I've also got plenty of opinions, and maybe, just maybe in this cerebral soup I carry round on my shoulders there are some answers floating like croutons to some of your important culinary issues. A few ground rules about the questions though:
1. No really big ones such as "What exactly is the right way to remove a pig's liver?".
2. Nothing really boring such as: "What's your favourite restaurant?" or "What was De Niro like to work for?" ... let's stick to the kitchen.
3. No tricks/questions just to test - guaranteed I won't say what you want and thank God, my school days are over.
4. A warning: I'm not particularly strong on pastry, but I can always ask my friend Angus who's a stunning pastry chef.
5. Please be patient - as far as i can see there's no team of researchers sitting under my desk.
I'm not claiming to know all the answers and I'm more than happy for others to chip in too - between us all, we should be able to figure most things out. So let the games commence - because the kitchen is just a great big playground and cooking should always be fun ... I'll be back at 2pm on Thursday to chat through the questions with you.
Allegra McEvedy is G2's resident chef, founder of Leon, the chain of healthy eating restaurants, and author of Allegra McEvedy's Colour Cookbook and several other cook books. Post your questions below and check back on Thursday afternoon for answers.
