Twitter and Instagram are awash with food, but if there’s one account that stops Cook in its tracks it is Parisian chef Alain Passard’s @ArpegeLive. Passard’s rue-de-Varennes restaurant l’Arpège has retained its three Michelin stars for nigh-on 20 years but, as these daily updates prove, there’s nothing staid about what he serves. His is utterly exquisite, mostly plant-based fare: petals of black turnip, shavings of watermelon radish, endives pirouetting in a froth of butter and bergamot-candied celeriac. So Cook recommends following him, if only for the momentary delight each tweeted platter brings. Cook also recommends his recent collection of recipes, The Art of Cooking With Vegetables, published by Frances Lincoln and enticingly illustrated with the chef’s own culinary cutout collages.
Diana Henry, another irrepressible worker of magic in the kitchen, published her ninth tome this week. A Bird in the Hand is a celebration of chicken recipes from around the globe and to mark its release, Henry will be in conversation with her tutor of old, Fiona Burrell, at the Edinburgh New Town Cookery School on 21 March.
Recently spotted on the next Cook resident’s kitchen table (oh the suspense …): copper measuring spoons. What beauties! West Elm are selling sets of four (comprising 1 tbsp, 1 tsp, ½ tsp and ¼ tsp spoons) for £16.
The London-based roaming restaurant and social enterprise Mazi Mas has launched a crowdfunding campaign for its new restaurant. Given the quality of Mazi Mas food and, most importantly, the awesome impact that these projects have on immigrant and refugee women around the capital, Cook is on board. Opening its doors on 17 March at Ovalhouse Theatre in south London, this new venue will provide 16 hours per week of paid employment, plus training and support to six women until the end of May.
