The award-winning Fat Duck is reopening and its chef says that it won't just be a place for dinner it will be about storytelling.

The Observer restaurant critic is used to life on the other side of the kitchen door. So how would a hard shift on the hottest day of the year work out?

School meals can be tricky. Now, thanks to a remarkable Brazilian chef, one west London school for children with autism has changed mealtimes for the better.

Dinky jars of harissa, rice wines and things with furry moulds: all stood as testimony to my lack of commitment as an adventurous cook.

Politicians used to be allowed to be distant and dignified. And when it comes to eating in public, it should stay that way. Just ask Ed Miliband or David Cameron.

I want to pass on an enthusiasm for food not my mothers spaghetti marrow. We may now inherit an interest in the table from our parents but not the dishes themselves.

Making ingredients taste of themselves is of course virtuous. But slamming them together with other ingredients so they become something else is where the real action is.

As a food critic, I know that people love the negative reviews and that it's more fun to read and write about the bad meals than the good onesWhere restaurant criticism is concerned it is hate that springs eternal. Sure, people may enjoy restaurant...

Some filthy food secrets are simply unforgivable. Best that you keep them behind closed doorsRecently I became a national hate figure. Not since I admitted I thought negronis taste like bad dental mouthwash, have I felt so reviled. Apart from the time...

The dreary cult of superfoods makes too many foolish promises. And it ruins a good lunchI was scrolling through my spam email folder one day dreaming about how life would be if its contents were only true. Oh the Nigerian oil millions I would have; ...

From fish and chips in Yorkshire to a blow-out at Le Gavroche, Jay Rayner picks food that offers the best value to suit any budgetIn an age when it's possible to get a box of chips and three deep-fried wings from a chicken shop for ...

Cheap, quick and sociable, the chicken shop is now part of many schoolkids' lives. Jay Rayner wonders if anyone can wean our children off their favourite fast foodWoodgrange Road in London's Newham is where cheap chickens go after they die. Just across...

Why do we balk at spending money on expensive Indian food? A meal at Gymkhana is an education42 Albemarle Street, London W1 (020 3011 5900). Meal for two, including drinks and service: £140The story of Indian food in Britain is a complicated one full...

When a small Vietnamese cafe in London announced that it had been asked to change its name because another firm had trademarked the word 'pho', there was an uproar. Can one restaurant 'own' a country's national dish?Forget the proverbial storm in a teacup;...

The idea of eating insects disgusts us. But meat is growing ever more expensive. Enter the marketing department... We in western Europe are not going to be crunching down whole bugs any day soon, no matter what their most noisy enthusiasts and advocates...

We all have a classic repertoire - and mine includes that chilli I've been knocking out since university.In the corner of my kitchen is a set of shelves, crammed with recipe books. None of these is for show. Every single one is dog-eared and sauce-stained,...