As a PR man by profession, I am naturally drawn to an awareness campaign – I invented National Kissing Day 25 years ago this year and recruited Raymond Blanc to help promote it – and the world of food and drink provides rich pickings when it comes to special days, weeks and months designed to get us to tuck into every kind of gastronomic delight imaginable.
We are now a few weeks into the new season, and once again it’s gratifying to see no preening egos, no cheating and a lack of petulant behaviour. Millions of people are once again getting their weekly televisual fix, with a very open field meaning second guessing who will be champion is a pointless task.
It hardly seems possible how much time has passed since the dark days of lockdown. Five years ago this month we were coming to the end of the notorious ‘Eat Out To Help Out’ initiative, which had the good intention of supporting the hard-pressed hospitality sector, but which was known in the scientific community by the rather less complimentary nickname of ‘Eat Out To Help The Virus’.
Foodies right across the county will be mourning Norfolk chef and food champion Richard Hughes, whose sad passing was announced on Monday.
EASTERN DAILY PRESS/EVENING NEWS
As readers of my last column will be aware, I have been on a long research tour exploring the gastronomy of France. When you write about food and drink, these are the kind of things you have to do, purely, of course, for the benefit of your readers. You can thank me later.
French president Charles de Gaulle famously once questioned how anyone could govern a country with 246 different varieties of cheese. Actually he was somewhat underestimating: there are well over 1,000 cheeses in France, and last week I was doing my best to taste my way through as many of them as possible at the famous Victor Hugo Market in Toulouse.
Picture suggestion: a cup of coffee
I know that newspaper headlines have an important job to do in terms of engaging readers in an increasingly crowded media environment, and that is perhaps why headline writers sometimes have a habit of using hyperbolic language which can over-dramatise the actual news story in question.
Picture suggestion: Plate of fine food – perhaps from Disfrutar if press pictures are available
