The Cookbook Book

Mrs Dorothy Lintott, The History Boys by Alan Bennett

“History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.” says Mrs Dorothy Lintott in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. For a female history teacher in 1980s Sheffield, it must have seemed that way. But it was a time that the study of history itself was starting to change. Slowly.

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Bacchus Sunday, Hoxton


East London is getting more and more cramped on Sundays. There’s always a scrum on Columbia Road, and just minutes away Brick Lane also hosts a weekly market. The BBQ area at London Fields bursts at the seams, and the punters at The Cat and Mutton spill out onto the street round Broadway Market.… 

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Review: The Old George

The Old George, 379 Bethnal Green Road

This post starts with a sad story. A few months ago, Thomas and I went to try out a recently-renovated pub nearby, The King’s Arms. It used to be a proper local’s pub. But the new management took down the traditional swinging sign. They switched the pub tables outside for expensive benches, stripped out the interior and crammed the back bar with craft beers. Now The King’s Arms pitches itself as a “stylish modern take on a traditional pub”.… 

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Ceviche: South American in Soho

Just as the fashion industry decided that tribal prints were coming back in many, many seasons ago, so the movers-and-shakers in the food world predicted, mid-2011, that South American cuisine was going to be big in summer 2012.

And sure enough, with the first sniff of spring, half-Peruvian and half-English restaurateur Martin Morales has launched the much-anticipated Soho restaurant Ceviche, bringing pisco, tiger’s milk and lúcuma to central London…. 

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