Boiling meat has largely gone out of fashion, mainly I think because a number of the cuts of meat associated with it are no longer all that popular either. One meat that is still traditionally boiled, especially for festivals such as Christmas, is ham and my method for preparing this is as basic as you can get

Why are eggs so important? Because they appear in just about every type of cooking and if you can handle them successfully you can deal with anything the kitchen throws at you.

All chefs who go to a western-style catering college, and most butcher's apprentices, are taught to sharpen their knives by swiping the cutting edge several times on a steel towards the hand that is holding that implement. I used to do it that way as well, many years ago.

Barbecues come in a bewildering array of different shapes and sizes, and they all cost money, so it makes sense to sort out which type is best for you before paying for anything

It can be argued that there are two separate ways of using terror as a weapon; one is to maintain the status quo and the other is to change something, usually in terms of a political and/or economic regime

One of the more shady practices of unscrupulous butchers, including those to be found in many supermarkets, is to label young mutton as 'prime lamb'

You could spend a small fortune on a rice cooker, or struggle with burnt saucepans and soggy rice, or follow the recipe below and get it right every time

I learned to fillet fish, including salmon, in a very busy restaurant in Cherbourg, Normandy, where the required rate was something like one whole fish every 10 seconds, including gutting and cleaning

Poaching eggs is a skill that is rapidly disappearing from the kitchens of the world, thanks to those awful patent cookers that produce something with the appearance, and consistency, of a plastic amoeba.

Balsamic vinegar is the 'wine' of Modena, Italy. It is rich, thick, expensive and marries up beautifully with food such as steak to produce an unusual finish