PHOTOGRAPHS: TOBY SCOTT, PAUL MITCHELL. RECIPE: SOPHIE AUSTEN-SMITH. FOOD STYLING: JEN BEDLOE. STYLING: VICTORIA ELDRIDGE
It seems barely six months since I last wrote the editor’s letter for a Christmas issue – your biggest, most ideas-packed and (we hope) most inspiring magazine of the year. Our aim is to do the hard work for you, tasting, sifting out the dross and whittling down the vast array of products available in the shops and online. When you read about a gadget, gift or food item in delicious. it will have been prodded, tasted, tested and argued over. Nothing gains a place in our pages if it hasn’t punched above its weight. Then of course there are the recipes… We can’t actually cook them for you (sorry!) but we have planned, created, tested, tasted and discussed them until they’re as good, in our opinion, as they can possibly be. My goodness, I love the pantomime feature on p30. Thanks to editorial assistant Phoebe’s joyful research, I learned so much I didn’t know about the backstory and quirks of the uniquely British panto. Fascinating. But the recipes, along with so many others in this issue, are crowdpleasers, inspirational and full of warmth.
All that aside, this is a moment to take a breath, gather the clans, do the prep, do something beyond the call of duty for others, invite someone round who might be experiencing the sharpened pang of loneliness at Christmas, hunker down with curtains drawn, a slice of good cake and a film…It’s a special time of year and it’s a challenging time of year, but I hope it’s also one that brings you happiness and fulfilment. Enjoy the cooking – and may it all be good. Deliciously good.