When I started to make notes for this piece, the first word I wrote down was ‘guilt’. We are informed – daily – by a weight of food programmes, thousands of cookbooks and every newspaper, about what and how we should eat. I know how to cook, and have no shortage of ideas for dishes, and yet I’m often worried about whether I’m doing my best by those I feed (my children).
There are competing and polarised voices in the food world these days, and they’re loud. Some warn us about the evils of ultra-processed food (when they shout I wince at the thought of the Coco Pops in my cupboard and the cooked ham in my fridge) while others rage about how classist and anxiety-making such warnings are.
When...