Soup is a wonderful starter for a dinner party as it can be prepared in advance. This leaves you more time to spend with your guests and less time stressing in the kitchen! It also makes a substantial stand-alone lunch. Many think of soup as a simple dish but with a few wee tweaks and additions a humble bowl of soup can be transformed into an elegant and enticing course. A velouté is a soup which is thickened with butter and cream. The result is luxuriously silky. Because of

Spring brings some exciting additions to the kitchen and one of my favourites has to be rhubarb. I always remember, as a young boy, pulling the first rhubarb of the season from the ground and dipping it in a poke of sugar. Whenever I taste rhubarb now, it takes me back to that time. Food has the amazing ability to instantly transport us back. The colour and flavour of rhubarb is so enticing. It can be used in so many different dishes adding an eye-catching splash of colour. T

This is one of my favourite desserts. It has it all; the crunch of the tuile, the frozen parfait and the hot doughnut. It is a good prepare-ahead recipe as the parfait is frozen and can be ready to use at any time. You can even freeze the tuiles between layers of greaseproof paper in an airtight container. As it is coming into the spring, feel free to swap out the pears for any seasonal fruit available, poached rhubarb would work just as well. This dish really keeps on giving

Fish is an ingredient that should be celebrated. Investing in good quality sea bass is a real treat and therefore should be used in an exceptional dish. This week I am sharing my recipe for pan roasted sea bass, caviar beurre blanc and mussel spring rolls. It works really well for dinner parties as the spring rolls can be made in advance and simply fried when you are ready to plate up. Of course, for an “everyday” kind of meal, you could simply cook the sea bass as per the re