Things are going quite well at l’escargot bleu. I think we’ve found a good balance between opening hours and numbers of seats for our small team.

“I’ve been in the Fred fan club for years, admiring his unstinting, heartfelt commitment to supporting small suppliers, traditional products and food heritage – in a nutshell, the Slow Food way of doing things.” Fiona Richmond, Head of Regional Food, Scotland Food & Drink

It was late April / early May 2020 that we started offering restaurant at home meals for delivery and collection. I remember my son Camile and my daughter Matilde both in the kitchen with me helping with the basic tasks like washing, peeling and chopping vegetables, washing salad leaves, making vinaigrettes and dressings, labelling, storing and stock-taking for deliveries and collection.

“For anyone importing fresh produce there is more bureaucracy and thus more delay which reduces freshness, increases waste and impacts disproportionately on small players such as ourselves.” Patricia Stephen, Phantassie Organic Market Garden

That’s it, we are officially in full summer today; the longest day was yesterday. I spent a long day at Newton Garden with my helper Matthieu. Lots of weeding was done, as well as a fair bit of planting: more leeks and salad, also chervil, dill, coriander and parsley.

Rachel Hammond crafts artisan speciality meats from the lush banks of the River Tweed and the green hills and wooded valleys of Berwickshire in Scotland.

No doubt most of you will be thinking of holidays just now. The weather at the moment is being extremely kind, encouraging our brains to think about beaches, walks, family, and food and drink.

“It’s interesting to see when I was a student living in France as a teaching assistant in a provincial lycée, one of the fundamental lessons I learned when it came to home cooking was that it could not be hurried.” Writer and Journalist Cate Devine.

On our way to the garden on Sunday morning, we received a phone call from the BBC asking if one of us would comment the on-going concern of serious staff shortages in the hospitality industry.

In my short life of 35 years as a chef, I have come across many people in the trade who have really moved me with their sensitivity to the job they are doing; not just with their skills at butchering, filleting or cooking, but with their philosophy of showing an extremely attentive and caring approach, respecting the whole life of the animal with a soft and gentle touch.