INSPIRATION
ISSUE
The
KAREN BARNES, EDITORFollow Karen
on Twitter
@deliciouseditor
and on Instagram
@editorkarenb
Do you remember the first time
something you tasted made an impression on you?
Food, by its nature, has its roots in culture, in the
things our mothers, fathers, grandparents and friends
cooked – and still cook. The experiences of our youth
(good and bad) resonate in the eating of our adulthood.
As we grow up, learn new things and travel, inspiration
comes from other sources: from places we visit, trying
dishes that assail, tease, please and sometimes challenge our taste buds.
Combine tantalising flavours with sunshine and a view over sea or snow-
covered mountains, add laughter and good conversation around the table and
the pleasure is heightened. But equally that happy memory can be a solitary
one, sitting alone eating a bowl of the sweetest, plumpest mussels in a bustling
café, or a flavour-bomb morsel grabbed hot from a street stall.
Such memories are filed away in a folder marked ‘good times’ (I like to call
them ‘delicious. moments’) that we can pull out whenever we want to muse on
times we want to return to – but there’s a poignant edge because the likelihood
is we never will. The result is a sort of sensory DNA, defining who we are.
In this April issue of delicious. – ‘the inspiration issue’ – we’ve tried to
capture as many experiences and memory-trigger moments as we can. There
are Ravinder Bhogal’s caramel recipes, inspired by a film that has almost
nothing to do with food but everything to do with solidarity and camaraderie;
there are Nuno Mendes’ memories of his childhood in Lisbon; and there are
my own recollections of days in my grandad’s bakery...
You’ll find good things to eat on almost every page, and we hope these,
in turn, will inspire you. Happy cooking.P S
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