Take your average couscous salad, and it's almost always a sloppy mush, no matter how much attention has gone into getting flavours in there.

The taste of any simple tomato-based salad is dependent on the quality of the tomatoes.

I have to admit that I can't take a whole fig and eat it on its own as I would a peach or mango. It's just too much.

A well-made salad must have a certain uniformity; it should make perfect sense for those ingredients to share a bowl.

People don't know how good cauliflower is, because they always have this image of cauliflower cheese - awful, sticky, creamy and rich.

My father always cooks more polenta than he needs for a meal. The excess he spreads on an oiled surface and chills. Next day, he cuts out chunks, fries them in olive oil and serves with salad.