Why did the image of a humble kitchen press, dishes neatly stacked, topped by a lucky ceramic rooster, in a bombed house, become a byword for Ukraine’s plucky resolve?

Acclaimed chef Yotam Ottolenghi – famous for his love of impossible-to-source ingredients – calls Bee Wilson “the ultimate food scholar”. This collection of essays is more than an exercise in culinary journalism, however – it’s a navigation of personal loss. When Wilson’s husband leaves, “the furniture felt unstable, like Van Gogh’s painting of his chair”. The tin she made their wedding cake in – without cherries because he didn’t like them – falls down at her feet. “I was developing feverishly strong feelings about … inanimate objects, especially in the kitchen.”

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