Pasta tastes like home. Humble, honest and unable to be rushed, hand rolled pasta is a labour of love meant to bring people together around the table for conversation to pass the time. Few can deny the pleasures of the meticulously formed shapes that are subtly resistant to chewing, glistening in an emulsion of butter and cheese, or a hearty, slowly simmered Ragu.

READ TIME 11 MIN 30 SEC

The year was 2011, and thanks a set of extraordinarily unpredictable and fortunate life events, I’d spent the best summer of my life living in Paris, France. For reasons I can’t remember today, I decided to take the wad of over 7000 euros I’d saved from working a cash-in-hand job in Paris’ 6th arrondissement and embark on a solo backpacking trip through Southeast Asia by myself for month and a half. Had you asked me months before to locate Vietnam on the map I would have been comically wrong, but in my 24th trip around the sun I never claimed to have it all together…

READ TIME: 9 MIN 27 SEC

Rule number 1: Never touch another man’s grill. The backyard grill is a territory only big enough for one person to sear, season, flip and brush with a cold beverage in hand. Sure, there’s room for others to approach the grill to keep your gracious grill master/host company and chat saucy details of the love employed in preparing the marinades, skewers and rubs hours, if not days before you arrived. But while you’re told not to venture too close to another man’s grill because it’s his territory and you risk bringing his grilling prowess into question, it’s not always the testosterone smoke screen you perceive it to be…

READ TIME: 9 MIN 38 SEC

Deep down inside at the essence of my being resides a fat person. Securely buckled in behind my eyes, controlling the joysticks in my brain is a disgusting being who inhales baked goods with wild abandon (not a napkin in sight), licking their fingers clean while scarfing down generously frosted cinnamon buns, salted caramel glazed brownies and warm chocolate chunk cookies by the pan…

READ TIME: 7 MIN 23 SEC

I’ve been building my relationship with tuna for almost 30 years now. At one end of the spectrum it’s an ingredient sold at auction for extortionate prices, each part of the “tiger of the sea” renowned for its variance in fat content, taste and texture. The chefs who manoeuvre these magnificent beasts into delicate morsels train for years to learn the craft and carry an arsenal of specialised hooks, blades, and tools each with their unique purpose. Yet tuna is also found in the least glamorous of places, reunited with its briny salt water home as cooked flakes in a stack of 5 tins somewhere in aisle 8 between the baked beans and the sweetcorn…

READ TIME: 10 MIN 44 SEC

“I’m sorry sir, but this road closed. If you want to pass you’ll have to try main road and plead your case” the Thai man explained, seeking refuge from the afternoon sun overhead, as he gestured to the cement slabs scattered across the highway…we never imagined this would be the tale we would tell about our once-in-a-lifetime honeymoon trip…

READ TIME: 9 MIN 12 SEC