Schnitzel Forever, London: ‘A total crowd-pleaser, without crowds’ – restaurant review

Breaded and fried foods are the good sort – and Schnitzel Forever is a good idea done very well. By Jay Rayner

How to ace Christmas in the kitchen

Don’t buy too much cheese. Do buy enough washing-up liquid. Keep the big day stress-free with our tips from top chefs

I was a schoolboy chef at Birmingham’s Grand Hotel. Now I’m back – as a guest

Four decades after taking a part-time job in the city’s top hotel, our reviewer checks out its newly restored incarnation – and finds it as eye-popping as ever

Brook’s, West Yorkshire: ‘A startlingly good modern brasserie’ – restaurant review

It’s come sailing through a storm and a pandemic, no wonder Brook’s in Brighouse is looking on the bright side. By Jay Rayner

A local’s guide to Turin: five great things to do

Slow food expert Silvia Ceriani celebrates the industrial past and sustainable future of ‘Italy’s Detroit’, with gourmet markets, grand palazzos and kitsch cocktail bars

Cafe Cecilia, London E8: ‘Hot but with a homespun edge’ – restaurant review

‘It’s so on-trend, I half-expected Cafe Cecilia to be a dull dud. But it’s not’

Stephen Graham on his dramatic year: prison officer, care home … and now a kitchen nightmare

The in-demand actor’s latest role? Playing a stroppy chef on the busiest night of the year in the single-take drama Boiling Point

The 50 best wines for Christmas 2021

Observer Food Monthly’s expert guide to the best bottles to suit any budget

Christmas gifts for food lovers 2021

From stocking fillers to luxury presents, as selected by Observer Food Monthly

Rick Stein’s secret ingredient: vincotto

An Italian red-wine syrup that will add oomph to your life – and your ragu

‘You can’t run a team on empty’: how the restaurant staff meal is changing

Restaurant workers once lived on coffee and cigarettes. Now more chefs are cooking for one other, making food good enough to end up on the menu

Brutto, London: ‘The exceedingly good Italian we didn’t know we needed’ – restaurant review

The name means ugly, but Brutto’s dishes are a handsome, precise rendition of the Florentine trattoria

Worried about waste and having too much ‘stuff’? Get rid of the fitted kitchen

Our kitchen lives are changing for aesthetic and green reasons. I wonder if meat safes will make a comeback

Edith Bowman: ‘I had a hangover for most of my Radio 1 career’

The broadcaster on what she ate at her grandparents’ hotel, during her Radio 1 breakfast show and in a Japanese monastery

Hidden River Cafe, Longtown, Cumbria: ‘No wonder my friends were so excited’ – restaurant review

‘Off the beaten track and in the middle of nowhere: perfect’