So, there’s no escaping the fact. I’m a bit of a nerd. Most people my age are out partying, living it up, cocktails and caviar and limousines every night. I like cooking. At home. So I stay at home and cook sometimes. In this months issue of Gourmet Traveller they have a piece on the ‘perfect’ spag bol. They interviewed a bunch of leading chef’s (Pignolet, Perry, Moran etc) on what they put in theirs. Interesting read. All categories covered – which meat, which herbs, which vegetables, cooking time, special ingredients etc. If you get the chance, the link is http://tinyurl.com/c5zmwz. My favourite quote was from the guy who uses an entire 25 kilo pig to make his! It’s a great winter dish—long slow cooking, filling your pad with heat and heady aromas. The spag bol recipe they published with the article is at http://tinyurl.com/qolnjv Personally, I didn’t like the addition of cream, but obviously you can decide for yourself. The challenge is this: Next time you make your spag bol, step up a level. Ask your butcher to mince you some good quality beef or veal or whatever rather than just buying mince, use fresh herbs rather than those masterfoods shaker things, open a really good bottle of wine and splash that in (as Neil Perry said, if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t use it), and spend some time – dedicate an hour or two to let things simmer slowly so the flavour really builds. Next time you cook spag bol, try to make it the best damn spag bol you ever made in your life. In other food news, great things I have eaten recently include:

• Pork and Fennel sausage rolls from Bourke St Bakery
• The L’Etoile Margarita at L’Etoile, not food, but it was delicious
• Tarragon Roast Chicken at Mere Catherine
• The polpettone which was also in this months gourmet traveller.