Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table

She was a great cook, but she cooked more for herself than for other people, not because she was hungry but because she was comforted by the rituals of the kitchen.

I was slowly discovering that if you watched people as they ate, you could find out who they were.

We waited, eating resilient, deeply satisfying bread dipped in spicy oil that tasted exactly like fresh olives. Doug reached out and stroked my knee and I had a sudden conscious thought that I was happy.

It was Mac who first made me think about the way food brought people together — and kept them apart.

Everything here is true, but it might not be entirely factual.

Nothing is sexier than a competent man: I was in love.

We're in a transient state - why hate our present selves? Let's save the energy for when we are eighty, when we are perhaps above, or beyond, changing. Then we can hate, if hate we must.

When Ruthie and I went for the final fitting at Balmain