Madcap French cooking, done properly-ish.
November is not a month for apologetic lettuce. Celeriac remoulade is the make-ahead salad that meets roast chicken, ham and rich stews head-on, improves after an hour in the fridge, and asks only for mustard, mayonnaise and a firm hand with a grater.
A tartine is not a sad slice of bread pretending to be dinner. It is a proper French weeknight supper: one slice, one warm topping, something sharp, something green, and absolutely no apologising. Here is the formula, plus five supermarket-friendly combinations that earn their place at the table.
The wine aisle is a fluorescent gauntlet built to make you feel underqualified. Here is a two-bottle doctrine that gets you out alive: one dependable crowd-pleaser, one slightly odd bottle with a story — and strict instructions not to turn dinner into a tasting.
There is a particular silence that falls when the doorbell rings forty minutes early and you are still holding a wooden spoon. Gougères fill it better than crisps, better than an apology, and better than pretending you were just about to change. Here is the make-ahead dough, the cheese permutations worth bothering with, and the modest theatre of a warm bowl.
British cooks obsess over the main event and leave the plate shouting into the void. A sharp little bowl of something green, mustardy or faintly confrontational is the cheapest upgrade in the kitchen — and the one guests remember. Here are four to make while the meat rests.
November is dark by half past four and dinner should not require a project plan. The answer is already in your fridge door: a jar of cornichons, treated not as decoration but as a serious midweek commitment.
A madeleine is a small scalloped sponge, not a portal to your childhood. Here is how to make them properly — brown butter, a seriously hot oven, and a tin you have actually prepared — using ingredients from a normal British supermarket.
Vin chaud is not a candle. It is a rescue mission in a saucepan: cheap red, a little citrus, a stern word with the spices and heat that never quite boils. Here is how to make a November batch that tastes like a warm welcome rather than the pot-pourri aisle at a garden centre.
Pudding is optional; a tiny glass of something herbal is the host's elegant full stop. Here is how to build a small digestif shelf from UK shops, serve it without a lecture, and make a four-day walnut-and-orange liqueur for people who plan ahead by roughly one weekend.
A frangipane galette is the best thing about early January, but the royal bit makes everyone awkward. Here is how to bake one at home, hide the fève, avoid a soggy bottom and hand over the cardboard crown without a diplomatic incident.
Every November, a wine that tastes faintly of banana and bubblegum is released with the ceremony normally reserved for a royal christening. On 19 November 2026, we suggest you stop resisting and pour it anyway — ideally with a plate of saucisson and a room full of people who have agreed not to use the word 'jammy'.
There is a version of November that involves alpine chalets, ski boots and a certain smugness. There is another version involving damp pavements and a single dish of potatoes, bacon and melted cheese. Tartiflette is the loophole between them: properly comforting, mildly ridiculous, and far less palaver than a full raclette kit.
Some dinner parties need a conductor. Cassoulet needs a bus driver — someone to point it in the right direction and then get out of the way. Here's the case for a winter centrepiece that improves while you're doing something else entirely, plus a Saturday timeline that doesn't eat your whole weekend.
You do not need nine cheeses, a slate tile, or a fig cut into a flower. You need four, a knife, and the courage to leave the room. A short, brisk guide to the French-ish cheese board for hosts who would very much like to be sitting down by the time the doorbell goes.
There is a specific hunger that arrives after dinner has technically finished but the evening has not. The French answer is three eggs, a fork, a knob of butter and about ninety seconds of nerve. A case for the late omelette over anything a delivery app can offer at that hour.
Raclette in Britain usually arrives dressed as a theme night, complete with novelty apron and one overworked socket. It should be closer to a household chore that happens to be delicious — and that is a logistical problem, not a cheese problem. Here is how to keep the table moving, the potatoes hot and the ketchup at the far end.
French onion soup has become a moral obstacle course: hours at the hob, a vat of homemade stock, and a blowtorch you pretend you bought for crème brûlée. Here is the La Petite Fou position: caramelise properly-ish, cheat where it counts, and never skimp on the cheese-to-crouton ratio.
British cooks have apologised for chips for too long. This is a manifesto: beef dripping, double-frying, indecent mayonnaise, and a bowl of pommes frites placed proudly in the middle of a British table.
Tinned sardines are the most underrated thing in the UK cupboard. French cooks treat them as a pantry treasure, not a last resort. Here are three flexible recipes, plus which tins to buy and how to serve them without fuss.
Apéro is the French art of making drinks feel like dinner without actually cooking dinner. Here is how to do it with one supermarket bag, three drink pairings and a rule that turns a few tins into a feast.