Posts by Gillian Riley
Breaking Bread
Chardin and dough are on the menu as our resident food historian makes a welcome return
Read MoreCream of the crop
Our resident food historian explores our favourite icy treat, and the chefs and writers for whom it is an obsession
Read More‘How to bring to life a totally unknown cook?’
Our resident food historian dips into author Vicky Hayward’s ‘brilliant’ revival of an 18th-century friar and his recipes
Read MoreAusterity: Platina, Martino and the New Cuisine
Our resident food historian puts Christmas behind us with a look at the ‘simple tastes’ of the Italian Rennaissance humanists
Read MoreThe Pies Have It
Our resident food historian on a British staple and its place in Victorian Christmas feasts
Read MoreThe house of Medici and its fascination with pear paintings
Our resident food historian on the humble pear
Read MorePawtraiture
Our resident food historian Gillian Riley on Manet, Monet and mousers
Read MorePuppy-dog explosion and vanishing kittens
Our resident food historian touches on a culinary taboo as she ponders the proliferation of dog-walkers during the pandemic
Read MoreWhat did you eat during Covid, Daddy?
Our resident food historian returns to explore child hunger and ask what we can learn from scenes painted by artists of the past
Read MoreLondon’s water
Our resident food historian on how the capital went from epidemics caused by faulty sewage to enjoying one of the safest tipples around
Read MoreLockdown lunches and crowded picnics
Our resident food historian on outdoor get-togethers, and why it is still the grub that ‘makes it all worthwhile’
Read MoreYellow on a plate
Our resident food historian transports us to the warm south through colour, Van Gogh and a drop of absinthe
Read MoreLemongrass
A Dutch master leads our resident food historian deeper into the world of citrus
Read MoreMore Lemons
Our resident food historian delves further into the world of balms and medicaments
Read MoreThat’s amaro
Our resident food historian on how, with a bit of love and care, you can lift up the throwaways of citrus fruit – pips, pith, peel and all – to their fresh and bitter best
Read MoreFull of beans
Our resident food historian on all manner of beans, from ‘glorious mush’ to a variety for the dead, and a very talented woman who painted them
Read MoreThe Joys of Sludge
Our resident food historian on beauty in beige, and why ordinary folks in the Middle Ages had it right with their ‘dreary but delicious’ diet
Read MoreCarry on up the Cupola
Our resident food historian explores the compelling history of a special Tuscan stew, and dispels a fanciful myth about its origins
Read MoreSome like it hot
Our resident food historian on chillies, and why it’s the flavour, not the heat, that is important
Read MoreExploding grannies and sleepy pears
Our resident food historian on Italian legends and the joys of pears with cheese
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