COOKING is the very best way to show special love to your family and friends — Jacob Kenedy’s sentiments as he cooked one beautiful dish after another at the Ballymaloe Cookery School recently. Jacob, whose mother came from Rome, owns one of my favourite restaurants in London, Bocca di Lupo. He feels there is something particularly alluring about Italian food; it nourishes not only the body, but also the soul, mind and heart.

AFTER Christmas I’ve got a whole stack of cook books with lots of tantalising recipes to try — so much talent out there.

I’VE BEEN backwards and forwards to London a lot recently to work with my long-suffering editor doing the final tweaking on the manuscript of my Forgotten Skills book.