http://www.lukemackay.co.uk Professional chef and cookery writer Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:38:20 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Crisp and soft thymus gland. Or possibly pancreas. Thats what I would write about if my teacher told me to write an essay about my summer holidays. For my summer holidays i went to san sebastian in spain spain is a country in europe and is next door to france where ... http://www.lukemackay.co.uk/2009/08/pinxtos-of-power/ I recently had the good fortune to eat some of the best food in the world, in one of  the most stunning  places in the world, sitting  close by to three of my favourite people in the world. The food, I shall tell you all about below, I was deep ... http://www.lukemackay.co.uk/2009/08/biscay-banquetting/ I have spent over a year of my life in a town called Verbier, high in the Swiss Alps, yet on a set of skis have the coordination and talent of a baby rhino. With clubbed feet. I'm really terrible - like unsafe terrible. I thought one of the positive by-products of doing ... http://www.lukemackay.co.uk/2009/07/chalet-boy/  A shimmering trout pulled with a yelp from a loch, cooked by dusky moonlight on a just made fire- stuffed with ripped handfuls of wild chives and garlic shoots. A hut of mud, a woman who weaved, through a battered pot of only beans and water- something  magic that made it good. With ... http://www.lukemackay.co.uk/2009/06/when-the-dog-bites/ I have been recently bereft of creative juciness. I have had word constipation. I have been bored and boring, irritable and an arse. I could tell you that my laptop screen was smashed and that I have been technically homeless for the last 3 weeks and I'd be telling the truth- but honestly? I ... http://www.lukemackay.co.uk/2009/06/pikeney/ Expense skull-duggery is the new swine flu (remember that?)  I did see 2 Japanese girls wandering round Borough Market wearing face masks on Friday.  Although this could perhaps be explained by Asian bird flu. Or SARS. Or Ebola. Or child obesity. Or foot and mouth.  Or global warming in the form of ... http://www.lukemackay.co.uk/2009/05/credit-lunch/ I recently had 40 minutes to kill at Fulham Broadway tube station. In hindsight, I should have popped next door and slapped Didier Drogba. Instead I visited 'Borders Books' and bought a book called 'My Last Supper'. I sat down in a quaint little coffee shop and had something called a Frappucino ... http://www.lukemackay.co.uk/2009/05/my-last-supper/ A chef's greatest asset is their insecurity, their need to please.  A good chef is generous, giving- of time and ingredients. I try my best to only ever send out plates of food that would make me feel happy, should I be the recipient. Most importantly I want people that ... http://www.lukemackay.co.uk/2009/05/feeding-time/ There is a film quote that has stuck with me for years. It is thought provoking and brilliant and somewhat implausibly flows from the pens of Ben Affleck and Jason Bourne. 'Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life's work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, ... http://www.lukemackay.co.uk/2009/05/what-the-sistine-chapel-smells-like/ The smell of Dominican coffee makes me feel like smoking. I won't though, because I dont have any cigarettes and am not buying a whole packet just to satisfy a pavlovian urge, that if fulfilled would only make me feel slightly sick and would negate the taste of the Dominican ... http://www.lukemackay.co.uk/2009/05/borough-market/