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Magnificently intense: Domaine des Garennes Minervois La Livinière 2008
Simple pleasures: 'I hate it when people tart food up in a way that is very fake', says Myhrvold

Nathan Myhrvold: 'I'd rather have a hot dog done well than something pretentious'

My earliest food memory... Cooking Thanksgiving dinner in Seattle when I was nine years old. I might have helped my mother make cookies before, but that was the first time I discovered you could actually cook whole [meals] and there were books that would tell you how to do it. I did the whole thing myself – the turkey, the stuffing, the potatoes, the cranberry sauce... The reaction to it was reasonably positive, though by my standards now, it wasn't very good.

Chicken noodle soup

String theory: Bill Granger takes a simple approach to Asian noodle soups

To me, a bowl of noodle soup is always a meal on the run and is invariably inspired by the myriad varieties found in Asia. I dragged my poor children to stand-up udon bars when two of them were still in buggies, which they still talk about, and pho was my lunch of choice for years in Sydney from a particularly curious second-floor food court. I love the way you can be in and out of a ramen or laksa bar in 20 minutes.

Bourdain says: 'At night I dream of Dick Cheney – in a
nappy – being waterboarded'

My Secret Life: Anthony Bourdain, chef and writer, 55

My parents were... middle class, aspirational, Mad Men-era Democrats who wanted the best for me. They were unusually adventurous about food.

Keeping it simple: Simon Hopkinson tucks into his Caesar salad

Chefs’ classics: Britain’s top cooks and restaurateurs reveal their brilliant new versions of comfort dishes

Think you can make the tastiest shepherd's pie? Nailed the perfect spaghetti carbonara?

Hitting the zeitgeist: Jason Atherton's critically lauded Pollen Street Social features flexible menus, a buzzy cocktail lounge and drinks spewing dry ice

Have we had our fill of fine dining?

Fuss and formality is finished, argues the restaurant critic Marina O'Loughlin

ABEL & COLE ORGANIC LUXURY CHRISTMAS PUDDING

<p>14/20</p>

<p>From the porcelain bowl plopped a 'rather splendid' pudding with a 'nice matt surface' in mid-tan brown. The tasting panel liked its 'firm texture' with 'plenty of fruit and nuts' and the pleasingly 'restrained sweetness'. 'It stays together and you can really taste the fruit.' Unfortunately, it was 'not very spicy' though the label lists mixed spice, cinnamon and nutmeg. The replacement of beef suet by palm oil (somewhere between 4-7 per cent) in this 'traditional pudding' makes it 'suitable for vegetarians'. £15.99 (600g)</p>

The pud, the bad and the ugly: 15 Christmas puddings are put to the taste test

It completes the Yuletide blow-out. But with so many Christmas puddings to choose from, Christopher Hirst sorts the stupendous from the stodge

Mr Holden’s Famous Manchester Egg

Great Scotch! Manchester's take on the Scotch egg has become a snack sensation

What do you get if you cross black pudding, sausage meat and secret seasoning with a humble pickled egg? Only the finest new export from Manchester...

A cut above: John Walsh tucks in

Best restaurants of 2011: John Walsh picks this year's most memorable dining destinations

Searching for the finest 16oz steak – or, perhaps, the biggest mirror in Essex? Look no further...

Speedy delivery: Feng Sushi specialises in sustainably sourced fish

Meals on Wheels: Has top-quality home-delivery dining finally arrived?

When I first visited New York in the early 1980s, I was fascinated by the signs taped to the letter boxes of most apartment buildings: 'no menus'. What brave new world was this, where not only did restaurants deliver to your door, but they did so with such persistence that you had to post deterring notices? It seemed an exotic dream, to be filed alongside such other New York legends as giant cockroaches, or crocodiles that lurked in the sewage system.

BEST PARTY RED UNDER £10

<p>2007 Torre del Falco Nero di Troia, Puglia, Italy</p>

<p>This distinctively bright and spicy rosso made from Puglia's Nero di Troia grape shows a sweetly juicy dark berry fruit quality with a sinewy feel and vivid freshness. £4.99, down from £7.99, until 6 December, Waitrose</p>

Vintage chic: The best Christmas wines

Get prepared for the festive season with Anthony Rose's guide to the essential red and white wines...

Garrett Oliver: ‘Beer now is a 20-way street’

Today’s Independent carries a profile of Garrett Oliver, but the limitations of print meant there was plenty of interesting stuff that got left out – so here it is...

Taste maker: New Yorker Garrett Oliver, who is a world expert on beer, a craft brewer and now editor of a definitive beer guide

Good brews bible: The Oxford Companion to Beer encourages people to take ales more seriously

Contrary to stereotypes, its editor is black, clean-cut – and American.

Roast pig's head

Offal is back in vogue but should we tuck in to intestines, spleen and testicles?

Every Christmas Day, when I was young, I knew where to find my father at around 10pm, briefly abandoning the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show or It's a Wonderful Life on television. He'd be in the kitchen, devouring a plate of repellent-looking grey meat. They were the turkey giblets my mother had cooked earlier, using the stewed liquid to enhance the gravy at lunch. She'd have set them aside – and my father would wolf them as a late-night snack. "Ah, lovely," he would murmur, cutting into the atrocious neck, "Try a bit of gizzard?"

Day In a Page

Peter Hain: The retiring hero who changed the course of history

Peter Hain

Basil D'Oliveira: The retiring hero who changed the course of history
Richard Branson: We need a nation of young entrepreneurs

Richard Branson

We need a nation of young entrepreneurs
Hurrah for the Young Turks!

Hurrah for the Young Turks!

The next time you come across these promising modern artists, they could be famous
Voiceless, but Adele is still poised to outdo Lady Gaga

Adele poised to outdo Lady Gaga

Despite throat surgery, she's dominating today's American Music Awards
David Quantick: We need more comic writing, but don't just blame the BBC

David Quantick on comedy

We need more comic writing, but don't just blame the BBC
Cowell humbled at last!

Cowell humbled at last!

Music mogul gives Rhythmix music charity £20,000 donation after admitting defeat in legal battle
Amelia of the Antarctic

Amelia of the Antarctic

Amelia Hempleman-Adams is more worried about missing Facebook than the dangers of frostbite during her trek to the South Pole with her father David
Bye-Bye to the B&B

Bye-Bye to the B&B

The rapid expansion of budget hotels and visitors' rising expectations are threatening the future of the traditional guest house
The great pretender: Who dares wear Freddie's crown?

The great pretender

Who dares wear Freddie Mercury's crown?
Ian Holloway: It's not like the real world, so if I was Terry's manager I'd keep picking him

Ian Holloway on John Terry

If I was his manager I'd keep picking him
Unleashed: The secret world of Britain's dominatrixes

Secret world of Britain's dominatrixes

What is life like for the professionals - and their £200-an-hour slaves?

Guy Pearce: No more Mr. Nice Guy

The actor is in a better place - and this time, he's staying put

Buy Nothing Day

Adbusters' role in the global Occupy movement
String theory: Bill Granger takes a simple approach to Asian noodle soups

String theory: Asian noodle soups

Bill Granger takes a simple approach to the complex soups

Beyond the cheesy Christmas album

Craig Mclean investigates the rise of the alternative festive album