Why are there so few women chefs? Why do so many end up cooking school meals rather than in a restaurant with a string of stars after their name? Is it the hours, the sweat and the pressure that keeps them away? Could it be that they just don't have what it takes to be a great chef, or are they simply too busy shopping for shoes? This month we sent Jay Rayner, The Observer 's restaurant critic, to work under Angela Hartnett at the Connaught, one of the few to have reached the top. We investigate the reasons why so few women end up in professional kitchens. Or is this story just a chance for us to check out Giorgio Locatelli's legs?

Did you know that Britain eats more crisps than the rest of Europe put together? Well, we do and more than a few of them are eaten by me. I'm only responsible for scoffing the plain ones mind, but I have always wondered what makes them so addictive. I mean, you just cannot stop at one crisp, no matter how hard you try. Louise France, another crisp addict, has been to Devon to see how Britain's most feted crisps are made and asks the question: Why are they so damn, well, addictive?

Or perhaps you prefer some proper Christmas food? While I do appreciate your emails calling for recipes you have stuck to the bottom of the saucepan, I cannot pretend it doesn't sometimes takes me an age to track them down. With that in mind I have picked out the 20 Christmas recipes you ask for most often and put them together as a special section starting on page 7.

Now, I refuse to eat at Alan Yau's beautiful restaurant Yauatcha until the booking dragons stop telling me I only have 90 minutes in which to eat my meal. In truth I probably wouldn't be there anything like as long, it is just that I resent the 'eat up and get out' time limits that restaurants try to impose on their clients. Others are happy to do what they are told, and would follow the proprietor of Wagamama and Hakkasan to the end of the earth. Alex Renton did just that, and got to follow Mr Yau back to his roots in Hong Kong. But will the Chinese take to his designer dim-sum and will they eat by his rules?

This being our Christmas issue we felt we needed our own Santa and who better than Sir Terence Conran. Lynn Barber talks with him and his son Tom about the plans for the family food empire. Oh, and we have great wines, great books and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's organic views. Merry Christmas!

· Nigel Slater is The Observer's cookery writer