For each ingredient there is some nag who will tell you that it is bad for you. Be it fish, bread, sugar, eggs, or meat there is always somebody ready to shake their head and make that sucking noise and gleefully inform you that you shouldn't eat it.
One of the current quandaries is monosodium glutamate, better known as MSG and until recently a knee-jerk seasoning for Chinese food. Some people suffer headaches and serious physical discomfort (I know someone who blows up like a balloon at the mere sight of a Chinese menu), but why should this suddenly be such a problem, when we have been happily chucking it down us for decades? (One could say the same about peanuts but I'm not going there again.) Alex Renton, our man in South East Asia, has been getting to the bottom of the MSG myth and asks 'how come everyone in Asia hasn't got a headache?'
Having just returned from a (very) brief trip to Italy I feel desperately that I want to go back for more. Even more so when I read about Agriturismo, the idea that instead of checking into a hotel, you stay on a farm and eat their home-grown produce. Apparently the habit is catching on among visitors to Italy who fancy the idea of vegetables picked an hour before lunch and seeing their chicken strutting around the farmyard before it makes an appearance on the table for Sunday lunch. While I am the first to admit that it would take more than the sound of a crowing cockerel to drag me away from my seat by the swimming pool Amy Raphael has already packed her bags. Read about the new way to holiday on page 44.
Now I like to think I know who's who, but I have to admit to having to ask who our 'basket case' was this month. According to the loud gasps and tut-tutting I am apparently the only person on the planet who had never heard of mega-star Simon Cowell, a man who I gather is as famous for his trousers as for anything else. He doesn't cook, and neither does his girlfriend, so they are among the growing breed who are savvy enough to get in a cook to do it for them. Check out what a celebrity non-cook has in his shopping basket on page 42.
And don't forget to check out our top 100 places to eat this summer. We have secret addresses from Jamie Oliver, Rose Gray, Kirsty Young, Charlotte Rampling and Norman Cook. Will someone pass the rosé please?
·: Nigel Slater is The Observer's cookery writer.
