The Week in Bites | 19th February 2012

Good manners are everything

Elbows on the table, which knife and fork to use and in which order, and is it ok to nibble on the bread before your meal is served ? All these are lessons in manners, lessons that FDL learnt this week as we decided to visit etiquette school.

We took a look at some books and a number of schools around the world with the sole purpose of passing on exceptional dining manners to their students. We met etiquette experts, had a play with a good manners app for the iphone and reviewed a must have e-guide on manners and etiquette.You can see it all here.

Memories of love and food

As the world was swept up by cupid's net for Valentine's day, at FDL HQ we were no different asking for peoples Food Romance stories. From there we managed to compile a great collection peoples top romantic food memories - a nice look at the relationship that food often plays in a big day like Valentine's.

From a picnic that ended in mugging, only for the boyfriends to chew through a rope the pair were tied in to true tales of a romantic meals on a Parisian roof. We also offered some tips on choosing aphrodisiac foods and more importantly what foods to avoid when trying to make a romantic meal.

Cooking without waste

Big fans of the Nose to Tail cooking style, this week FDL investigated the movement further and looked at how it has developed into Root to Stem and Nose to Tail fish eating.

We met chef Andrea Reusing from Lantern restaurant in North Carolina who invented original recipes with leaves that aren’t normally used in cooking and dishes like toasted watermelon seeds used to flavour panna cotta. We also met the New York chef, Laura Pensiero, who has turned her restaurant, Gigi Trattoria, into a stem-to-root heaven. We also looked at a stem to root work shop in New York and offered some tips and advice on how to cook without wasting food.

Also this week

There was a video recipe from the Michelin starred chef, Davide Scabin. In the video Scabin, who runs the Combal.zero restaurant in Turin, presented a special recipe tribute to Italian tastes by mixing five very different Italian Pasta recipes in one dish. The video was shot as part of the The S.Pellegrino sparkles with Bulgari China Gala and is a one of a kind, must watch video with one of the world's best chefs.