On the menu this week

This week’s magazine should come with a health warning: reading Friday will make you gain four kilos. That’s because it’s our food issue where we’ve put together a 32-page mini mag inside to inspire you to make the perfect festive feast for your family and friends. Our very own domestic diva, Silvena Rowe, explains how to cook your turkey and all the trimmings on page 134 in a setting that was transformed into a winter wonderland thanks to Home Centre, who kindly leant us tableware from their beautiful festive range.

We have a look at celebrity chef Nigella Lawson’s life on page 44 to see what’s behind all the recent shocking headlines and also inside chef Heston Blumenthal’s kitchen on page 32 where he was busy making edible ears out of liver parfait. If that doesn’t sound disgusting enough then turn to page 38 to read about the solution to the world’s food problem: entomophagy – the eating of insects. As inedible as it sounds 2,000 creepy crawlies already supplement the diets of two billion people around the world, and as the global population rises – it is set to hit nine billion by 2050 – so does the strain on meat supplies. It might not be long, according to the experts, until we join the ranks of Thailand and China in munching on cricket kebabs, grilled grasshoppers and bee burgers – there’s even a recipe for that on page 42. Let me know what you think of the issue!