FEED THE SOUL

A chef and a garden designer share advice on everything from compost to compôte

When the Chelsea Flower Show medal winner Jo Thompson met the Leiths-trained chef Mary Jane Paterson at a coffee morning for new mothers in East Sussex, it was to be the start of a fruitful friendship; soon, the pair were regularly exchanging culinary and horticultural tips. ‘Mary Jane is a brilliant chef and hostess, but a very nervous gardener, whereas I’m a hopeless cook but I know a bit about planting,’ says Thompson, with typical modesty. Now, thanks to a charmingly illustrated new recipe book that collates their correspondence, we can all learn the secret of baking the perfect Victoria sponge, how to cultivate hydrangeas without the right soil and why home-grown borage makes the ideal G&tgarnish. cb ‘Rhubarb Rhubarb’ (£25, Unbound) is out now.