Essential kitchen kit?

Lots of baking trays and prep bowls.

What’s always in your fridge?

Butter, butter and more butter.

Is there a family dish you cook again and again?

We both have busy lives so we often make a simple peanut butter noodle dish. Its spicy, nutty and creamy, and it can be adapted to whatever we have in the fridge that needs using up.

Give us a recipe in a sentence, maybe something you eat when you’re on your own?

Cook a couple of shallots in olive oil with some garlic and fennel seeds, and, once soft, add ’nduja and halved cherry tomatoes, cooking until the tomatoes have broken down. Add lemon juice and pasta water to create the sauce, and serve with bucatini and plenty of pecorino – garlic breadcrumbs are also welcome.

Can you share a clever shortcut, cheat or hack that makes entertaining more effortless?

Don’t make anything that needs cooking just before serving. Having friends over should mean spending time with them, not spending all the time in your kitchen.

Favourite cookbook?

The Last Course by Claudia Fleming.

Favourite travel destination?

Japan or Italy.

This year’s best food discovery

Ra-yu furikake. Furikake itself isn’t a new discovery but this specific version, made with sesame seeds, garlic and onion, is soaked in ra-yu chilli oil, making it a wonderfully textured, gently spiced mixture that is great on eggs, added to a bowl of ramen and so many different things. It’s really savoury with a nice, gentle spice.

What do you cook when you want to unwind?

I like cooking anything that goes into a pot and cooks for hours. I can potter around the house and just check in with the dish occasionally, and basically relax and unwind while making something delicious.

Reasons to be cheerful in 2023?

Cookies. Cookies always make things better.