Comfort Food

‘Landlord, bring us beans and bacon, and a bottle of your finest Burgundy.’

If beans, bacon and Burgundy don’t ooze comfort, then God only knows what does. Comfort food is familiar, without fuss, drama or pomp. Straightforward, reliable and ever welcome, this is the Ronseal of recipe types: ‘Does exactly what it says on the tin.’ It’s all about easy pleasure and solid flavours, an edible balm that tastes exactly as it should.

It is, though, the most subjective of culinary categories, as the choice of dish is defined entirely by one’s gastronomic past. A childhood spent tugging the apron strings of a great English cook will produce markedly different dishes to a youth passed alongside wok and cleaver. Yet anyone with a heartbeat and opposable thumb will have at least one dish – be it hot buttered toast, red lentil dhal or peppered tripe soup – that coddles, comforts and soothes.