Make Perfect Stock

When guests compliment me on how tasty the food is at Raynaudes, it is usually down to our home-made stock. Many of our main courses and 90 per cent of our sauces are stock-based - stock is to my cooking as a double bass is to a jazz trio.

When I lived in a London loft and worked in the BBC offices at White City, making my own stock was not practical or neighbourly, so I bought the best substitutes I could find. Powdered stock from Switzerland under the Marigold brand, or mild-flavoured fresh stock from the chiller counter. Though useful I do not believe these are any substitute for the real thing.