“And don’t let anyone tell you that the food is the only thing that matters. That’s rubbish. Where you eat something, who you eat it with and what you do afterwards is just as important. Eating is a whole package, not just what is on the plate. Food always tastes better in the right place, whether it is fish and chips eaten walking along the seafront, or steak frites in Paris. Why people feel a delicate, perfectly honed plate of food in a three-star restaurant has the moral high ground over a really good hamburger is beyond me. If both are good to eat, fine examples of their kind, and please you, then fine. Good food is good food.”

Nigel Slater, Appetite. London: Fourth Estate, 2000, 12.