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Olivia Potts

Olivia Potts

The Spectator

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The vintage chef / How to make chocolate salami

15.12.2024 20

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

How to make chocolate salami

12.12.2024 5

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

The glamour of the scallop

There is a gentle irony to the dish coquilles St Jacques: a decadent, rich preparation of one of our most luxurious seafoods takes its name from a...

28.11.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

Sowing dissent / Would we even notice a farmers’ strike?

You might think that, as a country, we have had our fair share of food security wobbles over the last few years: first with pre-Brexit panic, and the...

25.11.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

Mince, glorious mince

Sometimes, when it comes to culinary history, Britain is its own worst enemy. For a long time, British food has been seen as a joke among other...

14.11.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

Brown bread ice cream: a delicious use for stale bread

I often think of the first time I ate brown bread ice cream. I know how that sounds: it’s the exact sort of pretentious nonsense a food writer would...

31.10.2024 7

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

The secret to making great oysters Rockefeller

There’s nothing more intriguing than a closely guarded secret recipe. Coca-Cola and KFC are two famous examples, with the precise ingredients for...

17.10.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

Potato crisps and the British character

Pickled fish. Lemon tea. Cucumber. Doner kebab. Stewed beef noodles. Salted egg. Soft shell crab. Coney island mustard. Smoked gouda. Hamburger...

10.10.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

The joy of tarte Tatin

When it comes to traditional recipes, there are few things we love more than an unlikely origin story, ideally one born out of clumsiness or...

03.10.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

Give vitello tonnato a chance

I am sure there are beloved British dishes that inspire horror in those from different cultures, that are truly unappealing to the uninitiated. I can...

19.09.2024 7

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

The no-bake bliss of icebox cake

Standing in the biscuit aisle of my local supermarket, I’m overwhelmed by possibilities. This isn’t unusual for me, but normally it’s fuelled by...

05.09.2024 5

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

American salads are weird – but an egg salad is perfect

The Americans are weird about salad. I’m sorry, but somebody had to say it. Really, their use of the word ‘salad’ needs scare quotes around it....

22.08.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

Yorkshire curd tart: a well-kept, delicious secret

There are many old dishes in the UK that are hyper-regional, whose reach has never extended beyond geographical boundaries but remain much loved where...

08.08.2024 9

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

My shameful shortcut to perfect pesto

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It has been… too long since my last confession. Picture the scene. I am in the kitchen, almost literally...

25.07.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

How to make perfect scones

I am evangelical about scones as a gateway bake – they are the perfect entry point for the nervous baker. They don’t require any nonsense. Rubbing...

11.07.2024 50

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

You shouldn’t be afraid of steak tartare

Whenever I think of steak tartare, I can’t help but remember a heartbreaking passage in Nigel Slater’s memoir Toast. Slater, working at a French...

27.06.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

Books / The pleasure of reliving foreign travel through food

The idea of the kitchen as a space for transformation and transportation is not a new one. Many writers have explored the room’s ability to offer...

23.06.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

How to make elderflower cordial

I have a complicated relationship with elderflower cordial. I love taking ingredients that have short seasons, preserving and squirrelling them away...

13.06.2024 8

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

The not-so-French roots of chicken cordon bleu

We all have our quirks when it comes to cooking. I have clear mental blocks over what is and is not a complicated supper, many of which do not follow...

30.05.2024 20

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

‘Terribly chic’: how to make chouquettes

I have become obsessed with the French idea of goûter, the time in the afternoon when French schoolchildren have a sweet treat to tide them over...

16.05.2024 60

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

How to make ham and parsley sauce

Poor old parsley sauce. As someone who writes regularly about old-fashioned food, it often feels that we are living through a golden revival of...

02.05.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

How Linzer torte stood the test of time

Linzer torte has quite the claim to fame: some assert that it’s the oldest cake in the world; others that it’s the oldest to be named after a...

18.04.2024 6

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

The vintage chef / Tricky but delicious: how to make the perfect pretzels

My husband is obsessed with pretzels. The joy that a slightly warm, soft baked pretzel brings him is disproportionate. And, unlike in Germany and the...

04.04.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

Books / You are what you don’t eat

If asked to think about food preservation for a moment you might picture an aproned woman boiling oranges for marmalade in a large copper maslin pan;...

15.03.2024 30

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

The vintage chef / ‘Delicious, not glamorous’: how to make a pot roast

A pot roast is probably the antithesis of glamorous cooking. But that’s also sort of the point. For as long as we’ve been cooking meat, we’ve...

09.03.2024 8

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

Chelsea buns are the best of all buns

The Chelsea bun was first baked in the Bun House in Chelsea in the 18th century. It was a bakery which found particular favour with the Hanoverian...

22.02.2024 10

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

The vintage chef / Why terrine is the perfect Christmas starter

When you’re planning Christmas, the big event is the easy bit. No, hear me out. It’s obviously a production – a feast! – more of an exercise...

09.12.2023 6

The Spectator

Olivia Potts

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