I often feel the generation gap between my dad and I.  My dad is 43 years older than me – he grew up during the war, I grew up in the seventies and eighties.  We see each other regularly, but I often fell that gap in the conversations we have – we do different things, have different experiences and views (and I don’t think he quite gets what I do for a living!)

But in recent times I’ve found a subject that we are both passionate about and can talk for hours on – food.  Although when I was growing up I don’t think I appreciated it, I think a lot of my (and my brother’s) passion for food came from my parents.  And now, I am really appreciating my dad’s knowledge, insight and experience on food.

Granted, he’ll cook his meat and veg much more than I do, and there’s quite a few foods that I love that he wouldn’t touch, but we have so many food interests in common.  I’ll be talking about seasonal food, my dad will tell me when and where he got (bought, found and caught) his food from when you had no choice but to eat seasonally.  I’ll talk about the latest trends, he’ll remind me that many of those trends are rooted in traditional techniques.  And I’m still learning recipes and techniques that I don’t think can be beaten.

On that note, at a recent get-together he took along a large batch of his infamous piccalilli, which of course was incredibly well received by all the guests.  Many asked for the recipe which I’ve now managed to get off of him – so watch out for that recipe on this blog soon…