ABOUT THIS COOK:

I've been an antiquarian bookseller for 31 years and before that was a writer for a variety of magazines, writing out of Paris, where I lived for many years. When not doing anything bookwise, I cook. Homebody stuff, not chef food.

• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
  hop shoots -- not strange in Belgium. but unknown here.

• What do you cook when home alone?
  Risotto

• Your most treasured kitchen possession:
  A wooden-handled stainless steel small spoon with a long handle, fine for stirring sauces. It came with a Dansk cocktail set years ago. Also a deep, exceptionally heavy tin-line copper saucepan that I purchased at at antiques shop in Ghent in Belgium..

• The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
  2