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Sweet, sticky, and packed with umami, black garlic has taken kitchens by storm — but it’s often misunderstood. Learn what black garlic really is, why it’s not fermented, and how to use it in sauces, butter, aioli, and more. What Black Garlic Actually Is Black garlic is regular garlic transformed through slow cooking over several weeks at low heat and high humidity. The result is soft, glossy, jet-black cloves with a complex flavour profile: sweet, mellow, and rich in umami —

An £8 starter isn’t really £8. Before the chef even picks up a knife, around 20% of that price has already gone to VAT. So that “£8 dish” is actually £6.40 of usable revenue. From that £6.40, the chef typically has around £2–£2.50 to spend on ingredients. That’s the true budget behind the plate — not £8, not £6.40, but a couple of pounds. The remaining £3.90 disappears into the everyday machinery of running a restaurant: wages, rent, electricity, gas, laundry, insurance, equi

Let’s start with a truth bomb: “affordable” is one of the most misunderstood words in the restaurant world. It’s right up there with “artisan,” “homemade,” and “deconstructed.” Everyone thinks they know what it means — until they see the bill. When a guest looks at a menu and sees a £50 starter, the immediate instinct might be, “Fifty quid? For a bit of pâté?” But that’s where the great misunderstanding begins. Because that pâté might not just be a bit of pâté. It might be fo