The headline “Israel wins plaudits and acclaim in international forum” seems strange in today’s political climate. But the forum was not the United Nations Human Rights Council, but the prestigious international Vinitaly and Decanter magazine awards.

I have a love-hate relationship with champagne. I love drinking it, but hate paying for it — or at least paying for what I most achingly long to drink. Pol Roger’s Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill costs £112.35 at Berry Bros & Rudd (www.bbr.com) and is by no means the most expensive in my personal pantheon.

‘But you’re a Jew — you’ll never survive in the country!” That was the reaction when Joanna Weinberg mentioned to an acquaintance that she was off to live in deepest Somerset with her family, husband Ed and children, May aged four and two-year-old Billy.

When spring starts to segue into summer, a different style of wine is called for — one with a bit of fragrance that seems to mark the change of seasons and with enough personality to work both as an aperitif as well as with food.

If I asked you to think about which foods are healthy, the chances are that you would probably include, say, fresh fruits and vegetables, fish, plain yogurt, legumes, poultry, olive oil and wholegrains. You might be less sure precisely why these foods are considered healthy, but in general terms, they cover all the food groups and are rich in nutrients.

While chefs and cooks run wild, getting a little chubby and celebrating indulgence, many people have the notion that we nutrition folk sit in the corner rolling our eyes and sighing about poor food choices.

Next week, aficianados from all over the UK will gather at north-west London's Ivy House to spend an entire day cogitating, discussing and digesting a matter close to our hearts. Food.

In the three years since he founded Gefiltefest, Michael Leventhal has become something of a godfather of Jewish food - the Noshfather, so to speak.

Jewish is food is seen by many of us as a constant in an ever-changing world - a warm, nostalgic reminder of days gone by.

But while most of us still love staples such as chopped liver, chicken soup and lockshen pudding, things have shifted perceptibly.

Four decades ago the default mode for British Jews would have been the Ashkenazi classics, but since then our perception of what is Jewish h

Last year a great battle was won in a long war. The struggle was not over land, oil or religion. It was over a cream and fruit-filled meringue pudding.

Australia and New Zealand have both claimed to be the originating country of this favourite dessert, said to be inspired by a tutu draped in green silk cabbage roses worn by the ballet dancer Anna Pavlova, when she toured down under in 1926.