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.

My mum Timmy makes, without doubt, the best pavlova ever, says Peter Gordon.

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.

Kosher wine has arrived. The wine list at Spain's El Celler de Can, one of the world's top restaurants, offers selections from kosher producer Elvi Wines. The Michelin-starred venue is not alone. Until it closed its doors recently, the world-famous El Buli also kept Elvi bottles in the cellar.

Blood oranges add much-needed colour to drab grey days and are one of the few truly seasonal fruits. Blink and you'll miss them. Before they vanish for another year, try this colourful salad. If you can't find blood - or as some supermarkets coyly term them, blush oranges - use ordinary ones. If you're in a hurry, pre-cooked beetroot (not in vinegar) works fine.

Serves 4

Cardamom and pistachio give a modern spin and a bit of crunch to the best way of using up spotty brown bananas. Ground cardamom can be bought online. For an even better flavour, extract and grind the seeds from 10 green cardamom pods using a spice grinder or pestle and mortar.

This is delicious served warm with butter, but equally good with a dollop of Greek yoghurt and a drizzle of honey.

'The last time I saw this many expectant Jewish faces was at my barmitzvah," quips Ian Marber. The celebrated diet expert is giving his inaugural talk as patron of the newly founded Food Academy at the London Jewish Cultural Centre's Golders Green building.

Katz's deli, Carnegie Deli, 2nd Avenue Deli. Who hasn't heard of them? New York has for years been delivering legendary Jewish food, sometimes immortalised in movies, in a way London has never really matched.

Food trends tend eventually to cross the pond, but for whatever reason, Jewish food has remained entrenched in London's north-western suburbs.

The girl at the reception desk at the new Buca di Beppo restaurant in Elstree's Village Hotel has never heard of Robert Earl. Fortunately, one of the PRs fluttering about overhears and rushes over.

Robert Earl himself might well have been unimpressed. He is, as you will most likely already be aware, a hospitality entrepreneur of gargantuan proportions. Not physically.

By Linda Dangoor
Waterpoint Press, £16.99

Style: Simple home-style food with an Iraqi slant.

Premise:
Dangoor follows in the footsteps of Claudia Roden in documenting and preserving the recipes of her childhood, "out of a desire to teach my nephews and their generation how to cook the Iraqi dishes they loved so much".

Russell and Juliette Joffe, founders of restaurant chain Giraffe, were childhood "eat-hearts". They met at Hendon County school (alma mater of Peter Mandelson, Gerald Ratner, and Robert Earl of Planet Hollywood) at the tender age of 13. Throughout their teens the foodie pair threw dinner parties - he in the kitchen, she front of house.

No one is more surprised than Nick Coffer that he is a published cookery writer.

This quick-to-prepare, fruity salad is always a hit, and stretches a few chicken breasts a long way. Poaching the chicken gently keeps it tender; and dressing it while warm keeps it moist and packed with zingy flavour. You can also make it with leftover cooked chicken. It looks pretty piled on salad leaves. Serve with crusty bread to mop up.

Serves 4-5 as a light lunch.

Know anyone getting married this summer? Look no further for the perfect gift - the third edition of Evelyn Rose's The New Complete International Jewish Cookbook is published this month.

Dressed in (not overly practical) glamorous white and gold, it even looks the part.

The London Beth Din (KLBD) has a fearsome reputation. According to one kosher caterer, they trust no one - not even their inspectors, the shomrim. Rabbi Hillel Simon is the Beth Din's Big Brother, the man who looks over the shoulders of the shomrim and ensure kosher is kept.

To the less observant, Orthodox food laws can be intimidating.