Yesterday at 1pm I attended a business meeting where there were three Jews and four non-Jews. I ate before attending, but the other two Jews were running a few minutes late and called to apologise and to ask if there was any lunch available. As there was not they duly arrived laden with sandwiches, crisps and drinks.

It had never occurred to my colleagues that the meeting was set at lunch time and as they are slim, and I am not, it became apparent to me that food is a very important part of our rich lives.

Every festival has its special recipes, obviously Pesach but also Rosh Hashanah (apple and honey) Shavuot (dairy) and so on.

And we have our traditional cuisine, Ashkenazi for us Eastern Europeans and Sephardi for the more exotic Middle Eastern. Given a choice the Sephardi table wins for me every time.

Recently we celebrated, with Sephardi friends, the Barmitzvah of their eldest son and I wanted to buy him a book and so enquired from his parents as to his special interests. Food was the unanimous decision and so I got him a cook book about mezze. He is now a maven on Hummus.

My late cousin Sidney Manson, whom I dearly miss, was a man with funny bones and spent his life making people laugh and fighting a losing battle with his, not too serious, weight problem. Sid loved his food and had many tales that had allegedly happened in the fabled Blooms restaurant in London.

Here is a sample:

A group of Jewish American Tourist are in London and on their itinerary is listed a visit to Blooms Kosher Restaurant in Golders Green.

After being seated at the table they are served by a Chinese Waiter, who conducts the whole conversation in Yiddish.

After the meal and just before they are about to leave, they are confronted by the owner, Mr. Bloom, who asks them if they enjoyed the meal.

The leader of the group states that they were well satisfied by the food and service, but were amazed that the waiter only spoke in Yiddish.

Mr. Bloom placed the index finger of his right hand to his lips and said "Shush, he thinks he's speaking in English"!!

So my non Jewish business associates decided after this extensive meeting that they were after all getting peckish and sent out for a KFC whilst we left to go home to some wonderful home cooked fayre.