Could Theresa May's culinary tastes be a clue to her true character?

The cookery-loving frontrunner in the Conservative leadership race was asked by interviewer Robert Peston on ITV on Sunday why she preferred Yotam Ottolenghi to Delia Smith.

Delia was "very precise", the Home Secretary said, while she was more of a "throw a bit here and a bit there - and Ottolenghi is really interesting in the stuff that he does".

Spectator blogger Melanie McDonagh found the choice of the Israeli "astonishing". Ottolenghi went in for "explosive flavours, for theatre on the plate", she noted.

She would have "unhesitatingly billed" Mrs May as "a Delia person - controlled, reliable, very, very good but safe with it. What's she's telling us here is that there's another, different side to her. You have been warned."