There is a cultural idea that cooking alone is somehow lesser — that proper meals happen with company, and the rest of the time we should make do with toast or takeaway. This is rubbish. Some of the best food I have eaten was cooked for one and eaten in peace at my kitchen table.
Treat yourself as a guest
Set a place. Use a real plate. Pour a real glass. The food you make for yourself deserves the same care as anything you make for others.
Scale recipes intelligently
Most recipes serve four. Don\'t halve everything — sometimes cook the full batch and eat from it for three days. Soup, stew, curry and braise all improve overnight.
Lean on small-scale dishes
A single egg fried in butter on toast with proper salt is dinner. An omelette with herbs. Pan-fried fish with lemon. Pasta tossed in olive oil with garlic. These are not compromises — they are some of the best meals in cooking.
Stock the right pantry
Anchovies, capers, miso, good oil, good salt, lemons, eggs, cheese. Small things that transform a quick meal into something worth eating slowly.
Use the freezer
Cook your favourite stew in a big batch, freeze in single portions. On the worst days, dinner is fifteen minutes away.
Eat slowly
This is the secret. A meal eaten standing at the counter feels like a chore. The same meal at a set table with no screen on takes twenty minutes — and tastes twice as good.
