PoppySeedBagel

I have a wonderful little book of tributes to Jennifer after her death - she was, er, quite a character. What I liked about them was that they could both cook elegantly - Delia is always a bit ham fisted, so it doesn't feel like she knows what she's doing but they always handled the ingerdients so well!

The holiday cottage we use has an Aga (pale turquoise...) I think if I had an Aga I'd have to have another cooker too - I couldn't cope with the limitataions - friends who have an Aga produce very nice but quite iold-fashioned food in it - because of those limitations. But they are very good for drying beach towels on overnight in the middle of summer

Libby's pumpkin is also available in Selfridges Food Hall

I agree that Patisserie Valerie is only so-so - where I would go is the Patisserie at Sketch on Conduit Street - it's achingly chic, so very entertaining - but its cakes are the best I've ever had in London - and pretty good value at £3.00 each, and £1.50 for a sandwich for take-out I went to Wilton's about a year ago and it was excellent - very high quality traditional British food. Try the mint tea made with stacks of fresh mint!

I also went to the shop in Reigate, which is very good - and I'm sure they told me that the Britannia is made by the same people as Smeg - certainly, despite the name Britannia are made in Italy!

I had one of their ready meals from Selfridges - Thai duck curry - £7.00 - very tasty and reasonable value. Would have preferred to have rice packaged with it but I couldn't see any. I like the packaging and also think it speaks of freshness!

I have a big Brittannia - 2 oven /5 burners - they cost about £1,800 new these days - I don't like it much - it's a major pain to clean and the build quality isn't that good for the cost. Next time I'll have two decent full-size AEG or similar ovens and a 5 burner separate hob with automatic lighting of burners and no nooks and crannies. The Brittannia looks good though!

I heartily recommend goose - it's delicious - really tasty! I use Simon Hopkinson's method, involving pricking the skin and pouring hot water over the skin the night before , so all the fat runs out so it's not very greasy. He stuffs with potato and serves with apple and prune. The details are I think in his book Gammon and Spinach