The myriad smells are completely alluring - there’s the buttery scent of shallots being braised, the sweet smell of chicken being roasted and, from the patisserie kitchen below, the tantalising aroma of tarte tatin wafting up the stairs.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy is asking the UN to award French cuisine Unesco humanity heritage status.
A parliamentary fact-finding [...]

Moral: there are many things you can learn from a book, but not how to bake a cake or cook a meal.
You need to know the basics. Boil, bake, fry, roast. There are words that say one thing but mean another %26ndash; drizzle, blitz, curdle, whip, whisk, blanch, fold, bind …
There are essential tools %26ndash; [...]