Sundays are brilliant, and there's nothing you could do to make them better

Serves 4-6

After abandoning his first kitchen apprenticeship at 14, Eric decided he definitely did not want to be a chef. Offered another chance at White’s Hotel in Bayswater, he took it and has seldom been out of the kitchen since. He has worked in some of Britain’s best kitchens including those at Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons, La Tante Claire and Marco Pierre White’s The Restaurant. After earning two Michelin stars at The Capital, he is to open a new restaurant, Brasserie Chavot, at the Westbury Hotel in Mayfair next week.

Think beyond the can and try your hand at cassoulets and Boston baked beans, says Christopher Hirst

Until the age of 23, Gizzi Erskine was a professional body-piercer in Camden, north London. Now a food writer, chef and television presenter, she is best known as the host of the Channel 4 show Cook Yourself Thin and for the bestselling book of the same name. Her latest book, Skinny Weeks & Weekend Feasts, is due to be released on 28 March. She is working with Total Greek Yoghurt (totalgreekyoghurt.com) to create two new recipes.

Tales From The Water Cooler

Pitts-Tucker is in charge of assessing all the cheese made by Davidstow, the largest cheddar producer in the UK. He grades each cheese on body (firmness), texture (feel) and flavour (style and strength level). He works most often with the Cathedral City brand, eating around 500 chunks of 500 different cheese blocks each week.

Premier Foods shocked the City yesterday by revealing that the chief executive it had brought in to revive the fortunes of the debt-laden owner of Hovis bread was leaving after just 18 months.

Darts star Eric Bristow admitted he was disappointed not to make the final of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! after becoming the latest contestant to be voted out of the jungle.

Troubled Hovis maker Premier Foods is to close two bakeries and four distribution centres with the loss of 900 jobs as its bread division continues to be hit by soaring wheat prices.

Room Service: Grand Hotel Reylof, Ghent

Serves 4-6

Fashion: From A-list to Xmas list

As we pat our collective gut and burp happily ahead of the festive season, it's time to think about the social power of sating oneself. Of really going for it at the dining table; of snuffling and troughing, lapping and ferreting; of not just being a "foodie" but of full-on "fooding". The whorls, splats and piles on your plate represent your lifestyle, your emotions, your relationships, like anxious tea leaves crawling up the side of a cup to be read.