Small became beautiful twenty years ago. Now the beauty lies in the local and the ethical, and the-starting-small-but-hopefully-getting-as-big-as-possible: anything to reduce the poke of the supermarkets.

And Gary, most patriotic of all the celebrity chefs and most dedicated to re-discovering and communicating the glories of every aspect of our cuisine, is doing his bit. Recently he has even been focusing quite rhapsodically on Marmite. . His antics (all safely confined within his own London restaurant 24) climaxed with a torturously poetic Love/Hate pudding during which a Marrnite sauce/syrup is dispensed from a specially made squeezy tube with chocolate and ice-cream.

The best of British,revamped on the amazon

More globally, the news is that Gary has championed the Local Hero Food Awards which entails a nationwide and inter-active survey of our independent shops , farmers and producers. This will be screened over 11 weeks on the UKTV Food channel,starting in November.

If you wish to vote, you must do so before August 21 – www.uktvfood.co.uk is the place.