Reignite your love affair with home cooking this year…

From cheery Anthony Worrall Thompson to sultry Nigella Lawson, celebrity cooks are helping create a renaissance in home cooking. Interestingly, neither Anthony  nor Nigella trained as chefs, creating  their careers from a simple passion for good food.

Our relationship with food is changing. There has been a slow shift away from ready-meal mania: between 1998 and 2002 the demand for ready meals rose by 29 per cent across Europe and 44 per cent in the UK alone. We now consider the amount of packaging we use, air miles involved in transporting food, and we’re returning to buying British. There’s a greater focus on local fresh foods and home cooking, and this has meant an increase in food events and farmers’ markets around the UK.

Regular weekend food markets take place across London. Wimbledon Farmers’ Market, every Saturday morning at Wimbledon Park First School, has a variety of stalls given over to prime British produce. Farmers must come from within a 100-mile radius to sell their produce here.

Marylebone Farmers’ Market, held at the Cramer Street car park every Sunday, is the largest in London. The area is already known for its food shops and restaurants, such as La Fromagerie, the Ginger Pig and Terence Conran’s French restaurant Orrery. Further north, you can snap up fresh farm produce from Islington’s Farmers’ Market at the top of Essex Road. This market also specialises in herbs, cut flowers and plants and unusual salad leaves.

London hosts some of the UK’s best  food events. Every June, the Taste of London festival returns to the beautiful surroundings of Regent’s Park for a four-day celebration of fine food and drink.  Visit: www.tastefestivals.com/london

If you want to explore healthy eating options, then the Mind Body Spirit Festival at The Royal Horticultural Society in May is the place to browse a huge range of alternative goods, concepts and healthy food options. For more local produce, visit The Country Living Spring Fair where you’ll find produce from across the UK under one roof at Islington’s Business Design Centre in March.

Now you know where to buy your food, you might want to take a course to help you expand your home cooking skills and meet like-minded people. There’s a huge range of cooking courses available in the city, from easy entertaining to cake decorating, and baking to ice-cream making. Who knows where it might lead you – perhaps you’ll want to open your own café, or even become the next Nigella!