So, I'm all for events like Taste East - a free festival in Spitalfields which kicks off tomorrow and is an open invitation to sample away to your heart's content. With over forty food and drink stalls there's quite a spread, so start early as you feast on delectable pastries and cakes from Nutmeg Frog with a sip of something reviving from Teasmith, make your way to the Jewish Deli for a salt beef sandwich, and then nibble on Sardinian cheeses and cured meats from Villanova, washed down with a shot of Vietnamese coffee.

Far from East London, yet equally appetising, are the new olive oil tastings at smart Mayfair Italian restaurant Alloro, which teach you how to tell your delicate Ligurian from your more robust Tuscan - hmmm, brings to mind the time Giorgio Locatelli taught me how to taste olive oil by warming it in the palm of my hand first.