The Menu

We head to Florence for the Pitti Taste trade fair, talk the business of maple-syrup production and hear Australian-Lebanese chef Greg Malouf’s thoughts on the best vegetarian food.

The first three nominees in The Monocle Restaurant Awards, a new wave of cocktails in Singapore and the renewed interest in saké in Japan.

The Portuguese wine industry is focusing on higher-quality products – we head to Porto to find out how. Plus, a visit to Saint Petersburg for Restaurant Day, and we get the week’s food headlines from Canada.

Swiss Guard and cookbook-author David Geisser on what different Popes and his fellow guardsmen like to eat, a restaurant in Barcelona that focuses on ‘Pan Con Tomate’ (tomato with bread), and the week’s culinary headlines from New York.

We investigate the rapidly growing gin industry in Victoria, British Columbia. Plus beer from the slums of Rio de Janeiro and a German entrepreneur who wants to change the way we buy our local produce.

Italian top chefs reveal some of their secrets at Milan’s Identita Golose cooking convention, we hear what's new at Rio de Janeiro’s carnival and get a tip or two for launching a new food business.

We are at Madrid Fusión fair which has brought together some of the greatest innovators of the food industry. Plus special recognition for the oldest Lebanese restaurant in Paris and the week's headlines from Istanbul.

Pulitzer prize-winning restaurant critic Jonathan Gold tells us why it doesn't pay for restaurant critics to keep anonymity, author David Sax gives us his view on who the real food-industry tastemakers are and we get the week’s headlines from Toronto.

Why one American restaurant has decided to ban tips, we meet Vicky Lau, who has just been named the best female chef in Asia, and get the week’s culinary headlines from Hong Kong.

We visit a kitchen equipment library in Toronto, hear how chef and author Ken Hom is planning to promote food from the UK and get the week’s culinary headlines from Singapore.

We are in Tel Aviv to witness the city’s cocktail revival, enjoy a taste of Stellacello – a new drink originating from east London – and hear why a Japanese filmmaker has become the go-to person for food branding.

We make an appointment with a water sommelier in Los Angeles, meet chef and author Dan Barber, who has a tasty solution for the future's food-supply challenges and we get the week's culinary headlines from Latin America.

Some of the most appetising, surprising and delicious moments from the past 12 months.

Spice expert Arun Kapil tells us what we're missing in the world of spices, we visit a Los Angeles cheese shop where all cheeses are dairy free and vegan – and get the week's headlines from Istanbul.

The favourite dishes of some of the world’s most notorious dictators, we find out what might be new on Christmas-dinner tables in Sydney this year and visit London's first ever cereal cafe.