Rose Prince

Make it an applefest this Christmas — the best of the year’s cookbooks

James Rich and Raymond Blanc celebrate our native varieties in all their diversity, while Tarte Tatin features in the sumptuous Signature Dishes That Matter

If it were not for a banker with a hangover, we would not have Eggs Benedict. Or so one of the creation stories goes. One morning in 1894 Lemuel Benedict walked in to the Waldorf Hotel, New York, feeling a bit rough. He asked the Maître D’, Oscar Tschirky, for hot buttered toast, bacon, two poached eggs and — crucially — a ‘pitcher’ of hollandaise sauce.

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