Vanessa Berridge

Vanessa is Good Food's expert on what's in season every month

Vanessa has been working for Good Food since 1999 and is best known for her factual In Season column.

Today's supermarkets offer a wide variety of fruit and vegetables all year round and people don't always realise that this shouldn't necessarily be the case. With so much food imported from around the world it is hard to know when things taste their best. Vanessa's In Season column aims to help readers know what to buy when.

Buy seasonal and local produce where possible

Vanessa says the work she does makes a great difference to the way she cooks and shops. She tries to only buy British vegetables and doesn't buy imported tomatoes in winter as she thinks they are tasteless and that tinned are much better for flavour.

Vanessa also writes for several gardening magazines including The Garden and The English Garden. Since she started writing her In Season column she has further realised the connection between cooking and gardening, especially when it comes to buying English produce.

Q&A

What three ingredients do you always have in your fridge?: I don't know about in my fridge, but I always have lemons, onions and tomatoes (tinned in winter and spring) on hand, as with those three ingredients I have the basis of a pasta sauce, a marinade for chicken or a soup. A mild olive oil and an extra virgin are also pretty essential to me.
Who do you admire, and what would you cook for them?: I watch a lot of cricket with my husband and our two sons so I rather admire the England captain, 'Freddie' Flintoff. I think I'd like to cook him loin of pork - I'd use a Nigel Slater recipe, with juniper berries and Marsala, and would buy the meat from our local 'Real Meat Company' butcher. He has marvellous meat, which he prepares just as you want it.
Do you have a favourite vegtable?: My favourite vegetable is the potato - it would be my luxury on a desert island - it's so versatile and I like it in all its incarnations.

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