I’m just back from New York, which is fast becoming the ‘new food movement’ capital of the west. More about that soon, but first, among my many extraordinary experiences in an action-packed week, the most surreal: my unexpected appearance on Heritage Radio, a wonderful foodie channel set up by Patrick Martins, founder of Slow Food USA. The station is housed in a shipping container in the garden of Roberta’s pizzeria (see below), purveyors of some of the most delicious pizzas I have ever eaten, the ingredients for which are grown by Ben Flanner on Brooklyn Grange farm, one the city’s growing number of rooftop farms (see what I mean??).

The show was Beer Sessions, hosted by bar owner and restaurateur Jimmy Carbone, an New York-Italian bundle of Falstaffian energy and bonhomie (that’s him at the top). Jimmy is a legend amongst New York foodies, and his side room at No.43 (on East 7th Street) is a nexus of every kind of foodie activity, including, last December, the New York version of ‘Dirt Cafe Sitopia’.

Jimmy is also very serious about good beer, so when he invited me onto his show, I was somewhat nervous, having what can only be described as a patchy knowledge on the subject. My feelings intensified as I sat listening to detailed discussions about, amongst other things, the properties of artisanal beers and the problems inherent in managing seventy ‘lines’ in one bar, but I needn’t have worried. Jimmy is a great host, and somehow got me talking about London brewers and pubs, hops and taverns – and Samuel Pepys – as if I had thought of nothing else all my life. In fact, the whole thing was a hoot. Thanks, Jimmy!

If you want to hear my ramblings, and learn quite a bit about beer, click Beer Sessions“>here: