It promises a Mediterranean culinary odyssey, but right now Cavo is just a trip to nowhere

Cavo , The Now Building, Outernet, Denmark Street, London WC2H 0LA. Sharing plates £13-£28, grilled dishes £19-£90, cheesecake £9, wines from £35

When you immediately feel sorry for the staff, you know something is up. At Cavo my sympathy hydrant is fair gushing from the off. Skilled professionals have turned up to work in a restaurant the size of a Swindon call centre, only with more glassware and napery. And it’s empty. It occupies a yawning fourth-floor space in the golden Vegas edifice that is the Now Building, a name which feels like a declaration of high-fashion intent as scripted by Charlie Brooker. It’s part of the Outernet development, on the corner of London’s Charing Cross Road. Deep in the basement there’s a 2,000-capacity music venue. At ground level there’s some weird cavernous, open-sided space clad in 8K screens filled with trippy images that gently morph into adverts for WeTransfer. Stand there for long enough and you will hate yourself.

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There’s a fashion for very pale rosé, but in these still unpredictable days of spring, a darker pink fits

Jerôme Lacondemine Vol de l’Hirondelle Rosé , Beaujolais, France 2020 ( £18.60, Alpine Wines ) Provence has made itself synonymous with rosé of a certain stylish kind. It’s the home of the pale pink watercolour wash, presented in clear glass bottles that would not look out of place behind the perfume counter, and of cult brands – Whispering Angel, Miraval, Galoupet – that are touched with the same kind of celebrity-adjacent haute couture glitz you find in Champagne. There is very much more to Provence rosé and I’ll be picking out some of my favourites of the region’s latest releases later in the summer. But as we enter what I think of as rosé season – that moment when it becomes plausible to drink a cold glass or two outside of an evening – I’m looking elsewhere for my first few pink hits of the year, starting with a pale, elegant, delectably strawberry-scented and cream-textured example from a part of France that I don’t usually associate with rosé, Beaujolais.

Contesa Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo Rosato, Italy 2022 ( £8.95, The Wine Society ) Another French region with a strong rosé tradition is the Loire. In the vineyards around the village of Sancerre in the Central Loire, pinot noir is the base for the gorgeously ripe cherry-scented, redcurrant-racy Domaine Philippe Raimbault Apud Sariacum Sancerre Rosé 2021 (£21.95, cheerswinemerchants.co.uk ; flagshipwines.co.uk ) – a very smart choice for salmon or trout. Farther west, in Touraine, gamay, the same red grape as used in Beaujolais, makes the bright, crisp, brisk and refreshing Guy Allion Touraine Rosé 2021 (£15.50, emilewines.co.uk ), while gamay, cabernet franc and grolleau come together in Anjou for Champteloup Rosé d’Anjou 2021 (£8.99, Waitrose ), which, with its cushion of sugar and ripe strawberry character, is at its best with light but spicy food such as Thai salads. Over in central Italy, meanwhile, Contesa Cerasulo d’Abruzzo is no less food-friendly, although in this case its more robust, candied berry character (and darker colour) makes a great match for a fresh tomato pasta (spaghetti al pomodoro crudo).

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A fold-over filo pie stuffed with mushrooms, spuds, onions and creamy ‘cheese’. Plus Marmite butter, if you’re of that persuasion

Bougatsa for breakfast is one of my favourite Greek traditions – hot from the oven, dusted in cinnamon-laced icing sugar and chopped up by an efficient, serious-looking chef (I don’t know why they are always so stern, but it seems to be a common character trait). And while that is how bougatsa is most commonly found, you can get savoury, mincemeat-filled versions, too. Today’s recipe is how I make mine, but feel free to play around with it – if you have a particular vegan cheese you like, say, crumble or grate some into the filling. And if you are a Marmite-hater, please don’t be put off by the Marmite butter finish: it isn’t a yeasty smack in the face, but more a salty, seasoned glaze that adds a pleasing depth to the whole thing.

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Kentish Wine Vault aims to transform industry and produce English rival to prosecco

A landmark centre for English wine designed by Norman Foster, which supporters say will produce an affordable rival to prosecco, could be given planning approval within days.

Gary Smith, the chief executive of MDCV UK, the winemaker behind the £30m Kentish Wine Vault project, said he was hopeful about his plans to transform the country’s wine sector by producing 5m bottles of English wine a year at the new location, after months of doubt.

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A spicy aubergine and mung bean curry with coriander cream, plus sides of north Indian-style potato, spinach and peas and herby rotis with lemon pickle

It’s a time of the year when there’s a gear change in what I want to eat. The new season makes me race even more quickly towards fresh vegetables, herbs and spices, and I often find myself eating only vegetarian and vegan dishes for days on end, and without even consciously trying to. The veg doesn’t have to be freshly sun-kissed and perfectly seasonal, either – the bags of peas and spinach in the freezer are still on heavy rotation, and the dried pulses remain a staple – but the resulting dishes, when everything comes together in sunny harmony, so often remind me of (and whet my appetite for) the heat of the sun.

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Beans are an economical and low-impact crop, and adaptable, too, as in this super-savoury risotto-style dish finished with leftover radish tops (or any other greens)

Beans are having bit of a moment right now, having been identified as a globally accessible, climate-friendly and economical crop. That’s one reason the Beans Is How campaign was created, aiming to help double global bean consumption by 2028, a shift towards a sustainable protein source that might have a positive impact on our environment.

Beanotto is a creamy, risotto-inspired dish made using similar ingredients and techniques, but with beans instead of rice. It’s a speedy alternative that doesn’t involve all that stirring, and there’s no stock required, either, which saves even more time. Boost the flavours by stirring a glass of dry vermouth or white wine into the soffritto and add aquafaba to give the beans the required texture while also saving waste.

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You can’t beat curled-up fish-paste sandwiches washed down with Tizer, writes Andrew Shepherd , while David Dickson suggests a vegan dish. Plus letters from Sue Wallace and Dr Anthony Isaacs

Why is there such a fuss about coronation signature dishes ( King Charles and Camilla choose coronation quiche as signature dish, 17 April )? Thankfully, I won’t have to eat coronation quiche if I don’t want to – broad beans in a quiche seems a bit leaden to my taste. I have never eaten coronation chicken and have just had to ask my wife what it was.

My memories of our 1953 street party are of dried, curled-up fish-paste sandwiches followed by an individual trifle – a bit of Madeira cake soaked in jelly containing little chunks of tinned pears, topped with a bit of custard with a squiggle of synthetic cream – served in a little waxed cardboard dish and washed down with Tizer. Why try to improve on perfection?
Andrew Shepherd
Loughborough, Leicestershire

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A nifty twist on the ‘broken negroni’ featuring vodka, gentian liqueur and a rosemary-infused sugar syrup

The negroni sbagliato , an Italian word meaning “mistake” or “broken”, usually swaps the gin in the original for sparkling wine. This twist, however, goes even further, with the addition of vodka, Suze gentian liqueur and a gorgeous, rosemary-scented sugar syrup, which you’ll need to make a day ahead.

Sam Russell, bar manager, Laurel’s On The Roof, The Mondrian , London EC2

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These sugar-coated choux buns are almost rustic in their simplicity and great with a cuppa

As far as homemade snacks go, these guys are up there. Chouquettes are incredibly light puffs are choux pastry in its simplest form; there’s no need to worry about filling or glazing them, just make sure to coat them generously in pearl sugar to bring that satisfying crunch and just enough sweetness. So simple and moreish, you’ll struggle to have just one.

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