Who needs truffle and caviar? With some leftovers, new tricks and a little ingenuity a dish can look and feel fancy, despite its cheaper ingredients. Whether adding some lavishness to lunchtime, or hosting a chichi dinner, here are 11 top chefs’ recommendations for recipes that are budget-friendly and uncompromisingly luxurious. Pasta with prawn sauce Asimakis Chaniotis, executive chef at Pied à Terre, LondonWhen we cook prawns in the restaurant or at home I always keep the heads, with a little […]

Cooking is about the conversion of everyday ingredients – bags of flour, tins of tomatoes, dried pasta, spices – into something that ends up much more than the sum of its parts. I always think this when making pizza (which is always cheaper than buying it in): it’s a simple base topped with a simple tomato sauce and whatever else you have that needs using up. The same can be said of pasta bakes and curry bases, which I always […]