Our stagiaire’s year of exploring modern Indian cuisine (and training on the mighty tandoor oven) came to a conclusion here, at Rohit Ghai’s Kutir in Chelsea, with a stint on the front line tackling naan bread, flanked by two old pros, the ultimate test.

With London crazy for pasta, our stagiaire spent an evening at Officina 00 in Old Street to learn traditional methods and techniques, tackling several lesser-known varieties and briefly becoming a social media star along the way…

In this special festive double-header, we first hit Tom Clarke’s Michelin-starred L’Ortolan in Reading to stoke its engine room and then got chippy at Tommy Heaney’s eponymous Cardiff restaurant.