Simple but delicious – that’s the style of Sam Mannering in this extract of summer flavours from his book Food Worth Making Volume II.

I’d always begrudgingly assumed that being a food writer would be nothing more than an indulgent dream, at best to be pandered to until the bank balance forced otherwise. Having a job that revolves around eating? Yes please. A public forum on which to postulate and egotise? Oh my god, yes. It never seemed very realistic, though. If I’m earnest for a minute, I try to quietly encourage thought about what we eat, but it is a bit of a tightrope. Get too lofty and people get intimidated; too stentorian, they get bored. Ultimately, my message is simple. It’s got to taste good, got to be made with decent ingredients, can be interesting, but not impossibly technical. That’s about it. But I love what I do. I get to eat like an absolute pig, postulate, egotise and keep my PT in employment. Everybody wins.