Time to peruse the crisp list

NEIL RIDLEY is a pioneer of food-drink pairings. His recent book, The Crisp Sommelier, inset (Bloomsbury, £12.99), came about because he was “always looking for something to do with my other hand when I was holding a drink in a pub or bar: pint of bitter or cocktail in one hand and then something to partner it with in the other!

- by Matt Nixson

"There’s something so magical about crisps: they’re really the culinary fabric of a nation and you can tell a huge amount about people through the type of crisps they eat. Many of them, such as Monster Munch, Skips, Discos, Nik Naks and Wotsits, were a staple in our childhood snacking life, and I thought it would be great to bring them into a more adult context, pairing them with everything from a malbec to a martini."

Neil’s book, left, is great fun, but also a way of experimenting with some less common flavour combinations — both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. “Hopefully, it will spice up any dinner party pairings people might be planning, or give some new-found love to those childhood classics,” he adds.