I was chatting with a friend of mine about food. We were discussing our favourite dishes. She initially brought my attention to her love of fish, particularly whole fish (“with the eyes in”, she said). But if she had to choose one thing to eat above all things — and I offered her the chance to choose chocolate, burgers, pizzas, good things and bad things — she chose linguine with clams.

This surprised me. Why? Because the friend in question is only 4 years old. She benefits from having parents who insist on feeding her the same food that they eat and, moreover, they all eat together at the table. Even her 10-month old baby sister eats with them (“but not linguine and clams” she says).