FROM THE ARCHIVE: Hidekazu Tojo, one of the most respected chefs and restaurateurs in Vancouver, was born in post-war Japan in Kagoshima, at the southernmost tip of Japan.

James Walt is, in ways beyond counting, in ways completely authentic and natural, the antithesis of a screaming, knife-throwing, plate-shattering, ire-laden celebrity chef. And as he sits at a corner table at his restaurant, Araxi, a few minutes before kitchen service begins to really ramp up for a busy evening, he is a model of aplomb and control.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: “Great gin simply soars, above and beyond the strictures of any season.” No less a libational luminary than the last of the Tanquerays, the late, great John T., told me that one mid-morning as we were about to sit down to lunch at his offices in the old Goswell Road distillery in London.

Someone must love Christmas cake, or they wouldn’t keep making the stuff. Not me—I have always considered it glorified building material. But I do love Siena.