Jess Brush was never interested in becoming a beauty influencer. She enjoyed doing her own nails instead of going to a nail salon, so following the advice of a friend, she created an alias called the Nailbetch and started posting clips of her Friday manicures on TikTok.

With food prices hiking, many of us are looking to cut the price of our weekly shops – while still eating delicious food. And the answer, Ravinder Bhogal believes, lies in vegetables. “Vegetables are the ultimate economical thing to cook,” says the chef and restaurateur, who was discovered by Gordon Ramsay after she applied for his competition to find “Britain’s new Fanny Cradock” on The F Word. “Meat has become so expensive. If you lavish the same kind of care and attention on [vegetables] as you do a steak or joint of meat, they are going to sing with flavour.” She continues: “Why can’t you take the time to marinate vegetables, inject them with flavour, baste them, add texture to them or play with their textures?” Bhogal, who was born in Kenya to Indian parents and moved to England at the age of seven, says root vegetables are our real saviour when it comes to budget cooking in Britain. “Anything that’s grown in this country, swedes, celeriac… And if you buy in season it’s naturally going to be a bit cheaper.” The 44-year-old, who owns London restaurant Jikoni (the Swahili word for “kitchen”) is vegetarian “80 per cent of the time – then I might have a Sunday roast or something” has released her third cookbook, Comfort & Joy: Irresistible Pleasures From A Vegetarian Kitchen. “There are so many things that you can do with vegetables where you’re just not going to miss the meat. What isn’t there to love about the lightness and brightness of vegetables?” And there’s a real misconception that vegetables can’t be comforting, she says: “For me comfort is about food that nourishes you, that makes you feel well, that makes you feel alive, that makes you feel revived.” It was Bhogal’s early years in a multigenerational household in Nairobi (“My grandparents, my uncle and aunt, their children, my mother’s brood of five, whoever happened to be visiting, there was a parrot, a dog, kittens, chickens, goats – it was a really chaotic household!”) that would pave the way for how she approached food later as a chef. Her grandfather dutifully tended to his shamba – or allotment – and had a deep respect and connection to the verdant soil where many vegetables grew. “When he came from India to Kenya, he completely fell in love with this beautiful red, volcanic soil that just seemed to give and give and give,” says Bhogal. “And he never stop being grateful for that. He’d come from a place where there was so little, and then suddenly, there was this soil that just blessed him and his family with all these beautiful things to eat.” Everything the household ate was either grown by him or came from the “mama mbogas” – local women with smallholdings who peddled their “the freshest hand grown vegetables” from door to door, she says. The chef in the house was her mother though, who was an “exceptionally talented” cook. “There were so many mouths to feed, so you can imagine the level of organisation that it took. She was the commander in chief and we were all her assistants, whether you liked it or not.” As a result, Bhogal learned to cook from her mother’s direction, although she wasn’t always happy about it. “Initially, I really resented it because growing up in quite a patriarchal household, the boys would be outside playing, and the girls would be in the kitchen. And that really sucked to me. “Anything I tried to attempt to cook, [my grandfather] would always tell me how delicious it was and praise me, and I think I made that connection between food and love and winning people over with food.” And the influence of her time in Kenya can be seen in the latest book; think pili pili cassava (one of the go-to carbs in many African nations) or Kenyan maru potato bhajias with tamarind and tomato chutney (potato coated in spiced chickpea flour and fried). Swapping Kenya for England as a child left a mark on Bhogal. “Kenya is like a state of mind, it’s such a bewitching country, it never really leaves you, it clings to you,” she says. “When you grow up with such colour and such a colossal sky… I was outdoors a lot, playing with all the animals [with] this really beautiful, very lush sunny backdrop. When you are plucked from that age seven and turn up in a very grey dark England, you try and hold onto that and keep connected to that.” South East London was “very different and sort of haggard in comparison to Kenya”, she says. “Everything was very small suddenly. I grew up in a flat above a shop and going from huge trees and sky that was ever blue to turning up to this very dark, dank [place]… The adjustment was very, very difficult.” But it’s all culminated in her cookery style now. “I consider myself a hybrid, I’m Indian, there’s Persian ancestry too, I’m British, I grew up in London, I’m also the product of all kinds of the diverse immigrant communities that helped bring me up.” So you’ll find Persian-inspired fermented rice, lentil, beetroot and coconut handvo (a savoury cake) in her new book, alongside Mumbai street food like peanut and golden raisin poha, and English grilled peaches with silken tofu and Thai basil and lime leaf gremolata. The recipe for pea kofta scotch eggs with saffron yoghurt is vibrant amalgamation; honouring memories of her father bringing home a sack of locally grown peas from Nairobi’s bustling city market and shelling them in the kitchen with her mother – it is a hybrid of her mother’s Indian recipe and her British identity. Plus, some that have been tried and tested by her discerning restaurant diners, like mango and golden coin [curry with dumplings] – where the mangos are served whole, stone and all. “I remember telling my husband I was going to put this mango curry on the menu and he was like, ‘You’re insane, how are people going to eat a whole mango?’ And it’s gone on to be one of the most popular things. “I think the whole joy of a mango is the generosity of serving it whole, there’s something about a whole mango that’s so rapturous,” Boghal says. “When it comes to the table people often go, ‘Is it chicken breasts?’ Nothing gives me more joy than to see people using pooris to scrape off the flesh from the mango and pick up the stone and gnaw on it. “I think if you don’t have a problem picking up a lamb bone and gnawing it, why not a mango stone?” ‘Comfort & Joy: Irresistible Pleasures From A Vegetarian Kitchen’ by Ravinder Bhogal (Bloomsbury, £26). Read More Showstopping BBQ main dishes for a hot grill summer 7 TikTok food hacks that actually work Saltie Girl in Mayfair will make you happy as a clam – as long as you can afford it These recipes will keep you hydrated on hot days Three tomato salad recipes that aren’t boring Try one of these pasta recipes this British Tomato Fortnight

Growing up, the movie villain who terrified me most wasn't the Wicked Witch of the

Dubai cemented its status as the world’s busiest market for luxury homes with buyers pouring $1.59 billion into

Welcome to Sun Blocked, Refinery29’s global call to action to wake up to the serious dangers of tanning. No lectures or shaming, we promise. Instead, our goal is to arm you with the facts you need to protect your skin to the best of your ability, because there’s no such thing as safe sun.

South Korean police are chasing the suspect in a stabbing attack in at a high school in the central city of Daejeon

The original Old Bay seasoning recipe had dozens of ingredients—but McCormick’s current one is shrouded in secrecy.

There's nothing like the look and smell of freshly cut grass. But unless you're paying

When it comes to business, working from home, and working on the go, a good

After nearly a decade of construction, Los Angeles transit riders will have a direct route to Long Beach

Throughout all six seasons of Sex and the City, animal prints, colossal statement accessories and puffed shoulder pads boldly spoke for Kim Cattrall’s captivating character: Samantha Jones. Her on-screen persona’s modus operandi was power dressing - mirroring the same eccentricity surrounding her love life. It’s safe to say the show’s stylist, Patricia Field, paid homage to the character’s charisma with every outfit... and Cattrall was always a fan. When news broke of Cattrall’s cameo in the Max reboot series And Just Like That, fans were shocked after having heard the 67-year-old actor say she had no interest in reprising her character. It was later revealed that Cattrall agreed to film one scene because producers had agreed to her stipulations – one of which required Field to dress Samantha for her return. Speaking with Elle, the 82-year-old costume designer reflected on the experience of renewing her partnership with Cattrall’s beloved TV character. “[Jones] was such a popular character and, even though she was the oldest of the four women, she was the funniest in her own way, and that always inspires me,” Field confessed. “Her style is that of a woman who is confident in her sexuality, but it also includes her comedic side - her sense of humour and irony.” For Cattrall’s highly-anticipated scene, Field curated a look representative of Jones’ style in the original series. This meant a focus on bright colours and abstract adornments, and not so much obviously branded pieces. Field imagined that present-day Samantha would epitomise her character’s older age by advancing her fashion sense along with it. “I wanted to bring back Samantha Jones. I didn’t veer off and make some other image. [There] were a few adjustments, but nothing major,” Field told Elle. “I wanted to bring Samantha back because the fans were clamouring for her.” In the season two finale of And Just Like That, Samantha can be seen in the car and talking on the phone with Carrie Bradshaw - played by Sarah Jessica Parker. Keeping to the character’s former colour palette of “red and purple [shades],” Field stuck Cattrall in a rouched red dress under a thin, metallic blazer. The look was adorned with a structed lime green Fendi clutch and bulky silver bangles. Samantha’s devotion to herself, and herself only, was symbolised with a diamond-studded band and massive rock on her ring finger. “When it came to this special appearance of Kim, I was happy that she accepted it. I thought she looked good. That’s my job,” Field added. According to a Page Six source, Cattrall’s supposed non-negotiables centred around a desire to film her scene entirely alone. “Kim had two stipulations - one, that she would not act with any of the other girls and two, she did not want to see Michael Patrick King,” an insider told the outlet. Kristin Davis, who plays Charlotte York in the original series and the AJLT reboot, has since spoken about Cattrall’s decision to return to set only in the absence of the lead cast. “You have to respect people’s wishes. I’m not gonna waste energy on it. I can’t change anybody,” she told The Telegraph. “I do understand fans’ feelings — that they’re upset. I wish I could fix it, but I can‘t, it’s not in my power.” The season two finale of And Just Like That is available to stream on Max. Read More Kim Cattrall returns as Samantha Jones for ‘fabulous’ Sarah Jessica Parker scene in And Just Like That Selena Gomez gets Kim Cattrall’s approval as she lip-syncs to Sex and the City scene Kim Cattrall celebrates 67th birthday ahead of her And Just Like That appearance Kim Cattrall celebrates 67th birthday ahead of her And Just Like That appearance Autographed pair of rare Michael Jordan sneakers up for auction Lana Del Rey raises eyebrows by wearing white dress to Jack Antonoff’s wedding

Uh-oh — Microsoft might be storing information from your Bing chats. This is probably totally