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For generations, beef has been the most quintessential of American main courses, and a premium protein around the world

In the summer of 2022, a year before the WGA writers strike, a friend of mine attended a wedding and met a Hollywood TV producer. At the time, I was employing this friend as a part-time assistant, and she was excited to tell this producer — a white man, it must be said — about the work we were doing together. That year I had been in two writers rooms while simultaneously revising a feature, a pilot, and shopping two separate shows around town. “It’s a white woman getting all that work?” the producer asked her, incredulous. My friend corrected him: “No, she’s Black.” That seemed to clear something up for the guy. “Oh, that makes sense,” he told her. “They’re the only ones getting work these days.”

A woman who was born with a rare inherited skin blistering disorder which caused her to get “bullied” and feel “like a freak” throughout her childhood and teenage years, as well as forcing her onto a soft food diet of “bananas and custard” for weeks at a time, now writes inclusive children’s books with a focus on disability to encourage “other children to grow up with confidence”. Vie Portland, a 52-year-old confidence coach, author and speaker from Winchester, was born with epidermolysis bullosa simplex generalised intermediate but was not formally diagnosed with the skin condition until she was 28. According to the NHS, epidermolysis bullosa (EB) is a rare inherited skin disorder that causes the skin to become very fragile, and any trauma or friction to the skin can cause painful blisters. Vie is yet to find a treatment that helps her condition, and her feet are regularly covered with huge internal blisters which feel like she has “stones under (her) skin.” Her condition even means that she cannot eat “anything acidic or too peppery” and often spends weeks eating “just bananas and custard”. She has also developed thoracic outlet syndrome, chronic bursitis, and often has spasms, because of walking with a limp to try to ease the pain. Now, Vie writes inclusive children’s books to raise awareness about living with a disability, because she grew up “afraid that there was no one else like (her)”, and hopes to write a book about someone with her condition next. Vie told PA Real Life: “So it feels like I’ve got stones under my skin all the time on my feet and it doesn’t matter how much you try to explain that to someone people just don’t get it. “Even things like if I meet friends for a drink in a lovely pub garden – I’ll be in agony because of walking on gravel and it takes so much energy out of me. “I can’t eat anything acidic or too peppery – sometimes I have to eat just bananas and custard for weeks.” Vie was born with the skin condition, saying: “I was born with no skin on my bottom and had some skin missing on my left foot. “The charity that works with people that have EB wasn’t around then – I spoke to someone recently from Debra, the charity, and they said if you looked at all the people on a double-decker bus, you’d expect to find at least one person with psoriasis. “But, you’d have to wait for over 700 buses before you met someone with EB.” As a child, Vie regularly had huge blisters all over her feet and the back of her heels. She explained: “I remember wearing jelly shoes one summer, and heat and friction are two of my triggers. “Throughout the day, blisters grew around the rubber shoes and I had to have the pair of shoes cut off my feet – it was excruciating.” When Vie was a teenager, she was very self-conscious of her condition, she explained: “I was in constant pain, and I struggled with all shoes and walking anywhere. “We’re always told not to pop blisters, but when you have EB they tell you to pop them because they get so big. “I didn’t know that at the time and it was just so painful. “People were noticing how I walk and I was embarrassed to show my feet – I didn’t have a normal childhood because of this. “Even something as simple as opening a bottle makes several layers of skin come off and cause me to have raw skin all over my hands, I was told this was weird by other people.” Doctors were baffled by Vie’s condition, over the years, she was told she had different types of eczema and even that she was allergic to her own sweat. But, at age 28, she was diagnosed with EB by a dermatologist in London. She said: “I just grew up believing that it was my fault and I was afraid that there was no one else like me.” “It all just made sense. “They even took pictures of my feet for a medical journal because it was so rare.” After getting her diagnosis, Vie began researching the charity DEBRA, which specialises in EB. She said: “I started finding out that there were people like me – it was amazing, growing up, I was bullied and felt like a freak.” Since then, Vie has sadly not been able to find a treatment that helps her condition. “There’s no cure for EB but things have moved on a lot over the past 20 years,” she said. “We have special types of dressings and creams which can help alleviate the pain.” On top of this, because Vie has been walking “unusually” for most of her life, she has developed thoracic outlet syndrome, chronic bursitis, and often has spasms. Vie said: “It can be frustrating at times because it just feels like no one will ever understand what it is like. “For most people, blisters are a bit painful, but it’s all right, but for me, it’s one of the worst pains in the world.” Now, Vie is focussing on raising awareness about living with a disability, and has recently written two inclusive children’s books called ‘Where Are We Going?’ and ‘Who Am I?’. She said: “I want other children to grow up with confidence and not to feel like a freak like me. “Children aren’t born with prejudice and I think it’s really important to teach them about all of our amazing cultures and worlds. “In my books, I don’t explicitly say the character is disabled until the discussion questions at the end – I want the character to be accepted and not defined by their disability. “I think people have more in common with each other than things that are different, and that’s a beautiful thing. “I’m hoping to write a book about someone with my condition – that’s my next plan.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Fraser Franks undergoing heart surgery – four years after ‘hidden’ condition cut short football career 4 viral TikTok make-up trends you’ll actually want to try Childhood Cancer Awareness Month: What are the warning signs that your child might have cancer?

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Oh, to be a guest at a dinner party thrown by Nigella Lawson. It’s the stuff of dreams. On TV, she always made hosting look so effortlessly elegant, passing around plates piled high with luscious-looking food to her laughing guests, fairy lights twinkling above them as though they were ethereal beings blessed by the Domestic Goddess herself. To my teenage self, having a glamorous dinner party was the height of adulthood – Nigella was a huge inspiration. But these days, Nigella says she is less inclined to host a big dinner party – the ones that the public see on her shows like Nigellissima and Nigella Feasts are actually rare. In a new interview with The Times, she revealed that she has fallen “out of the habit” of big gatherings, adding: “I’ll have a person or a couple of people over quite often and I keep planning to have people round in a proper grown-up way but I haven’t yet. I must! I feel a bit guilty because people have had me for dinner and I haven’t had them back.” One could argue that it’s fair for dinner parties to be a thing of the past for Lawson, who has been setting the bar for these things for the past 20 years or so. She can and should do whatever she likes that makes her comfortable. But for me, a woman in her thirties, I still haven’t had the pleasure of planning and throwing a Nigella-level dinner party, and that makes me rather sad. I want to be the hostess with the mostest. I sometimes fantasise about who I’d invite, what I’d cook, what dishes I’d use, what playlist I’d throw on. When I lived in Malaysia, I had a large flat all to myself for just a few months. This period coincided with a New Year’s Eve that, at the last minute, had me throwing a party for everyone who didn’t already have plans. It wasn’t a Nigella-esque party given its eleventh hour nature, but it was perfect for the time – we ordered pizzas and people brought snacks and booze, and we all stayed up late chatting, listening to music, ringing in the new year. What bliss! But modern living quarters have shrunk so much that it makes me claustrophobic just thinking about it. These days, even the idea of a dining room that is separate from the living room feels like a pipe dream for my generation. Entire houses that would have been occupied by one family have been sliced into flats that squeeze multiple households under one roof. The abominable creation of “studio apartments” that force tenants to cook, eat, and sleep in the same space hardly offer the means to have friends over for dinner. Don’t even speak to me about buying a house – I’m just trying to keep my head above water with rent prices, which reached record highs in June. And no, giving up lattes from Pret has not helped one iota. Inflation and wage stagnation have also stamped on my dreams of being a dinner party pro. I’m sorry to be That Person, but have you done a weekly grocery shop recently? I find myself wincing at the checkout more and more with each shop, and I’m only shopping for two. I can’t imagine buying a week’s worth of groceries for a family, let alone a party of more than four. This year, I made a Chinese New Year meal for six people – two of us had to eat on the sofa – and the cost nearly bowled me over. I desperately wanted to do it, but I did not relish looking at my bank balance afterwards. Then there’s the cost of decorations to think about. If TikTok videos are to be believed, decorating is easy as pie, with hundreds of influencers telling you that all you need is a unique table runner; huge bunches of beautiful flowers dotted around; mismatched tableware for a cutesy, vintage feel; tall candles; linen napkins tied up with string. But all of this costs more money than you’d expect, and “hacks” like getting up at 5am to go to Columbia Road Flower Market to get cheaper blooms aren’t all that helpful when work and other commitments demand your time. Of course, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Nigella’s suggestion of serving Twiglets as a starter is unconventional, but fun and cheap; as is her preferred method of making “a big plate of food, taking it out and seeing everyone eat”. Certainly, her latest Ocado recipe for sardine spaghetti – which uses humble tinned sardines in tomato sauce – is cheap, cheerful and entirely delicious, perfectly suited for feeding a large number of people on a budget. This isn’t too surprising: Nigella has always had her finger on the pulse of the public mood, and her other recent Ocado recipes, which feed four people for under £5, will come in handy for many who are struggling. But looking back at the dinner parties she’s hosted on her TV shows, perhaps they weren’t so lavish after all. The immense appeal and pleasure of Nigella’s gatherings has always stemmed from the fact that she cooks what she loves, for people she loves, no matter the number. Her shows, too, made these intimate parties look sparkly and lavish, but underneath all of them lay the bare bones of a great night in: sharing delicious food with wonderful company. I can’t help but grieve for the parties I could’ve had by now. I wish I could fill my home with people without worrying about whether there are enough chairs or if the neighbours above and below me are grinding their teeth, waiting for 10pm to roll around so they can knock on the door and tell us to keep it down. It remains my fervent aspiration, still, to someday throw a Nigella Feasts-worthy dinner party. Until then, I’ll just have to comfort myself with the reminder that even Nigella isn’t up for that these days – and that entertaining for a smaller number of people can be just as satisfying. Read More It took until my thirties to realise I might not be white Solitude used to mean sad singledom. Now it’s become a status symbol I’d waste hours watching ‘What I Eat in a Day’ videos. I can’t believe they’ve made a comeback

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