It isn’t only Scouts who need to be prepared in 2026, with their boil-in-the-bag porridge, chicken korma pouches and cheese spread.
asserted
who → need → porridge
Missiles are coming (possibly), or at least digitilised warfare is high on the agenda.
uncertain
warfare → come → agenda
You know the kind?
asserted
You → know → kind
Just for the hell of it, we would hope, rather than anything more wanton and sinister.
asserted
we → hope → anything
Whatever the cause, imagine the scenario: one minute, pan-frying a freshly caught halibut, radio playing and lamps on, the next, total darkness — no TV, no internet, no heating, even… maybe.
asserted
cause → imagine → halibut
If this sounds far-fetched, why are the rich and powerful getting ready?
asserted
rich → sound → ?
Let’s stock up on oatcakes.
asserted
’s → let → oatcakes
“I lived on Grandma Roux’s sofa for the first six months of my apprenticeship in Paris,” recalls the chef Michel Roux.
asserted
chef → live → Paris
“She’d been through the war and had raised four kids — she knew about hardship.
asserted
she → raise → hardship
And I remember her cupboards, filled top to bottom with tins of veg, pickles, sugar, flour, milk powder.
asserted
I → remember → veg
All the essentials that would’ve kept her going for months.
asserted
that → keep → months
I’m not sure why people don’t have food stores any more.
asserted
people → ’m → stores
“Well, I’d have tinned sardines, my go-to snack.
asserted
I → have → sardines
I eat them straight out of the tin with Tabasco or ketchup.
asserted
I → eat → Tabasco
And I’d have a bottle of vodka.
asserted
I → have → vodka
It’s a good spirit… to drink, or use as a sanitiser.
asserted
It → ’ → sanitiser
And it’s so flammable.”
asserted
it → ’ → ?
“No one in the Roux family likes them,” he says.
asserted
he → like → them
“Although my old man [the late, great Albert] used to have beans with a fry-up.
asserted
man → use → up
We’d all shudder.”
When the Iberian peninsula was sent back to the Dark Ages on April 28 last year, I was in Spain, at Gran Hotel Mas d’en Bruno, a 500-year-old rural estate and vineyard in the Priorat region.
asserted
I → shudder → region
I arrived at midday and asked a member of staff for the wi-fi code.
asserted
I → arrive → code
“It’s not working right now, but it happens, it’ll be back,” they told me.
asserted
they → work → me
Soon after, we realised it wasn’t just the internet, it was everything: Metro systems in Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon and Porto shut down; flights were grounded; traffic lights failed; internet and mobile services collapsed; and hospitals relied on back-up generators.
“I’d have tinned sardines, my goto snack.
asserted
I → realise → sardines
But thoughts did linger, because it wouldn’t have been fun for much longer, trapped with a limited supply of food and only uncharged electric vehicles for travel.
asserted
it → linger → travel
“I’d have whelks,” says Emily Roux, Michel’s daughter.
asserted
Roux → have → whelks
“I’d have canned butter beans, tomatoes, and carrots, green beans, peas.”
asserted
I → have → beans
Roux’s maternal grandmother, Raymonde, used to prepare her own vegetables in Avignon.
asserted
grandmother → use → Avignon
She’s in a home now, but until recently, she would grow her own vegetables and can them herself for the winter months.
asserted
she → ’ → months
I think we should all pickle more, too — cabbage, cucumbers, onions.
asserted
we → think → more
I’d probably have some Spam.
asserted
I → have → Spam
It’s not a favourite, but I quite like it.
asserted
I → ’ → it
They’re fun.”
asserted
They → ’re → ?
Florence Knight, of Lunette at the new and glamorous St Clement hotel, is less outraged by the prospect of baked beans, a classic staple of the British pantry.
asserted
Knight → outrage → pantry
“I like Heinz,” she says.
asserted
she → like → Heinz
“And I’d have Codesa anchovies, dried porcini, and a bottle of Wehlener Sonnenuhr Spätlese 2023.”
asserted
I → have → Spätlese
“Nannuo Shan Cooked Puerh,” Knight adds.
asserted
Knight → add → ?
It’s a fermented dark tea from Nannuo Mountain in Yunnan, China.
asserted
It → ’ → Yunnan
Eleven floors down at the St Clement is Danny Bohan, who oversees the more casual Café Clement overlooking the Thames.
asserted
who → oversee → Thames
After cooking his 100th lobster omelette of the afternoon, he says: “I’d take tinned foie gras.
asserted
I → cook → gras
I’d have it with piccalilli and wash it down with Cardenal Mendoza Spanish brandy.
asserted
I → have → brandy
…and 31 more, not listed.
The Aporia
