Donald Russell

In some circles it's not fashionable to admit to liking meat in any shape or form (could this be due to a number of recent studies which stated that meat eaters find it more difficult to lose weight that non-meat eaters, and vegetarians tend to live longer?). My household then is potentially deeply untrendy (and even unhealthy), because save for me it is jam-packed with salivating carnivores, who can polish off two packs of sausages in one sitting and like nothing better than gnawing on a chop.

If they're going to eat it, it might as well be the good stuff, right? So many people have banged on to me about Donald Russell that I felt compelled to give them a go. I'm overlooking the fact that they have a royal warrant (normally something guaranteed to send me charging in the opposite direction), and I'm focusing on the fact that many people "professional cooks included" think DR sells the best quality meat in the business.

Why? Because for one thing Donald Russell's MD is somewhat obsessive about meat. Hans Baumann can talk till the cows come home (dead or alive) about how beef is best kept (natural diet; no hormones, meat, bonemeal or recycled protein used), killed, treated, frozen cooked and served. "The secret to a good steak is more than just breed or origin," he says. There's selection of the carcass, the cutting of the meat, the way it is handled, packed and arrives on the plate. Baumann is from a Swiss farming family and made his name running the Swiss Centre in Leicester Square. These days, he spends his time sweet-talking farmers and fishermen into giving him their best catches. When we spoke, he had just persuaded a contact to supply him with some triple 000 langoustines. In case you didn't know, these are the premier league.

Baumann puts the recent mania for Donald Russell down to the fact that more people want "the best". "People are more and more passionate about their food. They don't necessarily want a lot of something but what they have they want to taste incredible." There's an old-fashioned element to DR too, which is attractive in the face of soulless supermarket selling. One woman told me she didn't mind paying over the odds because "Dr's butchers know how to cut their meat"; another applauded the "stonking great five bone rib of beef, just like we used to see in my mum's butchers".

When my own five-bone rib arrived, vacuum packed in a poly box "next day delivery from www.donaldrussell.com" I could barely lift it into the freezer, let alone comprehend what to do with it. My friend John (from the North) came round to help his "veggie-eating southern wimp" friend. When the cow was finally cooked, John stood at the head of a long line of drooling adults and children, carving knife poised, and inhaled. "Champion," he said.

Tina Gaudoin, The Times, 27th May 2006.