My Lockdown Kitchen Rules

Limiting trips to the fridge, strict day-drinking guidelines, and plenty of baking (reluctantly, at first) helped actress Kate Liquorish stay sane during lockdown

- Kate Liquorish

Panic-buying. I used to associate it with Boxing Day and Black Friday, but now it has a whole new meaning. Pre-lockdown, Twitter was awash with brawls over loo paper and mile-long queues of antagonistic individuals clinging to trolleys mushrooming with canned goods. I read that one woman filled seven trolleys with supplies. Seven! The real culprits will be easily identified when they’re serving chickpea curry and lentil soup amid our first summer heatwave.

I will admit that I also panic bought, not food, but alcohol. Embarrassing amounts. But I’ve found comfort in the fact that, unlike food, it’s only going to get better with age. I haven’t wasted; I’ve invested. However, having enough wine to sink the Titanic came with its own set of lockdown rules: no drinking before 7 pm during the week and 1 pm on weekends (even if the recipe called for wine). Sounds easy. But by day 13, it most definitely was not.