Food & Drink notes

Cutting edge; Better board; Stuck on you; New cheese on the block

Never play with knives, even when it comes to messing about with the design. But there's an exception to every rule. Here it is: the six IF4000 knives made in Sheffield by Taylor's Eye Witness. The designer Sam Hecht gave them white, mouldable resin handles, high-carbon stainless steel blades and an elegant form to help cutting action. From £26 for the vegetable knife to £50 for the large chef's knife, they're sold in John Lewis and House of Fraser stores.

Better board

The Epicurean chopping board is made from a composite laminate of natural wood fibre. Which means it has the virtues of wood without the drawbacks. Wood looks good and blades don't blunt as quickly. Laminate's strengths: unlike most wood boards it's dishwasher proof, it stains less easily, it's thin and easy to slide into a storage space or hang up from its handy hole. Epicurean comes in three sizes from £18.95 to £33.95; order from www.silvernutmeg.com or 01254 820478.

Stuck on you

Burtree House Farm's sticky toffee pudding won so many Great Taste Awards, including the equivalent of best in show, that it's probably the best sticky toffee pudding in the world. Toffee nosed? Stuck up? Not the the people who make it (with their free range eggs, organic double cream and English butter) at Burtree House Farm, Burtree Lane, Darlington, Co Durham (01325 463521). Buy it from their shop, their dozen nearest farmers' markets, or from a few delis including Castle Howard Farm Shop.

New cheese on the block

These up-and-coming young cheeses have been talent spotted by Paxton & Whitfield and packaged into a box of 'New British', one of the collections of cheeses it is selling mail order (0870 2642101 or www.paxtonandwhitfield.co.uk) and through its shops in Jermyn Street, London SW1, Bath, Birmingham and Stratford-upon-Avon. The box of not-yet-famous five costs £37.50 (plus £9 delivery for mail order), and they are, clockwise from bottom left: the pungent cow's milk Oxford Isis with a rind washed in honey mead; creamy Caradon Blue, also made near Oxford; Crockhamdale, a hard, unpasteurised sheep's milk cheese from Kent; smoked Lincolnshire Poacher and the soft, fruity-tasting St Eadburgha, made with organic cow's milk.