I had lunch at Eyre Brothers in Shoreditch today, one of the few London restaurants specialising in food from the Iberian peninsula. David Eyre, the chef famous for bringing the gastropub to London with the Eagle in Clerkenwell, joined me and told me stories – mostly about eating and drinking, that revealed his unbridled passion for Iberian food. The delicious clam dish I had, with parsley, sherry and potato, was something he perfected over three days one summer holiday, having eaten a similar dish in a nearby bar and been blown away. “The poor girl I was with kept asking if we’d be going out for dinner later and I just kept saying, ‘no, we’re having clams again’ – it got very boring!” he told me over a glass of wonderfully fresh Alberino.

It’s hard to believe Eyre Brothers has been going for ten years, as it’s still as buzzy and fresh as it ever was, which is something of a feat in the fickle London dining climate.