We couldn’t get enough of the place and from then on until we moved to the Isle of Wight in 2009, we were regulars. It came with chicory, the biggest pine nuts I have seen, olives and sultanas and a sort of pretzel, a tarollo Napoletano, which I had not previously encountered, rather like a hard biscuit. Half way through the meal the waiter came to the table and apologised, saying he had made a mistake. I still maintain he has the best, most thought out and varied wine list in Sheffield and probably South Yorkshire if not beyond.

And just to make me feel that nothing ever really changes too much, we were, once again, the last to leave. Originally Ester and her partner Bruno Saverio were just going to do Saturdays but she changed her mind at the last minute.

We had decided to get to Verogusto a little earlier than our table was booked so that we could enjoy a cocktail in the little side bar before our meal.

It was obvious the absolute best ingredients were being used all the time, the preparation was second to none, the flavours out of this world. Now that’s what caught my attention because at that point I was going for the duck but was mentally grumbling I’d have to pay extra for spuds. The restaurant has won national plaudits and had some very famous celebrity diners (I think this guy was on a summer holiday. Once the restaurant got up and running (helped along by an amazing review by the one and only Martin Dawes, Sheffield’s infamous food critic), our family welcomed two new members! It said everything I wanted to say about the food so I changed tack and this came out, which started as my intro but is now my reminisce.If I’d known then the hours we’d spend sitting at that little bar after dinner (we always seemed to be the last to leave, strange that) drinking grappa and suffering the next day…. And the sauce, a reduction of wine and the bed of vegetables the meat had sat upon, finished with just a hint of sweetness. It sounds pretentious to say you can feel the love and passion that goes into food cooked by a food lover who also happens to be a superb chef, but it’s true.