Nature's energy food

Pork chop [photo: Paul Gregory Photography, UK]

Honey and soy glazed pork chop with pickled red cabbage

Go on – make a pig of yourself with Paul Merrett's recipe for honey and soy glazed pork chop with pickled red cabbage.

Steamed sponge with honey and ginger

Sweet, warm, soft and rounded – you won't be able to resist Paul's steamed sponge with honey and ginger pudding.

Honey and oat energy bars

Just the thing to stop you flagging between meals – try Paul's quick recipe for honey and oat energy bars.

We think of honey as a local product, but it’s big business; the world trades nearly half a million tonnes of it every year. Chef Paul Merrett traces the production of honey from the bee hive to your toast, learns why honeys don’t all taste the same and finds out why bees are moving to the heart of London.

In the kitchen he creates a sumptuous honey sponge pudding and gives some handy tips on how to store your honey. He shows us how to get the right mix of sweet and sour for his marinated pork chop and explains why his honey-coated cereal bars are a great energy booster. But don’t limit honey to the larder; its medicinal and nutritional health benefits are just as impressive. Paul reveals: