This Headline Is as Forced as the Rhubarb Contained Within

Welcome back to Insta Stories, a column examining the London restaurant scene through the often-problematic medium of Instagram. This week’s filter is awkward.

News of the week

Yikes, where to start? At first it felt like the only thing Instagram would ever feature again was an endless procession of Bernie memes. Then it was forced rhubarb’s annual forced moment, then Burns Night, then the rubber restaurant man decided now — now! — was the right time to announce its latest set of Michelin stars. But really, there could be only one winner. As jaded, exhausted Londoner after Londoner made their way outside and danced around in precipitation like a kid at Christmas, it became clear that the old adage still holds up… Snow news really is good news.

Best of the Bernie memes of the week

No more now, please.

Seasonal stalks of the week

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb.

Seasonal stodge of the week

Here for all of this, but the toad in the hole renaissance is especially promising.

Effrontery of the week

Chef, smoked eel enthusiast, national treasure — however he’s described, there’s no denying that Quo Vadis genius loci Jeremy Lee has been a dependable source of deeply soothing content on the ‘gram, especially in his posts celebrating proper, old school puddings. So it was somewhat alarming to learn this week that his beloved account had been hacked and held for ransom — a madlibs-esque turn of events that sounds absurd but is actually creepily prevalent on the Facebook-owned platform. It’s also a notably crappy thing to do to someone’s personal account: A repository, at least in part, of several years’ happy cooking and eating. Lee has resurfaced Lazarus-like as @jeremyleequovadis; here’s hoping a company worth, ahem, eight hundred BILLION dollars can fix yet another issue within its deeply flawed ecosystem.

Dish of the week

Snowball fight nutrition.

Shot of the week

So that’s what they mean by stone fruit.