I predict an eating revolution. People are having to reinvent their whole way of life in the economic downturn, and food is the one thing in our lives that lends itself best to this kind of radical overhaul and reinvention. We can economise and do it better, whoever we are, however we live. Think of it like this: food and cooking is the one activity the whole family can, should and sometimes does join in together. It is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Somewhere in the backs of the minds of even the worst of worst cooks, deeply rooted in the DNA is the knowledge, the desire to provide for the table, to nurture their family with good food, make the best of what they can afford. Even if we used to cheat, skimp, and be lazy, it will now cost us dearer. We have to learn to do things differently and within our diminished means. Cooking is IN. So is staying in - it has become the new going out.

It also seems to have struck a chord with the teens-to-thirties who until the recession were happy to spend £60-£70 on dinner out, but have now switched camp to order a take-out Indian, Chinese or pizza. Old habits don't die hard, they shift with the tide, now they go for a £20 pizza. And line up the DVDs and tinnies for a night-out in. This information comes courtesy of the Detroit-based Domino's Pizza delivery chain, which is experiencing an upturn that flies totally in the face of what's happening to the restaurant business. However, that said, there has never been a better time to eat lunch out in a top restaurant, from here to Paris to New York. Richard Corrigan's brilliant new restaurant, Corrigan's, in London, offers a set lunch, two courses, with a carafe of wine, for £19.50. Many well-known, even Michelin-starred restaurants are offering similar deals. As scores of restaurants not offering value for money close, the smart ones rethink. I would like to predict that there will be a new breed of restaurateur who will emerge from the ashes of the recession, knowing that the cynical overcharging that became so much a part of our restaurant culture will be replaced by better food at fairer prices. The customer now expects more and will go further to eat better for less.

I spoke to Gerard Coleman of L'Artisan du Chocolat - for my money the most talented up-market chocolatier in the business - who is buoyant and upbeat enough to say, "Recession? Bring it on!" So here is another extraordinary fact in the fragile, faddy, culinary world. People are buying expensive chocolate, THE most expensive chocolate, and more of it, not less.

We all know what we do when we're up against the wall, emotionally or fiscally - we buy ourselves a treat. Gerard says that people are buying smaller treats but more of them, and in the world of ganaches and single-estate chocolate, we - I for one - are helpless to resist. There are some things that money just can't buy; good chocolate will never be one of them.