Cookery writer Damien Trench has all the ingredients for a perfect life. He lives in a delightful house in a nice part of London with his committed partner Anthony, and between writing cookery books, 'keeping house', and monitoring the work being carried out by his builder, Mr Mullaney, he barely has time to fit in anything else. He certainly hasn't time to give any thought to writing a column for a supermarket, Waitsbury's, that his agent Iain Frobisher is keen for him to do, especially as it's the builder's birthday coming up, and of course, he has to bake him a cake. But when Anthony takes up a new diet - a twist on the 'cabbage soup' diet, involving copious quantities of courgettes - Damien is piqued into taking the Waitsbury's job to rail against fad diets, and his world starts to collapse like a slowly cooling souffle.

Valentine's Day in the Trench household is marked by it being the one day of the year when cookery writer Damien Trenchis not allowed in the kitchen, so that his partner Anthony can prepare a romantic meal in private. Problem is, despite Damien's best intentions he simply cannot stop himself trying to get into the kitchen to see what Anthony is cooking. What's more, he really should be getting on with other things - he has an entire script to write for a forthcoming documentary series about the culinary habits of the nation's great poets, called 'Poets and their Palates'. But when plans for the series are thrown into doubt, and Damien is thrown out of the kitchen - and out of the house - he is forced to accompany his builder Mr Mullaney into a brave new world, and discovers that the answer to one's problems can lie in the most unlikely of places.

Cookery writer Damien Trench believes life should be simple, like one of his recipes. All he wants to do today, for example, is get the washing done. The problem is that his partner Anthony will not stop badgering him about getting a lodger, something Damien is keen to resist for the simple fact that he wants to keep the spare room as it should be, namely spare. When his literary agent Iain Frobisher asks Damien to write a restaurant review, something he is also keen to resist, Damien soon realises that sadly there is no simple recipe for life.