Ketchup, chilli oil, even kimchi: the Sunday roast is up for negotiation. The potatoes, it turns out, are not. A few quiet rules for hosting a table that spans generations, and my recipe for the perfect roast potato.

The last of the summer tomatoes, at their gluttonous best. No water, ever, and the whole tub of crème fraîche. Croutons made by the children, figs the way my grandmother served them, and my recipe for the soup I always come back to.