Many years back, I spent a weekend in a farm cottage in Lancashire and asked the farmer’s wife where the best place was to eat. She suggested the local pub, where you could “gut yourself for a fiver”. Some recommendation, eh?

Sure enough, the portions were massive – and equally inedible. What particularly sticks in my mind was the salad – a massive bowl with three-inch layers of iceberg lettuce, cucumber, cress and tomatoes. And that was it. No dressing, nothing. It was like chewing on a tub of tasteless rabbit food. And you wonder why we don’t eat more salad in this country.

Iceberg lettuce has to have the worst reputation of the lot – limp, watery and devoid of any flavour, it’s the classic bit of garnish you’d leave at the bottom of your prawn cocktail. Or it was until now. It may come as a shock, but let me tell you, iceberg is back. They’ve completely changed the way they grow it, and the result is stunning.

Some salad leaves die on you as soon as you bite into them, but modern iceberg is full of crunch and flavour. And, as the Chinese have long known, it is incredibly versatile. It’s not just for salads: you can put it in springrolls, you can roast it, you can wilt it like spinach.

At Claridge’s, we toss it in a hot frying pan for about 15 seconds, add a bit of seasoning – sometimes a pinch of curry powder – and serve it as a bed to braised turbot or seafood ravioli. At this time of year, it would work really well with spring chicken, too. So before you reach for those packets of rocket or mizuna, give the humble iceberg another chance.

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