Soul food: Thomasina Miers on her grandmother's waffles My Texan grandmother was an amazing woman. She was a model and had lots of glamorous clothes - and stories. Dirk Bogarde once bought her a drink in New York, which he sent over with a note saying, 'What an incredible outfit!' Every holiday I visited her house in Wales with my parents, twin brother and elder sister, and pottered around in her outfits. She had an amazing walk-in wardrobe and kept all her clothes immaculately. As I got older she would send me off with flared jeans, cotton shirts with big collars from the 1970s, or an Ossie Clark suit. A ritual of our visits was making waffles with bacon and maple syrup. She had an old-fashioned waffle iron, the type you put over a gas fire, and ordered streaky bacon from the butcher, sliced wafer-thin so it really crisped up - just as she had it when she was growing up. I held the record for packing away eight waffles in one sitting. It was from my grandmother that I learnt how to beat egg whites until they're stiff, fold them carefully into the batter with a metal spoon, and get the iron smoking hot before adding butter - the basics of cooking. She and I were close. I inherited many of her clothes and still wear them today. I went to a state banquet at Buckingham Palace in one of her Christian Dior dresses and really felt she was there with me. I look forward to passing them on to my daughter.