As we head towards the New Year, we’ve been looking over The Staff Canteen's most viewed articles from 2014.

In this first half, we’re taking a look back over January to June where we featured a range of topics including snails, futurist cooking and er porridge? First up on the list at 10 is:

10) Snails: the food of the future?

Beginning our list, we took a closer look at snails and their growing popularity in the UK. Read the full article here

Next on the list was this article from April:

9) Futurist cooking: was molecular gastronomy invented in the 1930s?

We shone a spotlight on Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, whose creative (and mad) cooking pre-empted the efforts of today’s molecular masters like Heston Blumenthal and Ferran Adria. Article here

Next is one of our profiles from the Great British Menu 2014:

8) The Scotland heat Of all our profiles of the year’s Great British Menu contestants, it was our Scotland heat which got the most attention. Read more here

Next Heston news from March:

7) Heston Blumenthal’s The Fat Duck to temporarily relocate to Australia

World-renowned restaurant The Fat Duck surprised many back in March when it announced a temporary move to Australia, starting in February 2015. More info about the move here

A feature from March up next:

6) Porridge: the life of a prison chef

Being a prison chef is difficult, but Gary Cope told us what makes the job so special and why he wants to stay there until he retires. Read more about his role here

One of our blogs next:

5) Dear diary: the reflections of a chef de partie working in a Michelin-starred kitchen

Our new feature, a diary from Camilla Waite, a chef de partie working at Michelin-starred Paul Ainsworth at Number 6, began in March, giving us an insight into the inner workings of a top restaurant. Read the first instalment from her blog here

Next a topic which caused debate:

4) Closing the Loop: Sat Bains and the push to save on food waste

This April editorial tackled the problem of food waste, and saw Sat Bains discuss his intriguing new food waste-reducing machine with us. It also sparked debate as we undertook a tweetup with Sat Bains himself, industry figures and you, our audience. Read more on the topic here An exclusive interview up next:

3) An Interview with Ferran Adrià

We secured an exclusive interview with Ferran Adria of 3 Michelin starred elBulli when he visited the UK in June to promote his book, elBulli 2005-2011. See what happened here Another entry from Heston up next:

2) Heston Blumenthal’s new restaurant, The Perfectionists’ Café to be unveiled this week

We brought you all the details when top chef Heston Blumenthal opened a new restaurant in June, located in Heathrow’s Terminal 2. Read more about it here And finally the article that gained the most views and interaction between January and June of this year:

1) Winner of World's 50 Best Restaurants is announced

In our most viewed article in the first half of the year, we brought you the list of the 2014 World’s 50 Best Restaurants, including all the winners and runners-up. See who the winner of this accolade was here

Look out for the most viewed articles from June to December coming tomorrow.

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