The way he deals with the inevitable rumours about his sexuality ("Who does it hurt if someone thinks I'm gay"?) is wonderfully beguiling, and that's before we've even started on his humanitarian work in Darfur and Haiti, not to mention his friendship with President Obama, recently in the news following Clooney's bust-up with Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn.
So far, each of Ireland, Scotland, the United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan have acquitted themselves wonderfully, with Ireland beating West Indies, and the two best contested and closest matches coming between Ireland and UAE and Scotland and Afghanistan.
A narrow win for Bayern Munich on the night – and a comfortable Barcelona victory overall – was just reward for Luis Enrique's team, who were again wonderfully supple and incisive in attack when it mattered.
"At first the Germans thought they were being generous to the Jews, allowing us to play," says Anka. "Then they saw how wonderfully the music was played, and presumably had the idea to stage performances, and make films, for the outside world".
Above all it's wonderfully written and utterly compelling.
The difference really comes in the marinades, which range from the wonderfully simple – Rosemary Brissenden's garlic, ginger and light soy sauce version in South East Asian Food – to the fiendishly complex: Vongerichten's involves 11 ingredients, David Thompson's Thai Street Food and Saveur magazine10 apiece, almost all of which require toasting or chopping and grinding before use.
I do like Stein's black pepper, though, and his wonderfully zesty kaffir lime leaves, which, like the lemongrass used by Thompson, imbue the chicken with a lovely perfumed freshness.
There's also the worry that this wonderfully welcoming community club will lose its soul in the financially driven world of the Premier League.
Because uni is where you do stupid things that you think you'll regret forever (like studying philosophy in the middle of a recession, great idea), but actually, looking back, you realise that it was all properly, wonderfully brilliant.
At Laura's Spice Farm we watched humming birds dart among the more recognisable sage, thyme, basil and aloe vera, but also the wonderfully named Jump Up and Kiss Me.
I was far too busy to watch the tennis (and anyway, even my best contact there couldn't get me a ticket) but I did spend a wonderfully boozy afternoon at the Friars Club in Manhattan, with the editor of Cinema Retro magazine, Lee Pfeiffer.
