Charlie Trotter

Charlie Trotter was a legend. A dynamic, new age, American chef who had an incredible career. He displayed a modern way of thinking about cooking that was light, technical and complicated—something new and not seen before. His book, simply titled Charlie Trotter was one of many he published, but I used to pine over this one and think: one day I will work there. He was intelligent, with a degree in political science, and he ate out a lot, learning his craft by watching and eating. 

Sadly, I never managed to eat or work there but a few friends did. He was a hard chef, who ruled the kitchen with a firm but fair approach, but what was being produced looked incredible. I was so lucky to launch one of his cookbooks with him (when I was cooking at the Atrium in Edinburgh, gosh, almost 25 years ago) along with dear Clarissa Dickson Wright of Two Fat Ladies fame, who also owned The Cooks Bookshop in the Grassmarket, here in Edinburgh. 

Charlie seemed a quiet man, with an air of seriousness about him. He signed my books and told me to cook in the moment, something I shall never forget. Plus, he quite liked the canapés I had made him. Sadly, Charlie passed away a few years ago, but I was honoured to have met such a great man who cooked food with a bold, new approach but retained classical integrity. 

A lot of chefs have this book, they will read it and drool over the photography by Tim Turner. The image of ‘A Study in Apricot’ will always haunt me as I have contemplated making it, but then saw the prep list…

Cooking by Jeremy Lee

It's is a new addition to my collection this week, but trust me, there are plenty of books to go. Cooking by Jeremy Lee is a great book with wonderful recipes. There are no pretentious, silly little things that take weeks to prepare here; it is just proper food, well-sourced and simply served. From his chicken, leek and tarragon pie, sardines on toast with a fried egg, to some very good baking and delicious-sounding biscuits plus instructions on how to create a steam pudding. 

Jeremy is a fellow Scot. He hails from Dundee and is an absolute hoot: larger-than-life, full of energy and very loud. He has a great personality. He’s chef/proprietor at Quo Vadis in Soho, London and dusts a sprinkle of Scottishness on his menus. I went to Terra Madre with Slow Food in 2006 and he was part of our group, and we shared many happy times and meals. An ex-chef of mine, Calum, who comes from Clachtoll up the west coast, is now cooking with him at Quo Vadis.

I am new to the book so haven’t tried any of the recipes yet, but the classics are there. This book covers a lot, and it is a book you will use, with beautiful photography and illustrations.

Roast Chicken and other Stories by Simon Hopkinson

This book is an all-time classic, and multi-award winning garnering the André Simon Award in ‘94 and Glenfiddich Award in ’95. Many good cooks and chefs will have this in their bookshelf or in their kitchen. 

Roast Chicken and other Stories by Simon Hopkinson is a real find. A quintessential cook’s cookbook. Simon cooked at Bibendum, then at Hilare on Brompton Road in London. A place I fondly remember eating at when I was in London being interviewed for the William Heptinstall Award, many years ago.

There are simple dishes to be made from this book, and others a bit more technical, but overall, it’s a book for everyone. He has a chapter on sweetbreads, a long forgotten and utterly delicious part of an animal that’s so hard to find these days. But I adore a veal sweetbread, breaded and fried with a tartare sauce. There’s also a fabulous lamb sweetbread blanquette recipe. Another chapter focuses on parsley, with a few stories on the origin of curly parsley with a couple of recipes. It is brilliant.

There’s a delicious recipe for omelette Arnold Bennet—created at the Savoy—containing hollandaise sauce, béchamel, smoked haddock and cream. It’s so rich, but wonderful. I ate this omelette a few years ago after I was asked to cook a private dinner at the fabulous hotel. 

I think if I was starting out in a restaurant kitchen, I would have this book by my side as a guide. I will take it to bed tonight for inspiration. I love the bit about making a brine using rainwater or mineral water, a recommendation from Jane Grigson. Simon was the first of the proper cooks.

A Handbook of Scotland’s Wild Harvests by Fi Martynoga

A Handbook of Scotland’s Wild Harvests is essentially a guidebook to all things edible that grow around us in northern Britain. It’s beautifully put together and edited by a good friend Fi Martynoga, who famously lived for a year as an 18th-century woman—in a cottage at the bottom of her garden, with no mod cons!

It’s a superb, informative guide with an introduction from Emma Chapman and contributors dotted all the way through offering ideas for what to do with various berries, mushrooms, trees and more. There are also plenty of insights into basketry, broom making, green woodworking and log stacking—some of my favourite pastimes. 

This book is a perfect companion for anyone who ventures outdoors and wants to make the most of their surroundings. Did you know, for example, that a wild cherry in Scotland is called a gean; that gathering birch twigs to form a broom stick (like a witch’s one) was common until not long ago; bracken was used for thatching; and that we ate pignuts and all sorts of wild leaves like burdock root and sea buckthorn. 

There are recipes too, running all the way through the book, for teas, infusions, mushrooms and more. So plenty of ideas for what to do with what you find. I was delighted to be asked to write a few words ago for the back cover when this book was published—a very proud moment for me, as the late Andrew Fairlie was asked too. This book is a must, for all.

Cuisine Actuelle, presenting the cuisine of Joel Robuchon by Patricia Wells

I’ve chosen a great read this week: Cuisine Actuelle, presenting the cuisine of Joel Robuchon by Patricia Wells. As a young chef, I used to read it often before going to sleep. The fact that this chef became so popular for his mashed potato, or pomme purée, is testament to the simple cooking here. 

A perfectionist, Joel famously held 31 Michelin Stars and I so wish I had gone to Paris to work with him all those years ago. His style was classic but with a simplistic approach. His plating of dishes was superb and he made food look wonderful. In this book you’ll find a brilliant collection of his recipes written by Patricia Wells, a highly-respected food writer and former restaurant critic for the New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. 

Joel had many restaurants dotted across the world and was a regular on French TV. He was a powerful figure in the culinary world and the chair of the committee of Larousse Gastronomique. Sadly he passed away in 2018 aged 73. This is a book that I don’t read or look at that often, but when I do, it reminds me of a time when I was reading everything I could about food. Do have a go at making his pomme purée.

La Potiniere and Friends by David and Hilary Brown

La Potiniere and Friends is a wonderful cookery book. It’s not a book of fancy pictures, it’s a book of good recipes, from a time I remember well. David and Hilary Brown ran this quaint little restaurant in Gullane, East Lothian, and in it's day it was a place to go and eat great food. Service was unobtrusive, and as there was only David and Hilary running the place, standards were kept up. 

I recall eating there when I worked on The Royal Scotsman train. I was taken there by my boss, Stephen Coupe. It was glorious and I had a hallelujah moment. I dined on a delicious sole mouse and butter sauce, then wild duck breast with cabbage and bacon, fondant potatoes and a wonderful sauce, a piece of brie at perfect temperature with biscuits, finishing with a lemon tart for pudding. It was flawless. 

The book takes you on a journey through their food history of holidays in France with stories and anecdotes. They were quite a couple, and although I didn’t get to know them well, they always ate in places I was working. It was a great time and their book is a lovely addition to any collection. The few images there are provide a snapshot of what it was like to eat there. It’s still a great restaurant, but not run by these chaps anymore.

Nose To Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson

Nose To Tail Eating, A Kind Of British Cooking by Fergus Henderson with an introduction by guess who? Anthony Bourdain. This book has quite simply changed how many of us now eat out in Britain. How we cook, buy food and where we like to go and eat, is down to a few people. Fergus Henderson is admired by so many chefs and cooks, and along with his wife Margot, who cooks at Rochelle Canteen, and Trevor Gulliver who looks after the wine, they have changed so much. 

I have eaten his food many times and read his books. He has an intelligent, thoughtful ability to showcase ingredients and be brave by doing as little as possible to them, just cooking and serving them simply in humble surroundings with good wine and bread. His food isn’t technical but there is a touch of genius. For instance, a bone marrow and parsley salad with toast, a thing sent from the gods. A plate of yesterday’s cold roast meat with a few leaves, perfectly dressed in his ingenious dressing with that mustard kick that I love. A slice of terrine and cornichons. It's mind-blowing stuff and if there is a god, thank you for creating this place. If I could, I genuinely would eat in one of his restaurants every day. 

But if you eat at many restaurants throughout the UK, there will be a lesson learnt from this book in there somewhere. Even the fancy chefs who put dots on rocks for you to lick on a 37-course tasting menu eat there on their day off, because it is proper food. I ate there once and Thomas Keller, the great American chef, was on the next table. St John has a Michelin star but I feel it should have 3. 

Some folk don’t get it, and baulk at eating ox heart and chips, but it is truly delicious. There are no prima donnas here, and no tweezers in the kitchen. The front-of-house staff wear chef jackets, there is no art hanging, the place is very austere, the wine is excellent, I could go on…

This is a book that many will own and use as it has a great list of Fergus’ recipes that work. It’s as strong a book and as ‘go-to’ today as it has ever been. Remember, St John opened 30 years ago! If you go to London, please eat in one of their places.

A Blanc Christmas by Raymond Blanc

A Blanc Christmas by Raymond Blanc. This is a lovely festive collection of seasonal recipes, A glorious treat with some simple and stunning showstoppers to pull out of the bag for the table when friends and family are round. Some classics are here like turkey and Christmas pudding, and it's all warmed up by having images of roaring fires and decorated mantlepieces.

It’s a great book, well put together with great images and sadly one I only flick through once a year. Blanc does do a good cookbook and I am huge admirer. His place Le Manoir Aux ‘Quat Saisons is beautiful, with a kitchen garden to die for and the house itself is just stunning.

I will never forget when I worked for him, I turned up in an old MG and walked in the front door. Reception was horrified! I was soon rushed around the back to the kitchens. Chefs weren’t allowed to be seen in those days, now look at us.

Packed full of wintry dishes, using seasonal produce all readily available, it’s a great book to have in the library to feel that hint of Christmas magic as you flick through the pages.

The River Cafe Cookbook

Many of you will know and own this book. It was gifted to me in ’96 by Adrian, The Royal Scotsman train manager. The River Cafe Cookbook was a big hit when it was first published in the mid-90s. It was a time of simplicity, head-to-head with haute cuisine.

The restaurant in Hammersmith is notorious for being tricky to get a table, and guests have to leave by 10.30 at night as it’s in a residential area. The dishes are expensive, and rightly so as the produce is of exceptional quality.

The book was one of the first that didn’t bother too much about how pretty a dish looked. It was tasty Italian food, using incredible produce. I often mention the meals I have eaten there; squid with chilli and rocket, lamb with salsa verde. The chicken with mascarpone, prosciutto and lemon stuffed just under the skin is mind-blowing, full of flavour and so tasty. The vignole is a dish I have cooked many times, not great to look at, but it has the beauty of ingredients all working in harmony. It’s an orchestra on a simple, white plate with lashings of olive oil.

The controversy at the time of publication came in the form of the chocolate nemesis recipe. It gave many a yuppie, night terrors as their recipe “didn’t work”. It does, and I make it a lot as it’s heavenly. And that piece of gorgonzola I ate there a few years back, made me weep with joy. This book is a must in every home, written by Rose Gray and Ruth Rodgers, two fabulous chefs. Sadly, Rose is no longer with us, but Ruth is still there cooking, and just being so cool.

A Taste of Australia, The Bathers Pavilion Cookbook

This is a stunning example of what the food scene was like in the early to mid-nineties in Australia. A Taste of Australia, The Bathers Pavilion Cookbook has always been a go-to book for me for its cool vibe. It was ahead of its time, as hot young chefs in the UK like Marco Pierre White were still classically French based. 

Here we have sunshine, beaches and elegant table settings. The food is so simple with combinations like barramundi (an Aussie fish) with a coconut curry sauce—a dish I would devour whilst appreciating the melting pot of cultures in this beautiful country. The chilli salt squid is wonderful, and there are European influences with baked eggs and sweet baked ricotta, or tzatziki and hummus.

Victoria Alexander and Genevieve Harris did a great job creating this restaurant near Sydney, with Harris described as “a perfectionist”, and a chef of “incredible finesse and refinement”. It felt like a slice of the Mediterranean down under. A wonderful book to cook from. 

The food photography is simple and elegant, and the drawings reflect the colours of this beautiful land. I had such fun cooking in Australia and still miss it. But flicking through this book brings back many wonderful memories of happy times and lovely tastes.