The Sportsman by Stephen Harris

The Sportsman in Whitstable, Kent, is on my list of places that I simply must visit. You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a run-of-the-mill pub by the sea, but they have been awarded a Michelin star, and many other accolades. 

Chef Stephen Harris’s wonderful cookbook illustrates his simple yet elegant approach to food.  The act of cooking simply, is not as easy as it sounds. Ingredients must be considerately bought, prepared, cooked and served, and this cookbook epitomises seasonal British cooking. 

Stephen is from the Mark Hix camp: take a few ingredients and serve them well. I so admire this approach. It doesn’t have to be Nordic-inspired or copied and pasted from another chef. No fancy frivolities here, just some old wooden tables and linen napkins. It all sounds perfect, and the light will be spectacular at all times of year. 

Harris’s recipe for greengage soufflé with greengage ripple ice cream almost brings a tear to my eye. I wish more places would do this. You will struggle to find something like this anywhere else. I must go there. Who said cooking is an emotional experience…

Patisserie by Michel and Albert Roux

The Roux Brothers have been at the vanguard of restaurants for many decades. The wealth of knowledge those guys had was astonishing. I was lucky to have worked with Michel at The Waterside Inn in Bray and met Albert a few times, who had Le Gavroche, and each restaurant had 3 Michelin Stars. 

My father always said, “work with the Roux Brothers”, they were culinary royalty. Totally focused on quality and determined to make food better in Britain in the early ’70s. Patisserie will always be a go-to for me, and thousands of chefs and cooks from my era and today. There are the simplest of recipes, and the basics are covered, but the more elaborate desserts are shown off very well too. This book stands the test of time, and even to this day, I go to it if I’m stuck or need to learn how to do something. 

The pastry section at The Waterside Inn was a separate area on the other side of the pass and it was so perfectly clinical. A showstopper was produced every day, and the chefs were so proud of their work. It was a tough kitchen to work in, and I was only there during a winter whilst working on the Royal Scotsman train, but I learned a huge amount. Alain Roux was my go-to guy, and he was wonderful to work with.

I love the photography in this book, even the cover is brilliant. They look so young! Step-by-step instructions with lavish photography so even the modest cook can make a mouth-watering confection after reading this book. To think Michel was Chef de Cuisine for the Rothschild family, and he offered me a business opportunity all those years ago based on me serving him white truffle risotto, foie gras terrine with brioche, and scallops with leek purée and black truffle. But, I don’t remember what pudding he had!

The Merchant House by Shaun Hill

I really admire this book from the great Shaun Hill, who I remember meeting many, many years ago at an event. One of the UK’s finest chefs and most renowned in the industry, he is up there in the world of chefs. Many look up to him and respect his ability to put a few ingredients on a plate and make it work so well. 

He became well known cooking at Gidleigh Park in Devon, and when he saw an opportunity to move to Ludlow to open the Merchant House he jumped at it, and went on to gain the second Michelin star of his career. I wonder if that cooking would gain a star now? I hope so. 

His recipes aren’t overworked, but spot on. A message to us all that simple food can be enjoyable, elegant and sophisticated. Sometimes it was just him in the kitchen and it’s amazing to think what he achieved. His recipe for caramel and apple tart is wonderful and so delicious. The pastry is just bang on. His boldness to cook a simple, whole partridge shows the intelligence of the man. 

Filled with great photography by Jason Lowe (who has received many an award and worked on many publications), this book is perfect for the home cook as most of the recipes are easy-to-follow. Shaun is still cooking at 77, at The Walnut Tree Inn in Abergavenny (made famous years ago by another great chef, Franco Taruschio), which shows how driven he is.

Hors d’oeuvre and Cold Table by William Heptinstall

This week I’m mentioning a book that has a very personal meaning to me. My father gave it to me in 1975 with a lovely inscription inside. Hors d’oeuvre and Cold Table by William Heptinstall, a chef of legendary status. He ran the Fortingall Hotel in Glen Lyon for decades that was quite famous in the 50s and 60s as the place to go. 

He left funds on his death so that every year, a sum of money—to help with transport and accommodation—would go to a young chef to further his career. I applied for this William Heptinstall Award in about 1989 and was sent to London to be interviewed by a group of very serious people in a boardroom at the International Food and Wine Society, near Harrods. I had a lovely lunch at Hilaire, where Brian Webb was cooking, and I still remember his cod dish. 

There are so many dishes in this book that I don’t know where to start. I love the chapter on flesh and meat with variants of hard-boiled eggs and instructions for so many things like smoking and pickling. It’s a good book for the budding cook or gourmand, and I particularly enjoy his terminology: salade de pieds anyone? (made with calves’ feet, pigs’ feet and sheep’s trotters). This is a rare book and one I hold very dear in my collection.

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.