A TIME FOR LOVIN'
22 December, 2009
Christmas is unusual for two reasons this year. First, I'm not cooking. Secondly, I am spending it with family. Both
of which anyone who knows me will understand are uncharacteristic. But I am thrilled on both counts. Contrary to
popular expectation, I love being cooked for. And don't care if it's Chateaubriand or beans on toast. The
pleasure of sitting at a table, nicely tucked in, awaiting a plateful of food prepared by someone else is always a
treat. The only standards I apply to food made for me are the love with which it
is prepared and the affection with which it is served.
Among the adorable delicacies cooked by friends over the past year there has been venison soup after a walk on the
Heath with those anarchic Boxers, iced chocolate truffles in Peckham, the freshest Lindisfarne oysters at a glamorous
Northumberland wedding, a crab sandwich with crisps in Devon, divine paella on a suffocating Spanish evening,
wintry cassoulet at the verger's and fried eggs in a summer garden. Each dish a triumph because of
the love and care put into producing them. Which is exactly what it's all about.
And which is what so often restaurants forget. Looking back across the year to the places where the Belgian and I
have dined, this has been my greatest disappointment. Food served by people who have no real affection for it or
kunderstanding of it. Inevitably, however astounding the culinary creativity, it always fails to satisfy. When
great food dances with love, the experience is lasting perfection. But when it is served with either insouciance
or arrogance it looses its taste.
Restaurateurs forget we know about food these days. In fact, many of us can cook at least as well as most average
restaurants. I don't only eat out for the food but for the experience. What I am looking for is grace and charm.
I want to be looked after. To be made to feel that I couldn't possibly have spent this time better anywhere else.
But it doesn't have to be either poncey or overly in-yer-face. The Wolseley does this with ineffable style.
Their collected friendliness never makes you feel anything but a million dollars. And at my new favourite
Leila's in Calvert St, the eggs with serrano ham are unsurpassed and the sweet boys smile wanly
and warmly.
In May we stumbled across the Pa i Trago on the fringe of the Poble Sec in Barcelona full to the brim of
pensioners at lunch, served by old timer waiters who know the game. Put the food first, not the attitude. In the
same spirit at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, dishes are proffered with care and enthusiasm. The ethos here is about
giving young people with few life chances an opportunity to succeed. This lends the place such positive energy
and translates to the food and to the service. Both delicious.
By contrast Conran's Boundary is just too cool for school. The food is fairly faultless but the place is run with
such dismissive hauteur, I'd rather be round the corner at Mama Irene in Shoreditch. She's a fabulous Thai lesbian
in her sixties, who grows her food on an allotment and serves it up in a greasy spoon just off the High St, where
the walls are adorned with a collection of truly hideous Sapphic paintings. Notwithstanding, the conversation,
the spring rolls and the sea-bass with mango are works of art.
Honesty and love are also the sustenance of the family. A joy that has rather avoided me for one reason or another
until now. For the first time, the Belgian and I are spending Christmas Day with his mother. She's nervous and
excited. But she has declared my marmalade the best she has ever tasted. So we're off to a good start. It has
also been a great triumph this year to finally resolve differences among my siblings. Thanks to the courage of
our mother, my favourite cooking genius and kitchen despot, her children have finally found happy resolution
and that is to be celebrated at a giant Boxing Day lunch. Best of all I'm not cooking.
Lang may your lum reek, as they say.
TENDER WORDS
Tender (2009) tells the story of Nigel Slater's love affair with his garden in
Islington and the many seedlings he has raised in his box-hedged vegetable patches. It’s a magnificent volume, like a medieval knightly
treatise with pictures of his Eden, its produce and many of the recipes he has created from them.
23 May, 2010
FOOD FROM THE HEART
Cooking is a basic human instinct. We’ve been eating, chopping, shaping, flavouring, enticing ingredients into something delicious
since time began. But as the way many of us live has changed, the basic skills we require to cook, are no longer valued and it’s often easier to
let others take control of what we eat.
21 April, 2010
IN A RIGHT FISH STEW
This week we had sustainable fish stew. It’s a quick and easy way to feed a gang of hungries on a Friday night and
doesn’t need much else but some good bread and wine. Like all stews, you need balance, rich liquid and a range of potent flavours steaming
from your pot.
15 March, 2010