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Lookery books



If you're a serial offender in the cookery book purchase stakes (I declare right now that its more of an addiction than a hobby for me) you will, I'm sure, have many books that you have never cooked from ... or perhaps more tellingly only cooked from once.
In my collection many of these are actually amongst the best looking books in my collection, I have dubbed them 'Lookery' books. They lure you in with fabulous design, often combined with a cover that not only looks good but feels so good you want to lay your face on it.
In my collection many of them are from restaurants that I have enjoyed being to, loved the food and thought I must cook that at home. They are the culinary equivalent of ouzo and limoncello great when you're there not so great when you're back home ( actually limoncello isn't great anywhere)
This weekend I tried the Slanted Door by Charles Phan. We went to the restaurant, which is in the old ferry building in San Francisco when we were on the West Coast last year. Its great, don't let this review put you off if you happen to be in the area, but .......
This Saturday was a horrible day weather wise, I know, I thought, I'll cook something different, different cuisine and different book ... surprise myself.
Like many Asian recipes there's quite a lot of prep and then a last minute bringing together. I cooked a tuna tartare, Shaking beef and prawns with long beans. The tuna was fine but no better than any other tartare I had prepared before. The prawns were nice but the beans were basically raw and the beef ... well lets say no piece of fillet beef should end up tasting that way.

It didn't end up looking like the picture, it was a bit of a soupy mess of stewed beef and pondweed, which is a bit frustrating when you have spent a few hours 'labouring' away at it. I was as always grumpy about it and couldn't be consoled by Mrs Cook's entreaties that it 'tastes great'
The point of this is not to blame the book ... it's almost certainly my fault ... but sadly it had to be consigned to the lookery book section in my study not the one in the kitchen where the atual cookery books hang out.
It seems comfortable in the cookery book graveyard with my Manoir Quattre Saison book and a Locatelli or two. Its not that I wont look at them again, there will come a time when I need a respite from 'working at home' and i'll pick them up and slaver over the recipes ... I just wont cook from them.... well at least not for a while.
Theres a skill in putting together a really good cookbook, one that delivers every time but also surprises you. It's made Jamie Oliver a fortune, but shout-outs should also go to those restaurant owning chefs that can also deliver in the cookery book stakes. Rose Grey, Ruth Rogers, Yotam Ottollenghi, Sam and Sam clark, Bill Granger, April Bloomfield and Skye Gyngell I salute you and cover your books in stains





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