Books I want....

It's slow days like this that draw my attention elsewhere and today it's been mostly drawn to Amazon and the cookery book section. I can't honestly remember the last book I purchased that wasn't about food. I think it was a rather crazy book called "Tomas" by James Palumbo who was the founder of the London superclub Ministry of Sound.

Brilliant book by the way, nothing to do with the dance music scene at all, it's a properly twisted fantasy about a psychotic murderer....strange really isn't the word but compelling reading nevertheless.



The first book I want was the reason I went to Amazon in the first place and it's "The French Brasserie Cookbook" by Daniel Galmiche whom I've had the pleasure of meeting a couple of times albeit very briefly. He's been along to the Eat Reading Live festival and demo'd for both of the years it's been running and he was recently back on the TV as a guest on Saturday Kitchen.

As executive chef at The Vineyard in Stockcross near Newbury he's taken classic French food and given it a contemporary twist using British ingredients, he's a massive fan of our coastal seafood and he has a real passion for supporting local producers and local events. All round top fella really and I just cannot do without his new book.

The next three books are linked to one of, if not "the" most famous and mostly decorated restaurants of all time El Bulli. The restaurant in Catalonia was opened way back in 1964 with legendary chef Ferran Adriá taking full reins in 1987 until it's "alleged" closure this year. It's whole future is pretty much shrouded in mystery and I don't think anybody other than Ferran Adriá truly knows what will happen. At the moment it is the El Bulli foundation but apparently it'll open as a restaurant once again in 2014.

The restaurant was mega exclusive in it's time, the entire final season was sold out in one day, that's 8000 covers to fill from 2 million requests....yep approximately 2 million people tried to book!!!

Not that it made an money mind you, it ran at a loss every year since 2000 with the most of it's funding coming from books, merchandise and public appearances by Mr Adriá himself. Hardly surprising for a restaurant that only used the absolute finest of ingredients and had the best part of 40 chefs in the kitchen at any one time serving up 30+ course meals at £174.00 a pop which I consider an absolute bargain.

The first of these two books "A Day at El Bulli" gives you an insight on how a day there actually worked and takes you into the mindset of not just Ferran Adriá himself but his whole team.

Next up is "The Family Meal" by Ferran Adriá. It's his latest offering and the title tells you what it's content will be about but other than that I'm not really sure as it's still a month away from release. Currently the only things I have relating to El Bulli in my house are a couple of bottles of flavoured oils bearing Adriá's moniker that I got from Wokingham food and drink festival a couple of weeks ago. I think perhaps having these books and those oils I might get about as close to the real El Bulli as I'm ever likely too.

















The final book of this trilogy is not from Adriá himself but from one of the young chefs working behind the scenes. "The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season at El Bulli" by Lisa Abend comes from the perspective of one of those 40+ kitchen chefs who graduate through the El Bulli academy.

I'm fascinated to know just how these guys and girls train in order to provide perfection day after day and just how much they can take from the experience and apply elsewhere. There must be some that are just completely broken by it's regime but others must thrive under the weight of expectation.

Apparently it only contains one recipe and that is there purely to highlight the work and thought that goes into each individual dish produced at El Bulli.



My final book choice is not exactly a new book but it's by one of my favourite modern day food writers Matthew Fort. "Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons: Travels in Sicily on a Vespa" was publish in 2009 and I vaguely remember watching another cooks program on TV when they actually bumped into Matthew on his Vespa when filming. At the time I thought to myself that I must look out for whatever book it was he was researching and today I found it.

I remember saying to somebody that although I love my Dad dearly and with all my heart if I ever had to choose somebody else to fill those shoes without hesitation it'd be Matthew Fort.......with Prue Leith as a step-mother :-)

Toodlepip xx