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

We thawt about it........

OH Please excuse the terrible pun in the posts title.....It'll make sense in a bit.

We decided after much discussion that we would withdraw our interest in the house we viewed on Monday. Good sense prevailed because we asked ourselves do we really need to move? Are we in anyway unhappy with where we are? Can we really afford it?

All answers were "No"

Fair enough we don't really have room to swing a cat in our Victorian terrace (however tempting it is) and the extra elbow room would have been nice. Having an extra room for the newbie would also have been a bonus but ultimately, as it usually does, it all comes down to finances. I'm sure we could have it and get by but there might be times when funds get a little tight which can bring tension into the household and it's just not worth risking our current harmonious lifestyle especially when we've got little "name to be announced soon" on the way.

So with that I shall move onto the foodie bit and an interesting article that I came across from the New York Times after following a link on Twitter from Fiona Beckett AKA @food_writer.

The article is written by a true legend of the culinary world Harold McGee. This guy has almost single handedly revolutionised the way the worlds top chefs think about cooking and is an inspiration to people like Heston Blumenthal and Ferran Adrià.

The topic covers the benighted ideas behind the thawing out of frozen meat. For those a little bit concerned about which are the safest and quickest ways of doing this the article (follow this link) is a very good read.

I have mentioned it before but I will do so again because if you are reading this and are serious about food in anyway then you really need to get yourselves a copy of this book.....in fact both of these books -
















I'm now thinking about food and what to make for this evenings supper. I'm feeling the urge to come up with a new recipe. I'm thinking seasonally of course but also thinking something that will fit in with the dietary requirements of my beautifully radiant and expectant other half.........so ERM.....lots of thinking.

Stay tuned for tomorrows exciting episode ...... toodlepip xx

Fatherhood...

I'm sure that the joys of fatherhood and being around your offspring even when they are doing your head in is something that any doting dad would never want taken away. However have you ever seen the look on a young fathers face when an impromptu free evening pass to the pub is gifted to them?

I saw that very emotion last night when my good buddy was informed that his lovely wife had exited her friends house to find that the car had broken down and that she had to stay there for the night with the kids.

Never seen a face light up like it before, the realisation that those cheeky couple of beers after work had the makings of a full night out. What followed were the immortal words "Brilliant, I'm going to drop the car off and walk back here.....Get me a pint in."

"You're my best mate", "My home is my home" and "One more thing" were soon being uttered as well which is why my head was a little hazy this morning but feeling fabbo now.

Got some pub news too, well kind of. I called the area manager of Greene King to ask if he knew of any reason why the current people had not got back to me, perhaps illness or holiday etc etc but he said he wasn't aware of anything but he would himself contact them to see what the hold up is so that's good progression.

The overall feeling I got from our conversation is that we are certainly their number one choice for taking it on and although he's not allowed to comment as whether other parties are involved the overriding impression I got was that there wasn't anybody but still it would be futile to expect that as fact.

At the end of the day (damn I hate that phrase) regardless of who is put forward by the current people the final decision is made by the landlords who are Greene King. Now that they know we have put an offer in and are keen to get an answer and get in ASAP we will at least be in their minds when decision time comes.

Went to the restaurant show at Earls Court yesterday and it was a very good experience, unfortunately we couldn't get a reservation in the super duper restaurant as it was already fully booked but that did mean we could get to watch the demo by Ashley Palmer-Watts who is the Head chef at Heston Blumenthals Fat Duck and soon to be heading up HB's newest venture at the Mandarin Hotel.

He said at the start that he'd be making something simple................hmmmmmmm. Not so sure that a couple of dishes with a combined cooking time of about 4 days is all that simple but I suppose when you have three Michelin stars you can say those kind of things.

I came out of there with some good things stored in the memory banks. There was a great speech by a guy called Xavier Rousset who is the co-owner and Sommelier at the Michelin starred London restaurant Texture. He spoke very well about how to make a good margin on wine but also to make it fairly priced. He also gave tips of creating a wine list, which wines to stock and general service and presentation skills that will boost sales.

In that section there was also a company from Hungary who had bought over a selection of wines they produce using mainly grape varieties unique to Hungary, a couple of these wines were absolutely outstanding and I did resist the temptation to ask if some of the reds were actually whites before the chemical spill.

Got loads and loads of the usual bumpf associated with these things and I apologise now to K & B for the amount of crap they might very well receive through the letterbox as the barcodeing system mean't that all the exhibitors had to do was zap you when you showed a remote interest in anything which I assume links straight back to the registrations.

There was also a stand in the drinks quarter being hosted by Estrella Damm and they in conjuntion with Ferran Adrià (Chef and owner of El Bulli. 5 times voted as best restaurant in the world) have created a dining beer called "Inedit" and I have to say it is very very nice and very easy to drink with a strong floural nose and hoppy flavour, if you ever see some out and about you have to give it a go.

My main take home (to coin a phrase) was that I need to get practising and get mastering the sous vide way of cooking. It a technique of cooking food in a vacuum which makes food retain 100% of it's flavour and goodness seeing as there is no air or water being circulated around it diluting the bits that we want to keep.

Might be a bit of an expensive outlay seeing that you need a vacuum packing machine and a water bath but I feel it's just something I need to get if I'm going to take my cooking to the next level....................I'm just trying to convince myself arn't I? Dammit !!!