Why I wrote A Very Honest Cook

Walk into any bookshop these days and you’ll find huge piles of glossy celebrity chefs books but what happens to the hundreds of talented chefs and food writers who don’t happen to be on TV? I know one, Stephen Markwick, who’s spent a lifetime at the stove, most of it in Bristol where he’s run three restaurants - Bistro Twenty One, Markwicks and, currently, Culinaria.

He’s a gentle, self-effacing man but a wonderful cook. He learnt his trade from one of the most iconic chefs of recent times, George Perry-Smith of the Hole in the Wall who many regard as the father of Modern British cuisine. Perry-Smith was in turn inspired by Elizabeth David whose spirit still invades Stephen’s bold, colourful cooking.

It seemed to me a shame that such a talented chef's career should not be marked by a book so I suggested I should help him write one and that we should publish it ourselves. We didn’t want a huge book (Stephen is far too modest to contemplate that) so decided to publish it in two or three volumes of which the first, A Very Honest Cook, is out next week (November 19th).

The title was serendipitous. We’d been struggling with a name for the book and I eventually said in exasperation “Well, I’m sure something will come up when we get Simon’s (Simon Hopkinson’s) foreward - he’ll probably say he was a very honest cook or something like that.” And when the foreword came through that was exactly what he did say!

The book contains a number of Stephen’s best-loved recipes including his Provenal Fish Soup which is so popular that he never takes it off the menu. Other favourites are Leek and Cream Tart, Squid with Red Wine, Orange and Chilli, Beef Bourguignon, Braised Partridge with Cabbage, Bacon and Lentils and St Emilion au Chocolat, another Culinaria favourite from the George Perry-Smith days. In each case I’ve got Stephen to explain exactly what he does at every stage (chefs are notoriously vague about measurements!) so that the end dish ends up as closely as possible to the original.

With its personal anecdotes and asides this is a highly personal cookery book and one that deserved to be published. You can buy a copy from the online shop. I’m proud to have been involved in it.

Zalto glasses: so what's the angle?

Just as we get used to the idea that there is an ideal wine glass foreach grape variety along comes a producer who suggests the enjoyment isall in the angle of the glass.

The other night I want to a wine dinner at the house of Neville and Sonia Blech of Bacchus & Comus which featured a range called Denk' Art from an Austrian producer called Zalto which are mouth-blown (unfortunate expression but that’s what it says in the brochure) and lead-free which means that they can be washed in a dishwasher without going cloudy.

Their main USP though is their unusual shape which is based on a Roman amphora and utilises three angles that represent the angle of the earth to the sun - 24 48 and 72. Zalto claims this ancient design makes the wine taste fresher which would be hard to determine without comparing it with the same wine in different glasses. More persuasive is that the unusual width of the bowl at the point of the curve allows for the optimum surface space for a particular style of wine.

Of the glasses we tried I was most impressed by the Bordeaux glass which showed off a modest and still youthful Bordeaux, Chateau de la Ligne 2005, served in magnum, to perfection. The same wine was completely lost when I poured it into the Zalto Burgundy glass though that was perfect for a full-bodied Villa de Corulon 2000 Bierzo from Descendentes de J. Palacios.

I was less taken by the effect of the white wine glass on a seductive Grner Veltliner Rabenstein 2007 from Durnberg, a richly textured white that I felt would have showed better in a conventional white burgundy glass and by the champagne glass where I thought the angled bowl slightly flattened the mousse of a Pol Roger NV

To me the greatest appeal of the glasses lay in their touch. They were lovely to handle - featherlight, very fine-rimmed and curiously flexible apparently due to the fact that they are blown in one piece with only the base being attached at the end.

Compared to the Riedel Sommelier range they’re very reasonably priced at between £23 (for the sweet wine and port glasses) to £27.50 for the Bordeaux and Burgundy glasses. (Riedel’s Bordeaux and Burgundy glasses are £90 each.) 

Image source: zaltoglas.it

What to drink with squirrel

One of our subscribers sent me this link to a story that a Northumberland butcher is selling grey squirrel as fast as he can source them. This unappealing pest, which I seem to remember has also been featured on the menu of the iconic London restaurant St John, apparently tastes like wild boar or duck depending who you talk to.

The article includes a recipe for squirrel pasty. I’m tempted to recommend one of those ‘critter wines’ despite the fact that I was solemnly told the other day by a top British supermarket buyer that they’re not as popular as they once were.

Porcupine Ridge Syrah, maybe. If it genuinely does taste like boar, Fitou which is made in the heart of wild boar country down in the Languedoc might well be the answer. But given that it’s a pasty we’re talking about I think it’s got to be cider or beer. And sticking to our critter theme why not a Badger ale, brewed in Dorset by Hall and Woodhouse? Fursty Ferret sounds as if it would hit the spot. Or - perfect - Poacher's Choice.

Image credit: akspiel

What wine to drink with ratatouille?

Unless you’ve been walking round the underground with your eyes closed you can’t fail to have noticed the posters for the newly released (in the UK at least) Ratatouille - an animated film about a gastronomic rat. For entirely understandable reasons I couldn’t persuade my husband or any of my grown-up children to come with me to see it but it seems to have captured the imagination of the critics as well as the public - including in France where it's been a smash hit.

What wine goes with ratatouille?

So what do you drink with a rat-at-too-ee which, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is a Provencal vegetable stew of courgettes/zucchini, peppers and aubergine/eggplant. You’re most likely to be having some kind of meat with it too - probably something like some grilled lamb with rosemary, oregano, thyme and garlic.

Although Chateau Latour features in the film - and would probably go with the dish - it might be just a tad out-of- reach for everyday drinking so I suggest one of the following:

• A robust southern French red such as a Ctes-du-Roussillon
• A Costires-de-Nmes
• A Faugres from the Languedoc
• An inexpensive Syrah from France or Argentina would work pretty well too
• Or even a strong dry rosé like a Bandol

* According to Wikipedia, there were plans for Disney and Pixar to launch a French-produced wine into Costco under the Ratatouille label to coincide with the film’s release but they had to abandon the project when the California Wine Institute drew attention to regulations that restrict the use of cartoon characters on labels (to avoid attracting under-age drinkers)! Interestingly their choice of wine was a Burgundian Chardonnay - not the cleverest pairing!