A Well-Run Kitchen: my second book with chef Stephen Markwick - and a few thoughts on self-publishing

It’s always great to have a new book out, particularly one you’ve published yourself and it’s been a real pleasure to work with Stephen, a chef I so much admire.

Our latest book A Well-Run Kitchen is now available from his and his wife Judy’s restaurant Culinaria in Bristol and online from the restaurant website. (We haven’t put it into bookshops because to be honest their terms are so unfair to small publishers (they expect a 40% discount on the cover price, don’t pay till 3 months or so after they sell the book and have the right to return any books that are unsold. In whatever condition they’re in. And as for Amazon . . . their terms are 60% off the cover price (we were offered 55% as a ‘concession’) and they then discount to a level that totally undermines your market for direct sales.

Anyway, enough of a rant! The book completes the project I started with Stephen and Judy some eighteen months ago when we decided to put down his best loved recipes in not one but two books* - the rationale being that everyone who came to the restaurant could afford a copy which wouldn’t have been the case if we’d priced it at 20 or 25. (It's just 12.)

The recipes include a fair number of spring and summer ones - like cucumber fritters, and summer pudding but also several that can be made at any time of year like mezze, twice baked cheese souffls and - one of my all-time favourites - salmon in pastry with currants and ginger.

The name of the book stemmed from the fact that Stephen’s kitchen is irreproachably frugal. He buys top quality ingredients but uses every bit of them - a lesson he learned well from his two mentors George Perry-Smith and Joyce Molyneux who has written the foreword to this book. There’s also an essay from Judy about the art of good restaurant service - and, believe me, it doesn’t just happen.

I took the photographs as well as helping Stephen with the text and the book was also designed in Bristol by a local designer Dean Purnell who has put his individual stamp on it. (As it was a two part project we liked the idea of having two different looks - rather like collector’s editions).

The recipes I’m sure are ones you’ll enjoy and come back to again and again. Do buy it!

* Stephen’s first book is called A Very Honest Cook and like the latest one is available from the restaurant.

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