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Preface

I think it is probably fair to say that a good proportion of readers tackling cookery books written by professional chefs do so with some degree of trepidation. The glossy photographs may appeal and so might some, or even most, of the recipes, but how much of the book’s material will be doable at home? Will the ingredients be readily available? Will the techniques required be too advanced and will attempts at said recipes end in sorry, sodden and salty failure? Well, let me assure you, in my experience there are plenty of cooking nightmares lived out daily in even the most highly regarded restaurant kitchens. We under- and overcook things, burn pastry occasionally, tempers rise as soufflés fall and errant dishes get chucked towards the bin – invariably with indecent velocity. The distinction to be made at professional level is that our failures never reach the paying customer and it is only when dishes are practised and refined that the ability is grasped to knock them out with the necessary degree of speed and skill. If your earnest attempts at some of the food in this book turn out a little less appetisingly than you had hoped for, please don’t despair, and take heart in the notion that, for you to be a good cook, the broth might get spoiled a few times along the way. In short, we all make mistakes, but what we need to do in cookery, as in any other worthwhile activity I guess, is to apply some common sense and learn from them.