Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many

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My parents were on holiday in Canberra at that time and saw Hawke and Murdoch walking together at parliament house on a Sunday when few were around. His talent as a tutor is founded on his own memories of how he acquired his mastery of food knowledge and kitchen skills and this shows in the clarity of his recipes. There in his living room, I rummage through some of them, pen and ink doodles, often on the back of old QV menus. Photograph: Suki Dhanda/The Observer ‘I love to read a book at home, surrounded by piles of this, that and the other. Deafening applause greeted the entry of Jeremy’s team of young chefs each carrying a huge Steak and Kidney Pie topped with the traditional gleaming suet crust with a centre-piece of an empty oxtail bone acting as pie bird in the middle.

Jeremy Lee. The Plan, How We Got Here. NWO Australia Jeremy Lee. The Plan, How We Got Here. NWO Australia

Inside, there are towers of books, piles of crockery, fresh flowers, and a table groaning with breakfast: rhubarb and vanilla compote, marmalade, yoghurt, butter and the pistachio biscuits I could smell baking, a recipe from his forthcoming book, Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many . Regular visitors to the restaurant, Quo Vadis, will find some of their favourite dishes in Jeremy’s book illustrated with wit and pen by John Broadley plus photographs by Elena Heatherwick.

A beautifully written instant classic that is every bit as exuberant and delicious as the man himself! And then there’s all of Jeremy’s life as a chef (and eater) to distil into its pages, “as much at Quo Vadis as Alastair Little or Bibendum or growing up in Scotland – it’s all of those things, woven in together. A whole new generation of restaurants was opening, run and staffed by folk who devoured cookery books like thrillers. Lindsey Bareham’s books have a glorious approach, championing the potato, the onion, soup or tomatoes in a clear authoritative voice full of wit, charm and warmth. It’s roughly based on Julia Child and Jane Grigson’s food writing” he says, “the thoroughness of the former with the arbitrariness of the latter.

Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many - Jeremy Lee

It also came very naturally because somehow I was so fortunate to dodge the ferocious bullet of working in restaurants where you were constantly pummelled. I had heard about the One World Government back in 1991 when I was 14 when we had Barry Smith come to our Church and speak about it. Artist Cornelia Parker is with the chef Jeremy Lee and presenter Harriett Gilbert, to pick their all-time favourite books. Grigson’s learned storytelling is woven in among recipes that were, even then, rare and with ingredients quite scarce, such as bloaters and buckling (types of smoked herring). The pandemic also gave Jeremy a push to finish his book, which, he says, he delivered “three years late.It’s scarcely out, and already it has the feel of a book you will treasure forever, an instant classic that will become woven with your own life. This is an absolutely beautiful cookbook, although I don't think it is one that will be very easy to actually use due, largely, to the layout. Discard any excess fat from the pan, pour the red wine vinegar on to the chop, and turn it a few times to make sure it’s evenly coated. The recipes in Cooking are arranged by favorite ingredients and occasions and include an introduction emphasizing the importance of the quality and provenance of ingredients. Caroline Conran’s beautiful editing of four seminal chefs, Michel Guérard, Roger Vergé and Jean and Pierre Troisgros, finally loosened the tired grip of France’s haute cuisine.

Book review: Cooking - Restaurant Book review: Cooking - Restaurant

Make an incision in the middle if not using a chimney and bake for 45-50 minutes, until browned and piping hot.

The secret, he says, is a copper jelly pan – “a wise investment – its conducting power is second to none and the fruit doesn’t lose its brightness. Jeremy applies this to the menus at Quo Vadis, where the cooking is bright, fresh, light and quintessentially British in a manner most modern. They like their tuck, so you had this remote corner of Scotland with this couple who cooked every night and wanted a boisterous table to sit at with good food as part of their daily life. After working for a few years in a Scottish country house hotel, Jeremy made the move down to London and landed a job at one of the most exciting restaurants of the 1980s. I was so rubbish that they put me in the kitchen, which shows something of the esteem in which chefs were held at the time.

Cooking by Jeremy Lee | Waterstones

In the 30s came Florence White’s Good Things in England, who championed British food and collected many, often eccentric recipes dating as far back as the 14th century.Bake for up to 20 minutes longer at 120°C if uncertain whether the base of the tart is cooked fully.