Nose To Tail Eating, A Kind Of British Cooking by Fergus Henderson with an introduction by guess who? Anthony Bourdain. This book has quite simply changed how many of us now eat out in Britain. How we cook, buy food and where we like to go and eat, is down to a few people. Fergus Henderson is admired by so many chefs and cooks, and along with his wife Margot, who cooks at Rochelle Canteen, and Trevor Gulliver who looks after the wine, they have changed so much.
I have eaten his food many times and read his books. He has an intelligent, thoughtful ability to showcase ingredients and be brave by doing as little as possible to them, just cooking and serving them simply in humble surroundings with good wine and bread. His food isn’t technical but there is a touch of genius. For instance, a bone marrow and parsley salad with toast, a thing sent from the gods. A plate of yesterday’s cold roast meat with a few leaves, perfectly dressed in his ingenious dressing with that mustard kick that I love. A slice of terrine and cornichons. It's mind-blowing stuff and if there is a god, thank you for creating this place. If I could, I genuinely would eat in one of his restaurants every day.
But if you eat at many restaurants throughout the UK, there will be a lesson learnt from this book in there somewhere. Even the fancy chefs who put dots on rocks for you to lick on a 37-course tasting menu eat there on their day off, because it is proper food. I ate there once and Thomas Keller, the great American chef, was on the next table. St John has a Michelin star but I feel it should have 3.
Some folk don’t get it, and baulk at eating ox heart and chips, but it is truly delicious. There are no prima donnas here, and no tweezers in the kitchen. The front-of-house staff wear chef jackets, there is no art hanging, the place is very austere, the wine is excellent, I could go on…
This is a book that many will own and use as it has a great list of Fergus’ recipes that work. It’s as strong a book and as ‘go-to’ today as it has ever been. Remember, St John opened 30 years ago! If you go to London, please eat in one of their places.
