Neil’s cookbook of the week: The Mirabelle Cookbook by Marco Pierre White

If ever there was a chef that I had huge admiration for, it would be Marco Pierre White. I know chefs of a certain age all say the same, but he did change the way we eat out. He did make cooking cool, and it was rock and roll then – although not now.

This book, 'The Mirabelle Cookbook', is a piece of art. It isn’t too over the top; most of the recipes inside are achievable by us all at home. It is clever – he thinks a lot about why people eat, and how they eat food.

This was a great restaurant. I ate there once and loved it. It was a big place, scores of chefs and waiters, and it was just simple, well-sourced, good cooking, served well and in a nice space. Marco had demanding standards, something many should now look back on and consider. He got it done, and yeah, he shouted a bit, but he was fair.

A great regret of mine was not working at Harveys with him when I was offered a job. It still plays on my mind. I wonder what I would be doing now if I had. I would have been working alongside Stephen Terry, Philip Howard, Gordon Ramsay and so on – in another life.

It is never good, I know, to have regrets, but to look back and remember the great food at that time was just brilliant. The guys at Cafe take the mickey out of me for my love of chervil. Here, Marco uses it a lot, and I like that…

This book is very Cafe, and it just works. Go get a copy.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: The River Cafe Cook Book Two

A true modern classic this week: 'The River Café Cook Book Two' by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers. It’s a restaurant I think about most days—a place many of you will have been lucky enough to eat in, right on the River Thames near Hammersmith. A simple interior, buzzy atmosphere, an incredible wine list, welcoming service—and the food has always been outstanding. I hope the River Café is running the canteen in heaven when I get there, as most things I see and read in their books are just so good.

It was one of the first true, proper Italian restaurants where ingredients were pushed to the forefront, showcasing food for flavour, texture, seasonality, freshness—not for any other reason. This was book two, following the very popular and very cool 'The River Café Cook Book'. It’s incredible to think this book was first published in 1997—that’s 27 years ago—and it’s still oh so cool. This followed two years after their first bestseller, which won Glenfiddich Book of the Year and cemented the success that made the River Café a true destination.

Many good cooks and chefs have worked here. Jamie Oliver was discovered here, Theo Randall spent years in the kitchen, and many more besides. I love eating here—the food is sublime, with an uncomplicated approach. Think spaghetti with ricotta and rocket, artichokes, wood-roasted vegetables, a simple dish of courgette, parmesan and rocket, or tagliatelle with walnuts and parmesan.

I always say the most amazing food I ate here was squid with chilli, rocket and olive oil. Then a piece of gorgonzola—it was perfect. And the chicken with mascarpone, prosciutto and marjoram stuffed under the skin, roasted in a wood oven for incredible flavour. The first time I ate lamb with salsa verde, I almost fell off the cool chairs they have. Buy this book, read it, use it—and go eat there.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Pasta Grannies

This week I bring you a book that really excites me. It’s called 'Pasta Grannies', a book full of love and real food, written by Vicky Bennison. It delves into the world of pasta and gnocchi, and the grannies who make this incredible food, which is photographed so beautifully here. If only there were a similar modern version of our Scottish grannies—I wonder what would be in it?

One quote from Lucia, aged 85, is: “When you have good ingredients, you don’t have to worry about cooking, they do the work for you”—and this is so true. We all know Italy has incredible produce, but here in this book, the methods of making old types of pasta by hand are extraordinary. The history of food is a powerful thing. Many of the nonnas in this book have their little secret ways of doing things, a twist or sneaky tip that makes what they do sing.

Sadly, this book arose because younger people aren’t that interested in making their own pasta—they say “Why, when you can buy it?” This book took five years to write, covering different regions, seasons and ingredients, dotted around the beautiful Italian countryside.

It’s a book that makes you want to go to the local deli, buy some good flour and eggs, and get rolling pasta. The different shapes and techniques fascinate me. It makes me hungry just reading the recipes, looking at the pictures, and imagining myself on a sun-drenched terrace perfumed by the smell of lemons and herbs.

A great food book—I simply adore it, and I adore all the grannies here too.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: The Complete Farmhouse Kitchen Cookbook

A firm favourite in our house when the kids were wee and we cooked proper food for them, 'The Complete Farmhouse Kitchen Cookbook', put together by Yorkshire Television in the 1980s, is packed with fabulous recipes. This book really has it all—it’s great fun to flick through or read, featuring everything from old classic dishes and nursery food to hearty pies, stews, cakes, teacakes, and tea loaves.

Mrs Chef cooked from this a lot when I was at work, and many Forbes family favourites come from here. I adore this book, especially the fact that some recipes were sent in by members of the public, sharing old family traditions—it’s brilliant. Mary Berry was involved with the programme, which was hugely successful, and the book likely did very well too.

The Scottish oatcakes recipe from Mrs Anne Wallace of Dunlop, Ayrshire, is wonderful. A pilchard pizza from Mrs A.E. Phillips of West Sussex sounds interesting, and a bowl of Dundee Broth would be perfect on a cold day. This book is well used, and honestly, if it were the only cookbook you owned, it wouldn’t be a bad thing.

With over 1,000 recipes, including Sussex Swimmers, Cockle Cake, and Gypsy Bread, there’s something for everyone. Go on—find a copy and have some fun in your own farmhouse kitchen.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Living and Eating by John Powson and Annie Bell

I remember going through my cupboard when I was little, and tidying my toys: Action Man, Lego, cars. They were all tidied and put back neatly, nothing was thrown away. I stopped playing with Action Man decades ago, yet still can’t believe that, when we got together, Mrs Chef decluttered our flat by throwing away my Action Man Jeep and Lego. I understand, but I miss that Jeep. I don’t think cleansing by decluttering is always a good thing.

This week I bring to you ‘Living and Eating’ by John Powson and Annie Bell. I really like this book for various reasons, mainly because it is how I would like to live (but we all know that I am too scruffy and messy to have that sort of lifestyle). I adore their simple approach, modern design, and kitchen that continues outside into their garden. The sheer beauty of ‘simple’ is here in spades, and yes, it is a cookbook, but it is so much more.

It is a lifestyle book, like a glossy magazine, Homes and Gardens or Vogue. It is a way to live, simply, with nice things around you. There is no need for stuff. The dishes they create, on simple plates, focus on the beauty of simplicity.

As cookbooks go, it is concise with a good few recipes of which I have tried a number, and they are delicious. The section on vegetables is brilliant and as I love veg and sometimes need inspired, I go here to have a look. One day, after we win the lottery, we will have a wonderful old place somewhere like Suffolk or Hampshire where Tinto will be able to run free. We will live like this, and there will be no room for clutter, mess or anything that is not necessary. Yeah, who am I trying to kid!

Another reason I love this book is because my two boys gave me it in 2007—not sure if it was for Christmas, Father’s Day or a birthday gift—and it has always been an aspirational book with beautiful images of cool, minimalist interiors and food. I insist you cook the butter roasted herbed chicken recipe before doing anything else after reading this. It is a Patricia Wells recipe, a woman I admire a lot. This book is a firm fave of mine, and we should all flick through it from time to time. It is food that is both elegant and homely at the same time.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Wild Harvest by Nick Nairn

The book this week is one that many of you will have in your collection. ‘Wild Harvest with Nick Nairn’ is a book that I may think about from time to time, but rarely get out. So, this week I took it from the shelf and flicked through it. I was transported back to my twenties in the mid ‘90s. This is the type of food I still like to cook.

It's a good book—I think this was Nick’s first cookbook—he went on to write more. It is important to me for a few reasons. After cooking on The Royal Scotsman, I was asked to be the chef at Braeval where Nick cooked and these were some of the dishes I was cooking there in 1997, although it feels like yesterday! It was a good time to be cooking in Scotland and Nick was at the forefront of that. He was young, energetic, self-taught and cooked really good food. He was using pigeon and other wild foods that many would steer away from. He had ambition and went on to be a good businessman with Nairns in Glasgow, where I also worked, and several other businesses including cook schools.

All this was a long time ago, but the food still feels fresh to me, and it would not look out of place on a menu at Cafe right now. Nick is a good old friend, and we don’t catch up enough. There's a group of chefs from that time who worked with Nick, who went on to do great things. Nick’s then wife Fiona, really made me feel at home, and used to tell me I looked so much like him, although I am not so sure. The recipes are easy to follow with classic Nick dishes like his carrot, honey and ginger soup, a dish I still make, the Braeval tablet, and his superb saddle of lamb with tomato and basil sauce.

I really enjoyed working at Braeval, it was two years of learning my own style, playing with food, trying to make my own mark, and in beautiful surroundings. It was almost the perfect restaurant, well, almost...

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Tried Favourites Cookery Book by Mrs E W Kirk

This is a fantastic book. ‘Tried Favourites Cookery Book’ by Mrs E.W. Kirk has so much in it for such an unassuming book. Very modern for the time, this edition is from 1942, with some classic old Scottish dishes. It feels very Scottish but has an influence from America and further afield too. There are countless recipes from sheep head broth and hare soup (and a vegetarian version!), to fish custard and chicken merinds (?) - a form of battered, crispy deep-fried chicken pieces.

This book will show you how to roast a goose, to prepare a ham, to make countless biscuits, cakes, and all sorts. But interestingly, it has a good section on laundry work and housekeeping with a good recipe ‘to promote the growth of the hair’ and what to do if your chimney is on fire!

My copy (which I can’t recall where I got it) has those wonderful hand-written entries inside, and pieces of paper with scribbled, hurried recipes: one for sponge and a one page of notes headed as suitable for war-time rationing. It’s an absolutely fascinating insight into what was going on in average kitchens at the time of the war. With the odd advert for Oxo and other ingredients, and a stove maker in Newhaven Road here in Edinburgh, it’s a really interesting book to flick through for inspiration and to delve into our past.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: A Scottish Feast, An Anthology Of Food And Eating by Hamish Whyte and Catherine Brown

‘A Scottish Feast, An Anthology Of Food And Eating’ is a wonderful book, gifted to me a while back by the creator/ editor of the book, Hamish Whyte. An extraordinary book which delves into our past and recent history of what we ate at various times and places for various reasons. It is an interesting factual book with records showing how poor the average family were, eating potatoes three times a day, with a pinch of salt and pepper and animal fat if you were lucky, and usually sprinkled with oatmeal to fill you up. And on to the posh dining tables of Edinburgh society, where lots of claret and fine food would have been eaten.

In this book there are poems relating to the subject in question or food item. Reading this book is like being Dr Who, jumping around like a time lord in different decades and eras. It is absolutely fascinating. Tales of what a traditional Skye kitchen was like in the early part of the 19th century.

I love how it reads ‘The fleeces of sheep which had been found dead on the mountain nailed on the walls to dry. Braxy hams were suspended from the roof, strings of fish were hanging above the fireplace, the door was almost continually open, savoury steam of broth and potatoes filled the air with peat smoke and dogs snarling and snapping Shepards legs sat at the table.’ Another entry is ‘A Good Scotch Haggies’ by our well-known Mrs MacIver. And a wonderfully written recipe for petticoat tails by Margaret Dods. The wording is hypnotic, the way it transports you to that place and makes you imagine you are there in your fancy regency attire, looking like a dandy supping from a cut glass and eating off pewter.

I love this book and thank you Hamish for the gift. Sadly Catherine Brown, who also edited this book, is no longer with us. She was a good friend and a huge inspiration. This is a lovely go-to book for a quick read and to dip in and out of.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Eating to Extinction by Dan Saladino

The threat to us all with drought and warming temperatures is something we see on the news and think it won’t affect us, but the earth is warming at an alarming rate which is worrying. The threat to our food and what we are able to eat is also worrying, and the old adage, if you don’t use it, you lose it should be remembered. Dan Saladino has written a fabulous book called ‘Eating to Extinction, The World’s Rarest Foods and Why We Need to Save Them’.

This book is a great read, it brings out the activist in me, makes me want to use more local, seasonal produce and furthermore, makes me want to tell more people about the great history, recipes and food we have here. Dan is a great guy, and I was involved with him on a Slow Food project a while back. He is a broadcaster and programme maker at BBC Radio 4 and The World Service and covers many food related subjects.

This is not a recipe book, but it delves in to the history, back story and archives about how certain food items are at great danger of becoming extinct. The research that has gone into this book is very impressive. The power of how food can make countries great, how food can showcase human creativity and invention, account for the rise and fall of empires and expose the causes and consequences of disasters, like flood and fire by intensive farming and bad land management, the historical side of grains, all fascinates me.

One subject he touches on is the small village in northern Turkey that he finds, which some 12,000 years ago first started cultivating grains mainly wheat. Dan focuses in different chapters on wild cereals, vegetables, meat, sea, fruit, cheese and so on. Bringing it closer to home, he talks about beremeal from Orkney which I mentioned earlier. Very tricky to find but production is mainly milled on Orkney at Barony Mill. A classic bannock can be made and served with good unpasteurised cheese, and a drizzle of honey, or served simply warm with some rich good butter whilst still warm. There is too much to tell you about this book, and many stories of interesting, almost lost food and drink items, so I suggest you order a copy and read it.

Neil’s cookbook of the week: Your Place or Mine by Jean Christophe Novelli

As many of you are aware, I have quite a few cookery books, many of which I have bought from shops, some old book shops, some from new, a few online from an auction site, some gifted from friends, and some inherited from my dad.

A great place to look for old cookery books is Janet Clarke Books. Janet is a specialist in books on gastronomy and has been trading old books for some time and is extremely knowledgeable about old cookbooks and food generally. Look at her website - www.janetclarke.com - there is something there for everyone.

This week’s book is something more modern, although still a book from 1998, ‘Novelli, Your Place Or Mine?’ is a book from my past that I used to stay up late at night and read, gazing at the images of the food and dreaming about creating these beautiful plates of food myself.

Jean Christophe Novelli is a culinary artist, a very good cook and many years ago, had a string of restaurants. Sadly, he didn’t manage to keep them afloat, but at the time, with his thick French accent he was up there as one of our great chefs. A good friend of Marco Pierre White, Novelli was never off the television. He brought something new and cool to cookery, and yes, it was probably a bit cheesy, but he could cook and developed the classics with a modern style. He became well known for his sugar springs, made by twisting caramel around a knife-sharpening steel to make a spring shape; he uses them a lot in this book, like his party piece, his signature.

I like his food in this book, rustic but well executed, his daube of beef looks incredible and confit duck leg with a garlic crust looks delicious. But it is his desserts that I think folk remember him for. I made his tiramisu for Christmas, and everyone loved it. A dish I used to make at the Atrium all those years ago. Doesn’t time fly…