A Long and Messy Business. Rowley Leigh
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Название: A Long and Messy Business

Автор: Rowley Leigh

Издательство: Ingram

Жанр: Кулинария

Серия:

isbn: 9781783525188

isbn:

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      On other newspapers I had never cooked the

      food in the pictures either. As a working chef,

      I never thought I had time. The recipes went out

      to a home economist and photographer and they

      performed nobly but it was never quite my food.

      I decided this time that I couldn’t get away with

      that again. I agreed to do the pictures myself,

      met a photographer and attempted to negotiate

      a rise for the extra work. I didn’t get it.

      I had not heard of Andy Sewell. I had put out

      some feelers and suggested somebody else

      but I liked Andy well enough. It soon became

      clear that he had an original turn of mind and

      intellectual curiosity. He reads, and can even get

      to the end of those interminable essays in the

      London Review of Books. We can talk about

      opera and classical music. However, he can be

      10

      quite extraordinarily annoying. He will make me

      do things, whether it is repeating one simple

      action or holding something for a ridiculously

      long time, or standing in some unnatural

      position so that I do not spoil his light. It is

      galling for a chef who is accustomed to having

      his own way in the kitchen to have to play

      second fiddle.

      If this was not bad enough, Andy has bad habits.

      Long after he has left the building – we always

      do the photo shoots at my home – I find things.

      A clutch of mussels will be basking in the sun

      on a faded iron chair in the garden. Rabbit

      entrails will be splayed out on the butcher’s

      brown paper in the window of the sitting room.

      His own expensive equipment will have been

      meticulously stashed in his rucksack as he

      climbed on his racing bike but his dirty plates

      and half-finished mug of coffee will have been

      left casually about the place. I asked his mother

      about this pattern of behaviour: she just gave

      a sort of knowing sigh.

      And yet every week I forgive him because he

      takes extraordinary pictures. One of the reasons

      he is such a pain is that he will only ever use

      natural light. This means a short working day

      in the winter, and my having to work with no

      artificial light in the kitchen. It is also why his

      pictures have such a painterly quality. The

      contrast is scaled down, the colour – and I rarely

      cook by colour – is often slightly washed out but

      there is depth. He will take hours over a shot but

      you forgive him because he is in communion: he

      is not taking a picture but getting to the essence

      of the thing, whether it is a raw ingredient or a

      finished dish.

      Working with this man has its drawbacks, but

      the process has given me a new lease of life.

      Apart from the fact that actually cooking the

      food makes the result a great deal more real,

      working with this fastidious creature has raised

      my game. I always cook the real thing: there

      are no tricks and no shortcuts. Not only would

      Andy’s camera find me out, but also we always

      eat the dish afterwards – or at least Andy does.

      He has, for a slim man, a considerable appetite.

      This book is a selection of our work over five

      years. It is arranged by month because I think

      that provides a more compelling narrative. Some

      dishes are starters, some ‘mains’, and some

      puddings, but as often as not they are just

      something to eat when you are hungry.

      One last note. What matters in a cookbook is

      that it, and its recipes, work. I hope that is the

      case. I owe their accuracy and precision to a

      number of kind and patient editors, especially

      to Natalie Whittle who nursed the column from

      the period we started in the magazine until

      very recently. I should also thank my legion of

      supporters who have waited a long time for this

      volume with stoic endurance and can only hope

      they are not too disappointed with the result.

      However, if there is an award for patience it must

      go to my wife Kate, who has been long suffering

      in too many ways to detail here.

      11

      January

      I enjoy cooking and writing in January. СКАЧАТЬ