Sally Clarke's Book: Recipes from a Restaurant, Shop & Bakery

21 April 2004 by
Sally Clarke's Book: Recipes from a Restaurant, Shop & Bakery

Just in case you missed your chance when it was first published in hardback some years ago, you can now buy Sally Clarke's Book in paperback. But even if you've already got the original, there will still be a temptation to get the new edition. It's a bit like when an old film comes out on DVD: you've got it on video but you buy it again because it's a classic.

Why is the book a classic? Well, it's well-written and informative on matters of seasonal menu planning, and when it was first published in the late 1990s it won a Glenfiddich award, which is a bit like winning a literary Oscar in the UK.

As you read the book, you begin to understand Clarke's theories and thoughts - and how being a seasonal cook, using simple techniques and relying on fresh, quality ingredients, lies at the heart of her food.

The chapters are listed by seasons, the breaking-down of menus into lunch or dinner and their formatting in accordance with Clarke's "no-choice" menu theory.

The idea of the no-choice menu might sound crazy but it works very well with the style of food that Clarke cooks. The idea (together with Clarke's culinary ideals) has its roots in Alice Waters's cooking and the US chef's famous restaurant, Chez Panisse, where Clarke worked and from which she draws great inspiration. But, as Waters says in her foreword to the book, Clarke has created food in the same spirit but infused her recipes with an identity of her own. Great praise indeed, and much deserved.

As you would imagine, the recipes are reasonably simple, but all have an underlying tone centred on true taste and classic combinations of flavours. Sometimes, to create a great dish, you have to be a great shopper, to understand your ingredients, and to use restraint and understanding in combining your flavours - all of which I think the book's recipes do very well.

Clarke's style of food leans heavily towards the cooking of France and Italy - and I've used a few recipes from the book over the years since I bought my original copy. Summer berries trifle works very well, as does the lamb shank recipe with red wine, olives and orange peel. And, as you'd imagine from someone who also runs a bakery, the bread recipes are very good (in fact, there's probably another book there).

This book also has an autobiographical element in its lengthy introduction, and every now and then I go back to its pages for a little inspiration. My favourite bit is on the prickly subject of vegans and vegetarians, specifically the fickleness of some of the so-called vegans who have passed through Clarke's restaurant over the years.

You know the sort. The vegan who, when it came to dessert, was more than happy to eat lemon tart made with egg yolks and served with double cream. Or the vegetarian who, on seeing the San Daniele ham arrive for her friend, instantly converted back into a carnivore.

On the other hand, I agree with Clarke when she expresses her disappointment that some chefs do not use truly seasonal vegetables on menus more often.

I've always liked Clarke's book. It's a real cook's book. Its philosophy embodies the sort of cook I like to be - and, naturally, I think that's the sort of cook we should all want to be.

Peter Robinson is chef-proprietor of the King's Arms, Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire

Sally Clarke's Book: Recipes from a Restaurant, Shop & Bakery
Sally Clarke
Grub Street,
£16.99
ISBN 1-904010-72-5

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