During all this Madness

I grew rocket in an allotment in the 1970s and when the plant came up I tasted a few leaves, decided it was inedible and dug the rest up. Ten years later I tasted it in an Italian restaurant and changed my mind. Ten years after that, I went along with the great rocket stampede of the 1990s and served trays of it with tomatoes with scallops, and with not a few shavings of Parmesan cheese. During all this madness, we rather forgot about the peppery tang of watercress and it got left behind. When I opened my restaurant Café Anglais, in 2007, I realised the error of my ways and reverted to the superior succulence and charm of this native plant and serve great handfuls of it with every steak and many of the roasts on the menu, as well as offering a salad in its own right with a luscious old-style French vinaigrette.