My Cooking ‘Philosophy’

I suppose if you learn to cook out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Elizabeth David (French and Italian), Jane Grigson and a bit of Margaret Costa, it’s not surprising that you’ll end up with a Franco-Italo-British style, although it was probably more Franco than Italo, and I guess still is. I’ve always found enough excitement, challenge and diversion in our own or our neighbours’ cooking to make me happy to stay within European boundaries. In addition to the extreme range and sophistication of French cooking, and the breadth of diversity in Italian, it’s hard to ignore the achievements of other European countries in elevating some of their own produce to equivalent levels – one thinks of the German ways with pork butchery, mustard, dill, and caraway; the Hungarian with paprika, dumplings and sour cream, the Scandinavian with pickled fish, the Spanish with sweet peppers, pulses, ham and blood sausage. And then there are Poland, Russia, Greece, Turkey, the Lebanon, Morocco . . . all with a lot to offer and all using materials on the whole well within the ken of the British cook. I have to confess, too, to a liking for the American way with baking and salads, but then so much American cooking is European inspired that this seems a natural extension of one’s curiosity.