In July 1992, the photographer Angus Forbes was having a drink with Alastair Little in The Groucho, the club just round the corner from Alastair’s restaurant in Soho. Over the years, Alastair had been approached by about 14 publishers anxious to publish a cookbook about his then uniquely multinational approach to cooking. He was wondering who might write it and with whom he would enjoy working on the project. Angus suggested me.
Alastair and I had known each other since 1974, when we met during his time at The Old Compton Wine Bar. Since then we had often eaten together and were – in that Soho fashion — friends who did not live in each other’s pockets but who always enjoyed each other’s company and shared a passion for food and cooking. I worked only briefly as the chef of The Studio in Swallow Street in 1982, an experience which confirmed that I could satisfy paying customers but proved to me that the restaurant kitchen was not where I wanted to spend my life. At the time Angus suggested me to Alastair as the collaborator on his book, I was earning my living as a script-writer and doing all my cooking at home and for friends. Keep It Simple, as we decided to call the book, was to change my life and my career and this is my third collaboration with Alastair and the sixth book I have written about food and cooking. A seventh is nearing completion and an eighth is waiting in the wings.