Page 56 - Demo

by: Andy Lynes
First, Catch
By Thom Eagle
What’s the USP? When is a cookbook not a cookbook? When its a ‘hymn to an early spring meal’, all 226 pages of it. This is food writing in the purest sense, a series of extended essays ruminating on the process of cooking a single meal; a sort of exercise in culinary mindfulness.
Who’s the author? Thom Eagle is the head chef of Little Duck: The Picklery, a ‘fermenting kitchen and wine bar’ in East London (unsurprisingly, there is a fair amount on fermentation in the book) and writes the food blog ‘In Search of Lost Time’. First, Catch is his debut in print. What does it look like? A novel. For-
get glossy photographs, this is all text interspersed with some black and white line drawings of pots, pans and assorted ingredients by artist Aurelia Lange.
Killer recipes? Here’s the thing, Eagle says ‘recipes are lies’ so there aren’t any. At least not in the list-of-ingredients-fol- lowed-by-a-method format that we all know and love. Instead, they are snuck
in by stealth, so for example, a recipe
for quick cured lamb loin, complete with measurements for the simple salt and
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sugar cure appears spread over three pages at the end of chapter one, ‘On Curing With Salt’ and one for salsa verde is nestled quietly in chapter 10 ‘On Wild and Domestic Celeries’.
What will I love? Eagle is a thoughtful sort of bloke with a particular view on all things culinary which gives the book a distinctive tone. When was the last time
you heard someone say that they ‘go out of their way’ to visit old salt-pans’? Eagle has travelled from Kent to Sicily to look at the damn things, trips which have helped him, and now in turn his readers, ‘appre- ciate the importance of salt throughout our history’.
What won’t I like? Eagle is very self consciously ‘a writer’ (he studied Amer- ican Literature at uni) and consequently there is a fair bit of ‘food writing’ to get through; raw vegetables aren’t seasoned but ‘subjected to the violence of lem-
on and salt’ which you’ll either think is incredibly creative writing or just plain irritating, depending on your taste in literature.
Should I buy it? It maybe a little preten- tious and overwritten, and it’s debatable whether the ‘stealth’ recipes are an improvement on the traditional format, but Eagle has genuine insight into the practical and philosophical sides of cook- ing, as well as extensive knowledge of in- ternational cuisines and culinary history, making First, Catch well worth reading. £16.99, Quadrille
BOOK OF THE MONTH