The Haddock, The Rose and The Bumble Bee Too.

Well, it should read “The Dimbleby Too”, but one of my favourite food writers does not have a suitably convenient surname that would afford me a snappy blog title – I simply had to improvise – badly.
Joscelyn Dimbleby is the subject of my “Retro Cooks” article for the next edition of Flavour Magazine.
It therefore follows – hopefully- to the rocket scientists amongst my modest readership that “The Rose” Elliot was the subject of last months article -
a copy of which I am eagerly awaiting from the UK.
I suppose I want to foolishly run around to friends and family and show them my efforts, a bit like a gauche child who has just received a gold star on a picture they have drawn.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
Preening over gold stars awarded for sterling effort at school is one thing, but crowing loudly about a modest piece of journalism is perhaps not playing by the accepted rules of engagement.
As I have never done it before I am unsure of the etiquette involved.
It is permissible I am sure to say that I feel happy and am surrounded by that “job well done” aura – I will omit the bit about skipping up and down on the spot-
Personal satisfaction should be guaranteed by one’s own hard efforts, but peer review and praise from an anonymous circle of critics is a bigger task to attain.
If “Success as a Writer” were a recipe I would suggest that the ingredients and method would be as follows:

INGREDIENTS

One Determined Individual
Large Doses of Hard Work
Gallons of Focus (I am an Imperial girl at heart)
Several cook books
METHOD

1.Combine all ingredients in a well equipped kitchen.
2.Add a laptop, and a generous handful books on food related subject matter
3. Allow individual to stew for several hours, reducing the amount of determination.
4. Cool down rapidly to avoid overheating.
5. Repeat this process until the required consistency is achieved.
5. Print, send and serve to appropriate individuals as desired.

Here is the article.
“To me, food means sensual, visual and oral pleasure, creativity and discovery, fun and adventure, conviviality and friendship – and, most importantly, the enjoyment of life” – Josceline Dimbleby

I first met Josceline Dimbleby in Sainsbury’s in the mid-eighties, not in person but gracing their shelves with her selection of fine cookery books.
She seemed worth a read and I used my precious staff discount vouchers to build up a modest collection of her writings. Money well spent.
My acquaintance with her culinary prowess is of many years standing, as she has a writing career spanning more than thirty years. Her career has not been confined to the domain of cook books:
Her achievements stretch to being a food and travel journalist,singer, photographer, public speaker, family biographer and contributor and presenter for television and radio. More recently she has acted as an adviser to her son Henry Dimbleby for his chain of restaurants, Leon.
It needs little elaboration to say that her high flying C.V. stands out alone, making her an obvious candidate for this piece. However, if we float gently back down to earth, we can see that on a grass roots level, she is a fine cook, and has an extraordinary talent for presenting this in the written word..
It is never easy to pin down exactly why you favour one particular food writer over another, or what it is you like about their style. Not so with Josceline Dimbleby.
Hers is the influence of the truly cosmopolitan eating tradition. Her childhood was punctuated with world wide travel and her recipes are ahead of their time when it comes to exploding the global food offer into the faces of her dedicated followers.
From a very early age she had seen the sites of the Middle East and South America. She evokes recipes from the culinary delights of Syria when she was just seven. Her honeymoon was spent in Morocco, and as a newly wed, she trod unfamiliar ground with her husband in Iran. Bali, India, Burma, Vietnam and Hong Kong are but a few of the culinary pit stops she makes in her books, drawn from her vibrant memories from these far flung places.
She was the trail blazer that others have followed to augment the canon of British cooking to make it the multi cultural phenomenon it is today.
As far back as the 70’s the pages of her book “A Taste of Dreams” were crammed with exotica – okra, nettles, fresh coriander, orange flower water, and saffron. She was combining Welsh lamb with cardamom, kippers with garlic and rosewater with cottage cheese. Food wizardry that at the time was surely beyond the dreams of many home cooks.
Her recipes have endured and judging by the huge listings of her work in the collector’s book market, she will enjoy that privilege for some time to come.
Cast your eye over the books I have suggested. Buy something she has written and cook a meal to dream about. Unfortunately they cannot any longer be bought with Sainsbury’s staff discount vouchers!
Josceline’s books are still available to buy from reputable book dealers. Here is a small selection for consideration to add to your own personal collection.
A Taste of Dreams
“….the imaginative diner-party recipes are an inspiration to anyone who likes to be really creative in the kitchen” – Delia Smith

Josceline Dimbleby’s Complete Cookbook.
A compilation of recipes written for the Sunday Telegraph – worth it just for the almost surreal offering of squid in red aspic jelly called “Scarlet Hearts”!
A Traveller’s Tastes
A backpacker’s cornucopia of recipes gleaned from her extensive worldwide travels. Sainsbury’s must have wept with joy when she wrote this little gem for them – demand for rare and unusual products must have rocketed.
Curries and Oriental Cookery
Another offering from the Sainsbury Cookbook range. A neat and compact companion for the wannabe curry chef at home – Authentic tastes and consumer appreciation guaranteed.

Going Into Print.

Yes that’s right. I am going into print.
I have written two articles and both will appear in print.
I am still a little stunned. I imagined that the whole process was a little more complicated. Apparently not.
I put forward a few ideas and they were readily and enthusiastically accepted by the respective editors, I wrote the articles and sent them off.
One is for a food magazine and the other is for a national newspaper. I call it Beginner’s Luck.
So, no pressure to write more regularly now……………………………

Is There Anything New Under The Sun?

“It might be a bloody cheek. But so what? It goes on all the time. Chefs travel the world looking for dishes and try to imitate them in their own menus. That’s how good cooking spreads – it’s what food is all about. Frankly, in my view, it doesn’t matter”
Egon Ronay.

I read this quote recently whilst reflecting on the plethora of media and literature that inhabits the Foodisphere. ( Spell check alert – have just invented a new word)
As food lovers we live our lives surrounded by cookbooks, TV programmes, specialist magazines, web sites and of course, blogs. We have never had such a huge resource available to us. My cookbook collection stands at around 500 books, and is still growing, and I couldn’t even begin to estimate the number of food web sites and blogs that I follow.
The thing is, I have slowly come to realise that there is an increasing degree of cross over in material. My husband (no cook I might add) glibly comments that there can only be a certain number of permutations of say, cooking a prawn. I tend to agree. Many writers offer an new aspect or presentation on an old classic, which is refreshing and often inspirational. New ideas on a standard are always welcome. Frankly, some of the material is a re -hash of old ideas, very often from established food writers who are much lesser known, except to an appreciative few.
I do find however, that the food magazines are the most guilty when it comes to this – As I am magazine starved, (French foodie mags are really good by the way)my husband brings me the offerings available in Stansted Airport on a Friday afternoon. It saddens me to see that there seems to be an almost zealous desire to create dishes from foods that are “in season” – the net result being all too often that magazines print (almost) identical content, give or take the odd prawn. ( Sorry if that sounds a bit flippant). It may sound a little negative to say this, but if I buy three magazines, I get the distinct feeling that they almost merge into one from an ideas perspective – not the best of deals when you consider the price.
My most recent tack in this thorny subject is as follows:
I visit the UK quite frequently and have taken to the delightful task of buying second hand cookbooks from charity shops and the like. I additionally frequent the “bargain” book-sellers and they have some first class deals – my most recent coup was a meat cookery book by the iconic Frances Bissell – it was modestly priced at £3 and I duly bought three copies – one for myself, and one each for my mother and daughter. In short, I feel that I am getting far more “content” and absolutely no advertising which seems to invade every page these days – a necessary evil I know, but it overwhelms good content all too often.
Post Christmas sale shopping additionally netted in writers such as Gino D’Acampo, Aldo Zilli, plus the cookbook from the “Great British Menu” series on the BBC.
Rich pickings for magazine prices.
So, perhaps Mr Ronay had this topic sewn up – food is presented in an ever increasing number of variations, but at the very heart, it is, after all, only food.