In the first of a series thumbing through his most-beloved cookery books, Jay feasts like its 1999
The dust jacket is long gone and the title-embossed spine flaps free. Naturally, many of the pages are sauce-stained: honourable marks of our stove-side adventures together. New British Classics by Gary Rhodes may be more than 20 years old, but the marks of battle are clear. It remains one of my most consulted cookbooks. When I need cooking times for a rib of beef it’s where I go. When I want the perfect recipe for Yorkshire puddings or a steak and kidney pie, I know where to look. Rhodes died suddenly in 2019, but here he is still holding my clumsy hand. This is just one of the glories of cookbooks. They enable a nerdy conversation, whether the author happens to be alive or dead.
And so, while restaurants remain closed it is to cookbooks such as New British Classics that I will be turning. Each week in this column, I’ll choose a classic volume from my own collection. I’ll celebrate its recipes. I’ll explore its influence on how we eat in general, and on restaurants in particular, and I’ll have a crack at a few key dishes. What could possibly go wrong?
