‘Cod used to be widely available, but now, because of overfishing, it is one of the most expensive fish to buy. I just hope that we never run out of it for fish and chips.’ These namby-pamby words are from one of London’s leading chefs, Tom Aikens (see lead review page 161), someone who – given his involvement at the start of the thriving Daylesford Organics business – you’d think would be a bit more sensitive about ecological matters. But no: in this, his first cookbook, he recommends wild fish over farmed and offers various recipes for at-risk species such as cod, salmon, sea bass and tuna. It would be more responsible for him to suggest using less endangered sea creatures. Instead, it’s hello trees! Hello sky! Goodbye cod.
With a chef photo count of 36 (just off the gross-out 40-plus images of Jamie Oliver in his Italian book), it feels as though we’re being encouraged to see Aikens is a celebrity chef in the Ramsey mould. And as if to cater to this kind of fan base, his book includes not just recipes from the restaurant, but homespun dishes too. They are all classified as ‘easy’, ‘medium’ or ‘challenging’. Still it’s the restaurant-y dishes that sing. ‘Vegetables’ (unusually for a chef book, one of the largest chapters) is full of inventive ideas that put veg centre-stage, such as fresh peas with pea shoots, pea mousse and parma ham. There’s a surprisingly homely section on baking (fresh fig muffins, malt loaf and teacakes), and a great range of fruity desserts.
If you know someone who thinks nothing of starting work on a salad dressing made with carrot juice and Sauternes the day before serving, they’ll enjoy this. But you might also want to give them a copy of the Marine Conservation Society’s ‘Good Fish Guide’ – just for reference.
