Fork In Review

William Black spent years going backwards and forwards from France to the UK as a fish dealer. Consequently, he met lots of French people in and around the hospitality industry and learnt a fair bit about the history of French food, haute cuisine, regional dishes, markets and the best vendors.

Like Rick Stein, he as the opinion that the French are not to fussed about molecular gastronomy, or foams and smears on large white plates. He just wants good honest food, competently cooked.

Having been a fish dealer, he spends a lot of time around the coast and in the restaurants of Brittany. Also in the south west of France where there’s clearly a Spanish influence in the cuisine.

He writes about many traditional peasant dishes such as tête de veau, tripe, pâté de campagne, sole Normande, pot au feu, bouillabaisse, and confit. Interspersed are recipes which he’s received from market vendors, chefs and housewives.

It’s interesting that there’s not a lot of variation or experimentation with traditional dishes. For example, one cannot tinker with a recipe for coq au vin; it just wouldn’t do. The idea of recipe tweaking would be more flexible perhaps in an Anglo country.

The views in this book are those of an Englishman, irreverent, but reasonable and entertaining. You could call it a travelogue with bite.

This is an amusing little book. Rayner pulls no punches and can’t stand bullshit.

To promote the book, he did a tour of stage shows in Britain, dressed as Moses holding pizza boxes (instead of stones) with ‘Do as I say’ written on them.

As the food columnist for The Observer he has a bit of clout, and his opinions are likely to be accepted. They are not just an opportunity to dish up his acerbic wit, and he did some research.

His Ten Commandments are:

• Thou shalt eat with thy hands:

Who said you couldn’t? And what’s wrong with them? Many dishes are meant to be eaten by hand.

• Thou shalt always worship leftovers:

It’s extravagant and wasteful not to eat leftovers. Especially as there are people who cannot afford much, or who know how to cook it. No excuse really!

• Thou shalt covet thy neighbour’s oxen:

Here’s what Rayner actually says: The point is that wanting what your neighbour has can never be a vice where food is concerned. It is a virtue. It is what spurs us to action. We are meant to roll our eyes at those who sit in restaurants photographing their dinner before slapping those images all over Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

• Thou shalt cook – sometimes:

See point 2 above; again, no excuses!

• Thou shalt not cut off the fat:

I suggest if there is an excessive amount of fat on meat, then cut a bit off. Not all of it because it provides moisture to what could turn out to be a dry piece of meat.

• Thou shalt choose thy dining companions bloody carefully:

They should not be people: who spend ages reading the menu; who are very conservative, nervous and picky; who don’t like food so order a hamburger because that’s all they understand; who are suspicious of what the cooks are trying to do to them; who are disappointed about good honest traditional dishes because they don’t really understand different cuisines, but have watched food programs on TV so have over-developed expectations.

• Thou shalt not sneer at meat-free cookery

Many traditional peasant-based cuisines, such as Lebanese, Italian or Spanish, consume meat-free dishes. Too much meat is unhealthy and can be costly.

• Thou shalt celebrate the stinky:

Blue cheese is wonderful. And fish sauce makes every Thai dish more palatable. Fullstop.

• Thou shalt not mistake food for pharmaceuticals:

Why would you swallow a pill when you can eat something delicious and healthy? Doesn’t make sense to Rayner.

• Honour thy pig:

Cooked properly, pork is beautiful meat; it is traditionally used in many cuisines, and you can eat everything but the squeal. Besides which, bacon is beautiful.

This little book is a delight to read; I suggest you get hold of a copy.

In this book, the angry chef demolishes food fads. If you are sick of kale and quinoa on every café menu, then this book is for you. Warner did a degree in biochemistry, but later became a chef because he wants people to enjoy food, not food fads.

Later, he became The Angry Chef because he wanted to fight back against the pseudoscience of the wellness movement:

Clean eating started as a fringe movement but has grown into a huge and unrepentant tide of nutribollocks.

His straight forward no-nonsense language makes the reading of this book even more satisfying. He admits:

Unlike the purveyors of pseudoscience that I rail against, I offer you no certainty, no easy answers, no single stories…..this book is an investigation of bad science in the world of food.

 To give you an idea of what he means, the chapter headings are:  Detox Diets, Alkaline Ash, Coconut Oil, Sugar, Paleo, Antioxidants, and a history of quackery.

Warner understands that it won’t appeal to everyone, but the answer he reckons is how science is taught in schools.

He asserts that we believe falsehoods about food, and if these are challenged, then we feel uncomfortable. This is because, he maintains, we have an instinctive brain:

Our instinctive brain loves anything that society and the media have approved, believing thoroughly in the wisdom of the crowd and hugely susceptible to the influence of bright shiny celebrities.

It’s easy to get the impression he would like us to pull ourselves together, and do some thinking. This book is easy to read and worthwhile.