Who am I and where am I coming from?

 Some random jottings from a mildly eccentric amateur cook, as well as a few stories, and a one man take on recipes that he has enjoyed making down the years; together with some potentially useful kitchen “stuff.”  First though some background Food has been a pretty important part of my life, almost for forever! I was a fat kid and my weight has been a pretty constant concern all my life, but nevertheless, it hasn’t put me off making and eating delicious food.  The tastes, the textures and the aromas have continually mesmerized me. It all began not that long after the end of WWII, whilst food was still rationed in Britain.  One ounce of this, two of that and a half pound of the other, were the order of the day.  Coffee, Burgers, Pizza, what the blazes were they, one could ask?  Never ‘eard of ‘em!  But my lovely mum, who’d been brought up in a grindingly poor family in a Lancashire cotton town, could cook like the very devil and could make a delicious meal out of an old shoe!  And that’s how it all began.  I would watch her in the tiny kitchen of our ‘two up two down’ terrace house in Huddersfield and so would our neighbours, who would be round at our place at least once a month, for a kitchen supper in aid of this or that charity.  A bit like “Mrs Bucket’s” ‘candlelight suppers,’ but not quite so elegant!  A crusted meat and potato pie seemed to be both the vicar’s and the neighbourhood’s favourite. So, as I grew up, and supplies became more plentiful, I moved on and up, from cheese and onion pies and toad in the hole, to learning to enjoy beef, pork and lamb, fish and shellfish, as my palate developed. Then, as time went by, after grammar school, I went into the brewing industry, first as a brewer’s chemist, later as a pupil brewer ….. this was cooking on a grand scale, 80,000 litres at a time. As brewing pupils, me and my colleagues lived “the life of Reilly,” so to speak.  The pupils were the next generation of Master Brewers and were almost always included in lunches given by our supplier’s representatives, after all, we were their future!  Morecambe bay shrimps, game pies, roast beef ribs, I even had my first taste of venison, then there was always Stilton cheese.  These delicious meals were invariably washed down with amazing claret and good port.  Small wonder I remember the dining room at ‘The Old Cock’ Inn in Halifax; All this at the tender age of twenty.  Since then, I’ve been fascinated with eating and cooking food all my adult life!  In the more than fifty years or so since these years, I’ve been lucky in so many ways; to have a delightful family, a massive circle of friends, made a success of my brewing career ……. almost, and on leaving, founded, grown and sold a thriving business that enabled me to enjoy a long “retirement,” and to set up my home in Ibiza in the Mediterranean and indulge my love of food! The one thing I never seemed to get the hang of was marriage!  I tried twice and neither worked out at the time, although now, I’m on pretty good terms with my first wife and No 2 seems to have worked out that it wasn’t all my fault!  The bonus is, that I have a wonderful daughter from the first time around, and a lovely posse of four amazing grandchildren too. As a consequence, with no one at home in a kitchen (yes I know that that is ‘Old Skool’, but that’s how life used to be,) living as a semi-detached, free range adult, with a taste for good food has demanded a certain creativity in the kitchen, which more or less brings you; (if you’ve bothered to read this far) up to date, with three notable exceptions; I took myself off to cooking schools so as to hone up my skills and widen the range of my capabilities. • First a one day “quickie,” under Raymond Blanc’s guidance at ‘Le Manoire aux Quatre Saisons,’  • Then over to Ireland to Kevin Dundon, for a week at ‘Dunbrody House’ in County Wexford and finally and most recently to  • A twelve-week cookery ‘bootcamp’ at ‘The Ballymaloe School of Cookery’ directed by the formidable Darina Allen and her crew! Without reserve I would recommend them all.  The first two for cooking and foodie enthusiasts but the Ballymaloe twelve-week programme that I went on, is only for career chefs and kitchen masochists!   “Le Manoire,” was a one-day deep immersion programme with an emphasis on skills that ranged from how to roll out the thinnest pastry ever, to not being frightened to use plain water in sophisticated dishes without sacrificing flavour. At “Dunbrody House,” I seem to recall that ‘making and cooking,’ using the best of locally produced Irish ingredients were the main course components, as well as being taught some of the finer pastry chef’s art, whilst “Ballymaloe School of Cookery” was an all embracing internationally recognized “cooks boot camp” with no quarter given; where Darina and her inspiring team teach her pupils, skills, techniques, recipes and strict kitchen discipline using the very finest (organic where possible) produce from her own and neighbouring farms, the school gardens, nearby sea and beaches and the local countryside.  Absolutely nothing goes to waste here, clean vegetable peelings either go into vegetable stock cauldrons or the ‘chicken’s buckets,’ similarly meat and fish bones and trimmings are cooked down for stock.   I left Ballymaloe as the second most ancient student they had ever had, I am even older that the redoubtable Darina; absolutely knackered, fulfilled, educated and with a raft of new friends from all over the world.   If you’ve got this far and are wondering why I’m writing this, please don’t think that I’m “On a Mission,” I simply want to share some of the enjoyment I’ve had from eating food and cooking it and to pass on some of the “good stuff” that has come my way. Perhaps the only message I want to share with 21st century young people is that nourishing and tasty food comes in many forms, from meat, fish, vegetables and cereals and from the dairy. It doesn’t come from packets!  It results from using good quality, well farmed, natural ingredients, in a variety of ways, that are made – with love and care, into appetizing health sustaining meals, whatever the household budget!  Good food doesn’t have to cost a packet or come from packets!  

 Some random jottings from a mildly eccentric amateur cook, as well as a few stories, and a one man take on recipes that he has enjoyed making down the years; together with some potentially useful kitchen “stuff.”  First though some background Food has been a pretty important part of my life, almost for forever! I was a fat kid and my weight has been a pretty constant concern all my life, but nevertheless, it hasn’t put me off making and eating delicious food.  The tastes, the textures and the aromas have continually mesmerized me. 

It all began not that long after the end of WWII, whilst food was still rationed in Britain.  One ounce of this, two of that and a half pound of the other, were the order of the day.  Coffee, Burgers, Pizza, what the blazes were they, one could ask?  Never ‘eard of ‘em!  But my lovely mum, who’d been brought up in a grindingly poor family in a Lancashire cotton town, could cook like the very devil and could make a delicious meal out of an old shoe!  And that’s how it all began.

 I would watch her in the tiny kitchen of our ‘two up two down’ terrace house in Huddersfield and so would our neighbours, who would be round at our place at least once a month, for a kitchen supper in aid of this or that charity.  A bit like “Mrs Bucket’s” ‘candlelight suppers,’ but not quite so elegant!

  A crusted meat and potato pie seemed to be both the vicar’s and the neighbourhood’s favourite. So, as I grew up, and supplies became more plentiful, I moved on and up, from cheese and onion pies and toad in the hole, to learning to enjoy beef, pork and lamb, fish and shellfish, as my palate developed. Then, as time went by, after grammar school, I went into the brewing industry, first as a brewer’s chemist, later as a pupil brewer ….. this was cooking on a grand scale, 80,000 litres at a time. As brewing pupils, me and my colleagues lived “the life of Reilly,” so to speak.  The pupils were the next generation of Master Brewers and were almost always included in lunches given by our supplier’s representatives, after all, we were their future!