Books for Food Lovers 2013 - My Selection

There are plenty of book recommendations around at this time of year.  Most concentrate on books published over the preceding 11 months.  I don't feel constrained to limit my list in this way.  Two of the books below were published in 2013 and share a certain philosophy of food; one stems from 5 years of conversations about food and hit the bookshelves in 2012; another first appeared in 2009 with my copy being from 2012; there's a paperback first published in 1997 and, sadly, as relevant now as it was 15 years ago; the final book is a 1984 encyclopedia updated in 2004.

This mix of publications over such a long period owes something to my bad habit of letting books pile up to enjoy when I can give them my full attention.  I never seem to learn that the perfect time doesn't come.  I've just discovered the Japanese have a word for this habit:

Tsundoku - buying books and not reading them, letting them pile up.

The Modern Peasant
by Jojo Tulloh

The title 'The Modern Peasant' didn't hook me, it was the subtitle 'Adventures in City Food' that did.  Rooted in this maddening, chaotic, fascinating city of London, it pays to have an adventurous spirit, not least where food is concerned.  It's not the multiplicity of cuisines on offer in this cosmopolitan metropolis that the author, JojoTulloh, finds so enthralling.  It's the new wave of small urban producers that interest her.  Buying food from them, growing some of her own and making simple food from scratch - "rediscovering an earlier tradition of cookery" - has reconnected her to the source of food.  She sees the word "peasant" not as a negative term but as a description of a person producing high quality food.  Whether they are doing so for pleasure, profit or out of necessity - these are her 'Modern Peasants'.  Read more ...

Published 2013
Book courtesy of Chatto & Winds

The Ethicurean Cookbook

The 'Ethicurians' Jack Adair-Bevan, Paûla Zarate, Matthew Pennington and Iain Pennington share a philosophy: "eat local, celebrate native foods, live well." It's a credo that appeals to me, so, my attention was immediately engaged.  This book emerged from the glasshouses and kitchen garden of Barley Wood, a Georgian Estate in the bucolic Mendip Hills of Somerset.  "British seasonality, ethical sourcing of ingredients and attention to the local environment" are the declared foundations of the business which took form in 2010.  The menu changes on a daily basis according to what is available and this book is, not surprisingly, chaptered seasonally.  Recipes and techniques sit alongside vignettes of growers and suppliers, appreciating the seasons and observing local customs and festivals.

Most of the 120 recipes are striking in their simplicity, albeit in some cases calling for unusual ingredients and maybe the aid of a helpful forager - 'pineapple weed' for one.  The writing and the beautiful photographs by Jason Ingram are as seductive as the recipes.  A simple winter dish of Beetroot Carpaccio with Honeyed Walnuts glows on the plate; Ewe's-curd-stuffed Courgette Flowers with Fennel Sherbet make you feel summer can't come quickly enough; and Deepfried Aubergine with Rose Hip Syrup make you wish you'd made time to gather those hips when you had the chance.  Recipes marked by me to try this winter include Sea Robin (Gurnard) with Fennel Butter Sauce and Herbed Pink Firs and Milk Stout and Chocolate Steamed Pudding.

Published 2013
The Random House Group

McGee on Food & Cooking
by Harold McGee

If you have a culinary question, you'll almost certainly find the answer here.  First published in 1984, Harold McGee's fantastically useful encyclopedia was revised in 2004.  Hugely appreciated and valued by chefs, cooks, food writers and the plain curious, once you have this book you'll wonder how you ever lived without it.  Whether you have a question on food storage, the science of water baths, how bees make honey, how to tell whether eggs are fresh or stale, how to temper chocolate or who wrote down the first recipe for ice cream, the answer lies within these pages. Then there's the Chemistry Primer.  Invaluable.

Published 2004
Hodder & Stoughton

The Vegetarian Option
by Simon Hopkinson

It's difficult to think of a British cookery writer I admire more than Simon Hopkinson. With this book he reclaims vegetarian cooking from the bizarre world of fake meat and 'rice & veg' some vegetarians inhabit.  The chapter on 'Vegetables' is broken into Simon Hopkinson's signature style such as 'Asparagus & Artichokes', 'Ginger & Spring Onions' and 'Chillies & Avocados' - before going on to Herb, Pasta, Pulses & Grains, Rice, Eggs, Fruit.  The recipes are beautifully simple throughout, from the thoroughly English spring dish of Warm salad of asparagus and new potatoes to the Paul Bocuse inspired rich autumnal Pumpkin Soup and a Persillade of ceps & potatoes.  A dish of Congee with bok choy, golden fried garlic, green chilli & soy is definitely on my 'to cook' list, along with a Potato pie with Beaufort cheese; Blackcurrant jelly trifle; Damson & almond sponge pudding and …..   This one is definitely earning its space on my bookcase.

Published 2012 (original 2009)
Quadrille Publishing Limited

Claudia Roden
The Food of Spain

It took Claudia Roden 5 years to research her most recent book The Food of Spain.  Each visit to Spain unearthed more food memories than she could have hoped for.  Each contact came up with yet another person to meet.  She would talk food favourites, festivals and folk history in kitchens as "people open up in the kitchen, not in the living room".  Most, be they workers or nobility, spoke of peasant cuisine being central to their food memories.

Claudia's thesis is that Spain's history of conquering armies meant a population on the move and tastes were, by necessity, unsophisticated. The aristocrats despised vegetables and ate meats, mostly game, though rabbits were left to the lower orders.  In Bourbon and Habsburg times the Spanish nobility ate French cuisine.  They followed the lead of King Philip V who employed cooks trained in the French court at Versailles.  The current haute cuisine in Spain, she was assured, was a cuisine of "today", though chefs claim to look to the roots of Spanish food for inspiration. 

A quote from the Catalan writer Josep Pia "A country's cuisine is its landscape in a cooking pot" is apt.  The diversity of the landscape of Spain has led to three styles of cooking: the sea; the plain; and, the mountains.  Claudia pointed out that, unlike Italy, dishes are not contained within regional borders.  Read more ...

Published 2012
Penguin Group

Cod
by Mark Kurlansky

I never thought I'd be recommending a book on the subject of Cod as a rollicking good read.  This paperback was given to me a year ago and received with polite thanks.  Finally I picked it up and couldn't put it down.  First published in 1997 it is, sadly, just as relevant today as it was then.  It's a celebration of one of nature's great gifts and what happens when we don't treat it with the respect it deserves.  The book takes you on a fast-paced ride through historical fact, folklore, fighting and fishermen's secrets.  Stuffed with detail and written in a lyrical style, Kurlansky's book is fascinating whether describing the life-cycle of the cod, the social history of a fishing community or offering guidance on 'The correct way to flush a cod' - from Hannah Glasse to W H Auden and Louis MacNeice via Emile Zola.

Published 1999
Vintage Books

Books I would like to read in 2014:

Eat by Nigel Slater

The Art of Simple Food II by Alice Waters

One Good Dish: The Pleasures of a Simple Meal by David Tanis
Consider the Fork by Bee Wilson

How to Boil an Egg by Rose Cararrini

The Honey & Co Cookbook by Itamar Srulovic & Sarit Packer (due to be published Summer 2014)

I hereby resolve not to commit Tsundoku in 2014.

Pumpkin Soup - Bocuse via Hopkinson

Pumpkin Soup

Squash and pumpkins come in all sizes, from 'Baby Bear' and 'Jack be Little', both around 10-18 cm in diameter, to the monstrous 'Atlantic Giant' which has been grown to over 300kg.  They come in all shapes and colours too - the muted flesh coloured butternut; steel blue teardrop-shaped 'Blue Ballet'; dark green 'Table Queen' shaped like an acorn; fiery round 'Rouge vif d-Etampes'; dusky orange-brown 'Moschata Muscade' tasting faintly of nutmeg; the blue-black of the well-named 'Ironbark'; and the  extravagantly top-knotted yellow/green/orange/white 'Turk's Turban'.

Although the French and Americans prize them, until fairly recently in the UK we mostly stuck to growing summer squashes.  The simple reason for this is although pumpkins are easy to grow, a dry, warm period is needed to harden the skins for keeping through winter.  A warm dry autumn here is not something we can take for granted but this year has been exceptional and harvests have been good.

'Uchiki Kuri' Pumpkin Squash

Personally I have no need for enormous pumpkins so I tend to stick to growing 'Butternut' or 'Uchiki Kuri', each of which grows to around half a kilo to a kilo in weight.  The flesh of both is deliciously sweet but the 'Uchiki Kuri' has a lovely chestnut flavour and a vibrant orange colour which just makes you want to tuck in.

Pumpkin soup straight from the oven

This adapted recipe comes from Simon Hopkinson's book The Vegetarian Option.  Based on a classic Paul Bocuse recipe, Simon Hopkinson has paired back the original reducing the dish to its essence of pumpkin, cream and cheese.  My adaptation is slight.  Apart from reducing the quantities to work for a smaller pumpkin, I added some fried sage leaves at the end.  They work but are they necessary?  Frankly, no but if you want an extra something, sage makes a good partner for pumpkin.  Like Hopkinson, I think the word 'soup' doesn't really describe this dish well.  It's more of a creamed pumpkin.  Whatever you want to call it, it is rich and absolutely delicious.

I used an 'Uchiki Kuri' weighing barely 500g here which was enough to serve two people but 'Jack be Little' would be a good choice if you wanted to serve individual ones.  It also has the advantage of a softer, edible, skin.

Pumpkin Soup (Bocuse via Hopkinson)
(Recipe Serves 2 but can be easily scaled up)

1 pumpkin weighting 500g (1lb) or 2 smaller pumpkins
150ml  (¼ pint) double cream
1 small garlic clove, flattened and peeled.
Salt and pepper
50g (2oz) Gruyere or Beaufort cheese, grated
A few sage leaves, fried until crisp (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200C (fan 180C)/Gas 6.
Heat the cream with the garlic, salt and pepper until it barely simmers.  Take off the heat and leave to infuse for 20 minutes.
Slice off the top of the pumpkin a quarter of the way down to make a lid and keep to one side.
Scoop out the seeds and stringy membrane.
Strain the infused cream into the cavity and discard the garlic.  Add the cheese. Top with the lid.
Bake in a roasting tin in the oven for about 1 hour until the flesh of the pumpkin is tender when pierced with a fork.  The skin should be lightly browned - turn the heat down slightly if it is becoming burnt.  Lift off the lid and add the crisped sage leaves for decoration (if using).

Serve with a crunchy salad.

KäseSwiss - Swiss cheese appreciation

KäseSwiss
Le Sousbois

One of the great joys of living in London is that it is a magnet for the best producers and traders. That's not to say there aren't parts of the country where you can find a great mix of local producers. Because the market in London is vast, producers want to trade here and the competition tends to drive up quality.  When it comes to cheese, this is something I particularly appreciate.  

There are some great cheese shops around the UK now, but in London I can buy the best British and Irish cheeses at Neal's Yard Dairy; try out the new from Kappacasein; choose from the great range of French cheeses at Mons; and the best the Dutch have to offer from Boerenkaas. All of these businesses trade within a couple of hundred metres of each other.  Alongside them is the outstanding Swiss cheese importer KäseSwiss.  Each business sells its cheeses wholesale, some around the world, so you may be buying it in your local specialist cheese shop but being able to buy directly from the maker, importer or maturer every week is a real treat.  And then, of course, there's the 'cheese chat' - but maybe you have to have worked in a cheese shop to enjoy that!

Before I encountered Rachael Sills, the founder of KäseSwiss, my knowledge of Swiss cheese extended little beyond Gruyère and Vacherin Mont d'Or (which is made from pasteurised milk as opposed to the French version which is generally unpasteurised).  Both admirable cheeses but, as I now know, it's a shame to stop there.  Rachael started her career in cheese in 1995 at Neal's Yard Dairy.  A move to Zurich saw her seeking out the best Swiss cheeses and then in 2005 she formed KäseSwiss to bring traditional artisan cheese to the UK.  For the past three years Rachael has judged the World Cheese Awards and this year she formed the British Cheesemongers Guild.  

Appenzeller, L'Etivaz, Emmentaler and Stilsitzer had not previously attracted me.  There being so many fantastic British hard cheeses around they'd have to be really good to impress.  Quality and expert maturing matter hugely, of course, and the ones KäseSwiss source are right up there on both counts.  Apart from these, and the best selection of Gruyères, you may find a deliciously sticky textured Vacherin Fribourgeois or a creamy Tomme Fleurette on the counter.  Right now you can get a punchy little cow's milk Le Sousbois, matured in a pine-bark collar.

KäseSwiss open the shutters on Druid Street, Bermondsey every Saturday 09.00-2pm to sell alongside like-minded businesses.  If you miss that opportunity, you can buy their cheeses from Patricia Michelson's excellent Marylebone branch of La Fromagerie (which also stocks some Neal's Yard Dairy and Mons cheeses).

If you aren't impressed with the Swiss cheeses you're tasting, try KäseSwiss.

KäseSwiss
104 Druid Street
London
SE1 2HQ

Quince & ginger sponge pudding

Quince

The first time I cut into a quince the unyielding flesh, gritty with stone cells, and its pale, off-white, unappealing colour tending to oxidise made me despair of making anything from it.  It was the flowery aroma with notes of tropical fruit that made me buy it.  There it sat, for at least a week, perfuming my kitchen until I plucked up courage to cook it.

Poached Quince

Most of that distinctive aroma is concentrated in the skin and, like the apples and pears to which it is related, its skin cooks down well.  In Middle-Eastern cooking the quince is usually added, unpeeled, to meat dishes which are then cooked for several hours.  In the West we often remove the skin, seemingly only for aesthetic reasons, just as we regularly peel apples for cooking.  Note to self: think twice before peeling.

Picked when it turns a pale yellow, long, slow cooking with sugar softens the natural astringency of the quince and turns the flesh ruby-red and translucent.  High in pectin, it makes wonderful jam, jelly, syrup and fruit cheese or Membrillo.  It was used by the Portuguese to make the original 'marmalade' (marmelo being Portuguese for quince) before it was usurped by the Seville orange. In 16th century France quince were stored immersed in honey.

The Quince has long been associated with love. Brides scented their breath with a bite of quince.  Poets referred to it in their love poems.  Despite searching long and hard, I can find no better love poem than the one Jane Grigson recommended.

" …When it stood fragrant on the bough and the leaves 
had woven for it a covering of brocade,

I gently put up my hand to pluck it and to set it
like a  censer in the middle of my room. 

It had a cloak of ash-coloured down hovering over
its smooth golden body,

and when it lay naked in my hand, with nothing more than
its daffodil-coloured shift,

it made me think of her I cannot mention, and I feared
the ardour of my breath would shrivel it in my fingers…"

                                                                          Shafer ben Utman al-Mushafi

Quince & ginger steamed sponge pudding

From Moorish Andalucia to England.  To mark the change from autumn to winter,  I've married a favourite simple ginger steamed sponge recipe with a vanilla scented poached quince for a very English style steamed pudding.

Quince & ginger steamed sponge pudding
with cream

Quince & ginger steamed sponge pudding
(Serves 4-6)

About 400g poached quince, including syrup
115g (4oz) softened butter
60g (2oz) soft dark brown sugar
2 medium eggs
115g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 knob of preserved stem ginger + a little syrup, OR, 1 tsp ground ginger
A pinch of salt
1 tablespoon milk

Lightly butter a 550ml (1 pint) pudding basin and in the bottom place the poached quince (and preserved ginger if using) with the syrup.
In a small bowl, lightly beat the eggs together.  In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, (powdered ginger, if using) and pinch of salt.
Cream the soft butter with the sugar well then gradually add the eggs, beating well - add a tablespoon of flour if the mixture begins to curdle.  
Gently fold in the dry ingredients followed by the milk.
Spoon the mixture on top of the quince.
Cover the basin with a square of buttered greaseproof paper (folded into a pleat) and tie in place.  Top with a pleated square of kitchen foil.
Steam for 1 hour.

Good served with a thin custard or cream.

England Preserves

Seasonal Specials
at England Preserves

The renewed interest in home preserving is a trend I hope will long continue.  A desire to be more self-sufficient and, hopefully, a little less wasteful has in recent years sent many more of us foraging and gleaning, reaching for the jam pan and bottling our finds.  Eliza Acton, Constance Spry, Jane Grigson and the Women's Institute were where most of us turned for guidance when faced with a hedgerow harvest or a glut on the allotment.  Often, these days, the first port of call is the internet. However, some good preserving books have hit the shelves over the past couple of years.  Diana Henry's Salt Sugar Smoke is one of the best I've found.

Allotment harvest

Having an old tried and tested recipe for strawberry jam is a wonderful thing, but, in the pages of these more recent books lies inspiration for preserving the less obvious pickings.  These recipes are also more likely to retain the flavour of the prime ingredient at the forefront.  This may mean the preserve won't keep so long.  Times change and our tastes change too.  

Bergeron Apricot Jam
from England Preserves

Preserving is not all about jams.  However, as the fruit:sugar ratio of that preserve has excited so much debate recently, I will come off that particularly sticky fence and declare myself in favour of using less sugar.  I'm more interested in tasting the fruit than having jars of sweet unidentifiable spreads lining my larder.  My level of preserving is modest so I'm no expert and I'm always on the look-out to see who's doing it well.  It's a crowded market and I've tried and tested aplenty before settling on a personal favourite.

Sky Cracknell and Kai Knutsen began making jams in their home kitchen in 2001.  Selling initially on Farmers' Markets, their England Preserves are now stocked by an impressive list of food shops, cafes and restaurants.  Fruits are sourced as close to their Bermondsey base as possible.  At this time the focus of their attention is the apple, pear and quince harvest.  They take full advantage of the fantastic crops from Brogdale in Kent.  Fruit butters such as 'Salcott Pippin & Cinnamon' and 'Beurre de Beugny Pear butter with Vanilla' are favourites in our house right now.  We are also just coming to the end of our stock of Bergeron Apricot Jam.  The vibrant colour and stunning apricot taste of this jam convinced me I'd found my favourite preserve-maker.  Jams, fruit-butters and fruit-cheeses (Damson, first this season, and now Quince) are made in small batches, cooking the fruit gently to retain "flavour and colour" and using as little sugar as possible.  It's a sympathetic approach which I can relate to.  When my own fruit harvests are exhausted, England Preserves is my larder.

England Preserves
See website for list of stockists.
Also open Saturdays for direct retail sales from their production unit at:
Arch 4 Spa North
London SE16 4EJ

Ossi dei Morti - Bones of the dead

Ossi dei Morti
- Bones of the dead

On 31st October much of the Christian Western world marks All Hallows' Eve or Hallowe-en, or All Saints' Eve, a festival with arguably pagan or Christian origins.  In Italy, most will wait for All Saints' (or Souls) Day itself and celebrate Tutti Morti, or  Day of the Dead on 2 November.  This is the day for remembering your departed ancestors.

There is no one dish associated with the celebration in Italy.  Each region has its own favourites, but biscuits often play a part.  Ossi dei Morti translates as 'bones of the dead' and they're one of the many types baked at this time.  I've been making these little morsels for years since coming across the recipe in Chez Panisse Desserts by Lindsey Remolif Shere.  They're meant to resemble bleached, brittle, bones and their macabre name is part of the appeal.

Dead man's bones

I've scaled down the original recipe and the quantities I've used here will produce around 40 biscuits.  I've also used a tiny drop of Amaretto liquor instead of almond essence.  Hand-chopping the almonds is worth the effort for that extra crunch, but you can chop them briefly in a processor to save time.

Ossi dei Morti (adapted from Chez Panisse Desserts by Lindsey Remolif Shere)
(makes around 40)

70g almonds (skin on)
225g caster sugar
½ level teaspoon baking powder
Small pinch of salt
1 scant teaspoon lemon juice
1 large egg
A few drops of Amaretto liquor or almond essence
100g plain soft flour

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C fan oven/Gas 4.  Place the unskinned almonds on a baking tray and roast lightly for 5 minutes before chopping roughly.
Turn the oven down to 150C/130C fan oven/Gas 2.  Line 2-3 baking trays with parchment.
Mix the sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon juice.  Add the eggs and Amaretto or almond essence and beat well until the mixture takes on a spongy look.  Mix in the flour and chopped almonds.
Turn out on a lightly floured surface and roll the dough with your hands into ropes about 1 cm thick.  Cut into 3-4cm lengths.  Place on the baking trays 6cm apart and bake for 15-20 minutes until very lightly coloured.  
They'll keep for a week in an airtight container.

Happy haunting!

Mons Cheesemongers - Rating the Reblochon

Reblochon tasting
at Mons Cheesemongers

I've got to say from the outset that I'm a committed British cheese eater.  I've not only watched the re-birth of our artisan cheese industry with interest but actively participated in its revival to the point where I'm pretty sure I've sampled each and every type of British cheese at some point.  Yes, I am a cheese nerd.

I came late to Swiss cheeses - Gruyere was something you added to an omelette if you wanted to get fancy in our house, not a cheese to savour in its own right.  I now know better and, thanks to Rachael Sills of Käseswiss, that there is very much more to Swiss cheese than Gruyere.

When it comes to French cheeses though, I head to Mons Cheesemongers and  I'm not alone.  If you eat out anywhere in the the capital, and beyond, where they source with care, some of their cheeses almost certainly come from Mons.  Founded in France by Hubert Mons, the business is a family affair now involving the patriarch's children and grandchildren.  Cheeses are matured at their cellars at St Haon le Chatel in the Rhône-Alpes.  The British arm of the business was formed in 2006 and sells French and Swiss cheeses directly to shops and restaurants around the UK and also has a stall at Borough Market.  On Saturdays, the shutters at their Bermondsey base are flung open to reveal a spread which, according to the season, may include creamy Perail, ash-dusted Fromage Cathare, vine-wrapped Mistralou or erupting Vacherin Mont d'Or.

An invitation to learn about and select the best Reblochon cheese was too good for any self-respecting cheese nerd to turn down.  The prospect of spending 2-3 hours on a Friday night in a south London railway arch was, I was sure, not going to appeal to many people.  How wrong could I be.  At least 50 cheese- makers, mongers, buyers and enthusiasts are grouped over cheese slates, each bearing 6 quarters of Haute-Savoie potential heaven.  Full cream, unpasteurised cows milk and a little alchemy produces a 10-12cm discus of semi-soft cheese with a fat content of 45%.  Don't be afraid - saturated fat is not the enemy.  As in all things, moderation is the key although tonight is an exception.  It's not often you get the chance to compare and contrast on this scale.  Add to that a welcoming glass of white poured from a magnum by Guillaume Aubert.  Then, with the cheeses a couple of biodynamic wines courtesy of Cipriano Barsanti from 60 year old Tuscan vineyard Macea, stocked in the UK by Aubert and Mascoli.  This biodynamic vineyard practices minimal intervention and produces fewer than 1,000 bottles of each of its two outstanding wines in which they are "always looking for personality and a sense of place".  I like both the sentiment and the wines.

Negotiant and maturer, Jean-Pierre Missilier, ably translated by Jon Thrupp and Jane Hastings of Mons UK, gave us a run-through of the 200 year history of Reblochon.  If, like me, you enjoy the way French cheese names roll deliciously off the tongue without giving too much thought to how they got their name, this will be news to you too.  Reblochon derives from the verb "reblocher", meaning to "squeeze a cow's udder again" and refers to the C13th practice of not fully milking the cow until after the landlord's back was turned.  Mountain farmers, being taxed according to the amount of milk their herds produced, would not fully milk the cows until after the landowner had measured the yield.  The second milking also provided the richest milk and was used to make a creamy cheeses.

First produced in the Thônes and Arly valleys, in the Aravis massif, Reblochon was granted AOC status in 1958 and is subject to strict controls over its production.  The cheese-making process must begin no later than 30 minutes after milking and the finished Reblochon is at its best at around 40 days old.

So, what of the tasting?  Of the six, only one was a red herring, its inclusion serving as an example of all that can go wrong with a cheese - rubbery of texture with a distinctly overly-acidic smell and slightly uric taste.  Two were perfectly good examples of the type, creamy and fruity tasting, their aroma making you long for a dish of Tartiflette.  The other three were more special.  A savoury flavour adding edge to the fruitiness and carrying a hint of the spruce wood to the velvety whey-washed rind.  One was rejected because it wasn't firm enough to stand for long on a cheeseboard  and it's from the remaining two that Mons will choose the Reblochon special  enough to join their list.

A taste of local "Gentiane" digestif brought by Jean-Pierre and we went on our sated way with a determination to look out for that particularly good Mons Reblochon.

Mons Cheesemongers

You can learn more about Reblochon at Culture Cheese Magazine

Return to The Green Man and French Horn

Game Consommé at
The Green Man and French Horn

It's now almost a year since I wrote about The Green Man and French Horn which opened in September 2012.  Since then it's garnered a string of awards so I thought I'd give you a quick update.  First, you might want to read my original piece to save me from repeating myself: The Green Man and French Horn

I've returned a number of times since then and a revisit today convinced me this place has to be offering the best value meal in town right now.  You can still expect to pay around £40-45 a head, and it's still a lovely menu, but it's the amazing value 'Theatre Menu' which makes it stand out.  Between 12.00-19.00 The Green Man and French Horn offers 2 courses for £12.50 or 3 courses for £15.00 with a choice of 3 starters, 3 mains and 2 dishes at dessert.  The menu changes daily but today for instance you could choose from starters of Pork Rillettes, Game Consommé or Beetroot, anchovy & Walnuts; mains of Hake, mussels, capers & tomatoes, Galette Bretonne with Vendee ham, eggs & cheese or Sausage & Puy lentils; Desserts of White chocolate mousse & Muscat grapes or Crêpes with salted butter caramel. 

Hake, mussels, capers & tomatoes at
The Green Man and French Horn

The consommé was gamey yet delicate and pepped up with herbs of parsley and tarragon.  A perfectly cooked fillet of hake was served on a herby broth with mussels and tomatoes and a kick of capers.  The crêpes with salted butter caramel were utterly delicious.  With glasses each of Milliard d'Etoile Domaine de la Garretiére at £6.00 and a 2004 Vouvray Les Morandières Domaine Lemaire-Fournier at  £4.75 the bill was a bargain at just under £60 for two including service.  I know of no better deal in London.

Crêpes with Salted butter caramel at
The Green Man and French Horn

What's more, Ed Wilson is still in the kitchen and Laura is still behind the bar.  This place is every bit as good as it looks.


The Green Man and French Horn
54 St Martin's Lane
London WC2N 4EA
Tel: 020 7836 2645

MARCH 2015 UPDATE: Sadly, now closed -  go around the corner to Terroirs at 5 William IV Street WC2N 4DW