book: the entire beast

Fergus Henderson says it's only polite to eat the whole beast once you've knocked it on the head. It'd be insulting to just eat the fillet.

A large part of why I watched MasterChef last year was because there was one contestant, Chris Badenoch, who took that philosophy and ran with it every chance he got. Sometimes it didn't work, but other times it did. The roasted pig head remains one of the best things I've seen done on a cooking show. Artistic in its simplicity and potential to confront and offend.

I was skeptical of the man's book. I mean, it's a natural thing. The guy isn't a trained chef. He's read a few books. He's probably roasted a few pig heads. He becomes famous through a game show and then, a year later, releases a cookbook that will sit in the same section as Borders as the excellent works of Fergus Henderson himself.

Visually, I hate to say it, the book didn't alleviate my concerns. Some of the photos are nice--the crumbed assorted pig bits accompanied by beer looked great--but the look and feel of the book didn't work for me at all. And that's a shame. I wanted the book to be good.

And, thankfully, it is. It's really good. Yes, he's a guy from a television show.  And no, he's not yet a professional chef--the Smith St venture, Josie Bones, is yet to open. But fuck all that. The recipes are gold. They're rustic. He doesn't fuck around. Anyone that slow cooks, crumbs and deep fries pig ears in three different recipes and recommends some matching beers is kind at heart and sensible upstairs.

The book isn't for everyone but, again, neither was Fergus Henderson's. The very title (much like Nose to Tail) is unapologetic. You know what you're in for. At the same time, I think it's an accessible book. I don't personally have a problem with books that have no or few images but I do think they lack accessibility to newcomers. If people can see just how good those crumbed bits of pig or slow-cooked lamb obscurities look then they'll be more inclined to try them.

There are all kinds of sound ideas  in this book. I was glad to see my favourite cut of lamb--the neck--get a look in and I liked his heart of half-roasting, half-steaming ducks in beer. I was confronted by his recipe for lamb heart tartare. Indeed, I'd say it was the most interesting recipe I'd read in months. I couldn't stop thinking about it until I had the chance to Google it. I was concerned that the heart, full of connective tissue, would make for tough tartare unless you trimmed the shit out of it. Turns out some guy in the US makes it in his restaurant in Austin or Dallas or wherever and it's actually--if all those reviews I read are accurate--pretty good.

Most of these recipes are refined versions of something somewhere else has done. If you own either of Fergus Henderson's books you'll see plenty of winks and nods to his classic dishes. And this is okay. They're not so much clones as they are children of the originals. Children who really like beer.