Don't Try This at Home by Kimberly Witherspoon & Andrew Friedman

Author:Kimberly Witherspoon & Andrew Friedman [Witherspoon, Kimberly & Friedman, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cooking, General
ISBN: 9781408820537
Google: bqAP8NuqRs4C
Publisher: A&C Black
Published: 2010-12-14T16:00:00+00:00

Genus Loci

FERGUS HENDERSON

Fergus Henderson trained as an architect before becoming a chef, opening the French House Dining Room in 1992 and St John in 1995, which has won numerous awards and accolades, including Best British and Best Overall London Restaurant at the 2001 Moet & Chandon Restaurant Awards. He is the author of The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating, winner of the 2000 Andre Simon Award.

IT WAS THE middle of an evening service, orders were rattling out of the printer on the pass; there was a good flow afoot. The chefs were, each and every one, full steam ahead. Suddenly a commis chef of a very bouncy nature gave out a cry and became more than usually agitated. Clasping her ample chest, she shouted, "I've lost my crystal! Where's my crystal?" A matter not of the greatest urgency during the middle of a busy service, but after sending half a pot roast pig's head for two—a thing of joy—I went to enquire what the problem was. The commis chef explained: in her previous life she had worked with a vet in a large stable, during which time she had discovered a lump in one of her breasts. A real do-it-yourself kind of girl, she had dosed herself up on horse tranquilizer and proceeded to cut out the lump, and then sew the wound back up. To complete this surgery, she had nestled a healing crystal into the resultant indent. This, not surprisingly, took the kitchen somewhat aback. All chefs and kitchen porters stopped what they were doing to start looking for this far-from-ordinary stone.

Well, now that we are on our hands and knees scouring the kitchen floor for the crystal, it seems a good moment to ponder the peculiar nature of restaurants, this recent discovery putting one into a thoughtful frame of mind.

The kitchen—which in my experience is staffed by an extraordinarily diverse group of people who become an incredibly close team when dressed in their whites, inhabit a fairly inhospitable space, and produce delicious food on time at different times—is the heart of a restaurant. Even speaking as a chef, a restaurant is not just the food (though let's not forget how vital that is), but it is more. It is the "whole catastrophe" which comes together to create the magic that can exist in a great restaurant. Genus loci (the spirit of time and place) is strong in the world of restaurants.

When asked to cook a grand lunch at another establishment, could we make it very St John? We were delighted. Encapsulating spring and St John perfectly, we prepared a lunch of gull's eggs and celery salt, then a slice of jellied tripe. (I know the word tripe strikes fear into the stomachs of many, but we have won over the most fervent antitripists with jellied tripe.) This was followed by braised squirrel and wild garlic. Gamekeepers at this time of year are culling squirrel, as they are seen as vermin, so there is much squirrel around. It is delicious and cooks very well, rather like wild rabbit.

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