Two Dozen Eggs: Pocket Stories for Cooks

by Hugh Corcoran, Peter Doyle (Illustrator), Rachel Roddy (Introduction)

Two Dozen Eggs by Hugh Corcoran is a pocketbook collection of short stories and recipes.

Hugh Corcoran is a cook from Belfast who has spent the most part of the last decade living and working in the Basque Country and France.

This book contains a collection of short stories written over the period of a few months but based on the memories and experiences of those places and his childhood in Ireland.

The recipes are intentionally vague with the view to encouraging the reader and cook to think for themselves and follow their intuition, which is where all good cooking comes from.

Two Dozen Eggs features an introduction by Rachel Roddy and is illustrated by Peter Doyle.

211 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Olivia Stepper]

Very short vignettes all centered around food and followed by a vague recipe for the meal featured in the story. Very cute, a lot of the stories were either in Ireland or Basque country which I was a little surprised by. Flew by on the train home from boston!

[Abby]

simply fantastic. the kind of writing I would love to write.

[Maisie]

I really didn’t expect to love these stories as much as I did. I felt as if they were written with me in mind - so quiet, almost romantic and I loved the simplicity and lack of instruction to the recipes. Hugh Corcoran clearly adores Ireland, France, their people and their food.

[Emanuel]

I was fooled by the perfect size and format of this book, the illustrations, the sparse layout with the serif font and the "stories about cooking and eating" premise. Ask me if I remember any of these stories or if any of them struck a nerve or made me feel anything, anything at all (there was only one exception, a little over page 100). They're all so lackluster, so flat and empty of emotions that are immediately forgettable.

I couldn't quite figure out why I had such a hard time with this book until I read this:
"What she would do for the rest of the day she had no idea. The loneliness and boredom of old age sometimes made her extremely sad." And there were the three words that I would use to describe pretty much all the characters in this book: bored, lonely, sad. Which is exactly how I felt every time I would put this down.

I don't know if the author was going for a "style" or why, for a book with cooking stories, he chose prose that is devoid of any feeling associated with eating and tasting good good and flavours and smells. It's so mundane, like the stories lack all the ingredients that make the food he describes read tasty.

The recipes could come in handy, perhaps, especially if you're into Irish food, but I don't think I'll be using any of them any time soon. Not sure why he felt the need to add one for a soft boiled egg, but it was in the story so I guess it makes sense? I don't know, I'm just glad this is over; it was making me feel very emo every time I was reading it, like hanging out with someone who's always broody.

[Solomon Plotch]

3.75

Really nice collection of short stories with some great food guidance. The guy really spoke my language a lot here!

[Jenina]

Only good olive oil and vegetables. Plainly beautiful glimpses of each other’s tables.

[Edvin]

This book was such a sweet warm hug read, to me. I loved all the little glimpses into lives that felt really very real, to me. It's clear that Hugh is not only well traveled, but keenly observant and, I would imagine, a great listener.

I have yet to try any of the recipes, except the omelette recipe which I didn't really eat as an omelette, but throw chunks of into fried rice.

It was a 5/5 for comfort at sweetness until the last 3-4 stories which I felt dragged it on a little longer than it needed to be and made it from a short cute little book, to a medium cute medium book—a format which I think works less in its advantage than the former would've.

However, for a debut, excellent work. No hunger—pun intended—for a sequel of this format, but I would check out another format of project from Hugh.

A very 4/5, 4/5.

[Daniela D. M.]

I ended 2024 reading this book and it was a great combination of short stories. I love that the stories take place in the U.K., Spain, and France. The recipes are ones of revolution, love, acceptance, and humor. My favorite stories are of the girl who eats cake and is sleeping with an older man, of the couple in Basque country, the women who borrows eggs from her eclectic neighbor, and the old man who dies with friends who care for him.

[Gnarly Charly]

Ive been talking with my friends a lot about the concept of “The village”. For me, this book is about that. It shows the bond between friends and strangers. How people take care of each other and love one another on a broad level. I love the illustrations that go with the chapters and the recipes that function as a kind of summary or filter of the story that you’ve just read.

[Shubo]

A lovely book to start the year with! I loved delving into Hugh’s world and the people he’s encountered over the years. I loved the fusion of storytelling and recipe-sharing, alongside the recurring themes of relationships and loneliness seeping throughout the book.

[Robinvanl]

Not perfectly written and some sentences are annoying, but also, so charming. The drawings are amazing

[akoz]

amazing!!! humble!!! could read it forever!!!!

[D.R.O]

picked this up at o’connelly’s in dublin for my trip home ~ part memoir, part recipe + cooking guidance which is humble and nice imo

[Phil]

Such a cool concept, plus I read this in a book shop in Scotland so it gets bonus points for that

[Luna]

cute! more for lovers of food than for lovers of books

[tobes]

such a beautiful read. purposefully read it slowly as it was one of those books where I didn’t want it to come to it’s end.