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First, Catch: Study of a Spring Meal
NOMINATED FOR THE 2018 ANDRE SIMON FOOD & DRINK BOOK OF THE YEAR
BBC RADIO 4 FOOD PROGRAMME BEST FOOD BOOKS OF 2018
THE TIMES BEST FOOD BOOKS OF 2018
FINANCIAL TIMES SUMMER FOOD BOOKS OF 2018
"A one-off, the kind of food book that I believed was no longer being published... When I reached the last page, I went back to the beginning." – Bee Wilson, The Times
"A book as rich and rewarding as the rabbit stew he spends so many chapters making." – Jenny Linford, Times Literary Supplement
"A wonderful taste of fresh air... First, Catch is almost revolutionary... His words are delicious, musical heaven." – William Sitwell
‘Thom Eagle’s writing is pure joy – effortless and unaffected. Even such a seemingly banal and simple thing as boiling vegetables is engaging and illuminating in his hands. He is easily one of my favourite writers, and this book deserves to become a classic.” – Olia Hercules, author of Mamushka and Kaukasis
"It feels so tantalisingly transgressive to find a book that looks beautiful, feels lovely in the hand and just contains words — gorgeous, thoughtful essays... from a talented chef and writer." - Tim Hayward, Financial Times
‘The thing to do is just begin. The question, of course, is where?’
So opens Thom Eagle’s hymn to a singular early spring meal. A cookbook without recipes, this is an invitation to journey through the mind of a chef as they work. Stand next to Thom in the kitchen as he muses on the very best way to coax flavour out of an onion (slowly, and with more care than you might expect), or considers the crucial role of salt in the creation of the perfect assembly for early green shoots and leaves.
In an era when we are so distracted that we eat almost without realising what we’ve just put in our mouth, this is food and writing to savour, gently steering the cook back towards simplicity, confidence and, above all, taste.
BBC RADIO 4 FOOD PROGRAMME BEST FOOD BOOKS OF 2018
THE TIMES BEST FOOD BOOKS OF 2018
FINANCIAL TIMES SUMMER FOOD BOOKS OF 2018
"A one-off, the kind of food book that I believed was no longer being published... When I reached the last page, I went back to the beginning." – Bee Wilson, The Times
"A book as rich and rewarding as the rabbit stew he spends so many chapters making." – Jenny Linford, Times Literary Supplement
"A wonderful taste of fresh air... First, Catch is almost revolutionary... His words are delicious, musical heaven." – William Sitwell
‘Thom Eagle’s writing is pure joy – effortless and unaffected. Even such a seemingly banal and simple thing as boiling vegetables is engaging and illuminating in his hands. He is easily one of my favourite writers, and this book deserves to become a classic.” – Olia Hercules, author of Mamushka and Kaukasis
"It feels so tantalisingly transgressive to find a book that looks beautiful, feels lovely in the hand and just contains words — gorgeous, thoughtful essays... from a talented chef and writer." - Tim Hayward, Financial Times
‘The thing to do is just begin. The question, of course, is where?’
So opens Thom Eagle’s hymn to a singular early spring meal. A cookbook without recipes, this is an invitation to journey through the mind of a chef as they work. Stand next to Thom in the kitchen as he muses on the very best way to coax flavour out of an onion (slowly, and with more care than you might expect), or considers the crucial role of salt in the creation of the perfect assembly for early green shoots and leaves.
In an era when we are so distracted that we eat almost without realising what we’ve just put in our mouth, this is food and writing to savour, gently steering the cook back towards simplicity, confidence and, above all, taste.
188 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2018
21 people are currently reading
839 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
January 29, 2019
Fantastic, calming, well written book. Eagles contemplative chapters are almost like a new manifesto on how to cook. It remains very grounded and self aware. It was a brilliant read, I haven’t read anything like it before and I’m sure I won’t after.
November 6, 2022
Made me hungry. Good tips on cooking potatoes
June 19, 2020
I was intrigued by Thom Eagle’s “First, Catch” from the moment I read the author’s charming “preamble,” where he notes, “Although I don’t think my palate or nose particularly refined, they are certainly hard-wired to my memory; my spots of time are almost all edible.” From this beautifully written start, I expected more of a memoir about how food and cooking shaped Eagle’s life and memories, and there is certainly some of that here. First and foremost, however, “First, Catch” is the memoir of one particular meal, a 9-course spring lunch Eagle is preparing for friends, and of how he planned, cooked and served it. (The is title of the book Is, after all, “The Story of a Meal.”) As this meal simmers and takes shape in Eagle’s Suffolk kitchen, he takes the reader on sidebars into the theory and science of cooking (pondering questions such as can you ”cook” with salt—brining—or does heat always need to be involved?), the history of food and food preparations, and the practicalities of chopping vegetables or sweating onions. Admittedly, this was more of a how-to cookbook than I expected or wanted—I struggle to boil an egg and have no real desire to improve my limited kitchen skills—but I still enjoyed Eagle’s charming voice, even while skimming through the more technical sections. Serious home chefs and food enthusiasts, however, should certainly appreciate and enjoy “First, Catch” in its entirety.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Grove Press for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Grove Press for providing me with an ARC of this title in return for my honest review.
July 13, 2022
was interesting but took a long time to finish the last couple chapters
biggest takeaways:
- the background of the ingredient is more important than the recipe (ex. if a recipe calls for 1 onion, the sweetness, size, where it was grown matters and is prob different for each person making the recipe), once you know your ingredient, you can adjust salt / sweetness / sourness accordingly irrespective of the recipe
- focus attention on the ingredients in a recipe not the steps to cook it
- i liked the style of having stories, explanations of techniques, and "recipes" all intertwined
biggest takeaways:
- the background of the ingredient is more important than the recipe (ex. if a recipe calls for 1 onion, the sweetness, size, where it was grown matters and is prob different for each person making the recipe), once you know your ingredient, you can adjust salt / sweetness / sourness accordingly irrespective of the recipe
- focus attention on the ingredients in a recipe not the steps to cook it
- i liked the style of having stories, explanations of techniques, and "recipes" all intertwined
November 1, 2019
Erudite, lyrical, and warm. My three favourite traits in a book! This is a wonderful journey through preparing a meal to share with friends. Eagle’s menu takes shape as he explores ingredients and methods of cooking, all the while delightfully meandering through food history, theory, and anecdotes from his life. Thom Eagle has a wonderful and inspiring voice for food writing.
5 stars for me! I’ll be returning to this one whenever I need a ‘lil cooking inspiration.
5 stars for me! I’ll be returning to this one whenever I need a ‘lil cooking inspiration.
March 11, 2021
Eagle’s has recreated that feeling of post meal contentment with this wonderful memoir/ manual/ recipe book. Aside from giving informative explanations of preparation and cooking methods he writes about food in such an enjoyable way that there wasn’t a chapter I didn’t like.
Edit* And the few recipes I’ve done are legit!
Edit* And the few recipes I’ve done are legit!
January 22, 2021
‘First, Catch‘, a beautiful book by chef Thom Eagle, is the antithesis of functional and practical guides to preparing dishes.
That is not to say that in reading it you miss out on a chef’s art.
Quite the opposite.
What unfurls in the pages of his delicious celebration of a Spring meal is a lyrical and loving journey into a chef’s mind as he weighs up potential ingredients, their history and the ways which they work together, the evolution of methods and why they work, the very essence of the meal itself. This book is not about lists and temperatures and volumes; this book is about ingredients, tastes and combinations.
In a chapter ‘On Boiling and Pickling with Water‘, we learn, for example, that the French have seventeen words to describe the various stages of water boiling. Thom Eagle guides the reader gently through the cooking that is thus enabled by the characteristics of the water bubbling its way through these various stages.
The language is vivid, but gentle. The reader is simmered, not boiled.
This beautiful book elevates food writing way beyond the functional; it is an imaginary journey towards a lunch (towards the end of the book it is pronounced to be a lunch with 5 friends to taste the very best of the new Spring tastes) … it is an evocation of simplicity and seasonality, lightly sprinkled with provenance and history. It is a rare insight to the mind of a man who has skills and talents but who also – clearly – has an interest in food and experience and knowledge aplenty in its ways and mores.
This is a beguiling book that both makes the reader want to cook more (and better) and encourages you to gather folk around a table to celebrate tastes, of course, but companionship too.
This is not a recipe book … this does not count in the next game of ‘how many cookbooks is enough'. No, this is worth a dedicated space on your shelf of ‘must reads‘, the section of your collection marked ‘read often‘. Like a fine meal, this is a book to savour, brimful of words to roll around the mind and the mouth. This book is an inspiration to learn more, to gather friends, to source great tastes.
But ‘First, Catch‘ …
That is not to say that in reading it you miss out on a chef’s art.
Quite the opposite.
What unfurls in the pages of his delicious celebration of a Spring meal is a lyrical and loving journey into a chef’s mind as he weighs up potential ingredients, their history and the ways which they work together, the evolution of methods and why they work, the very essence of the meal itself. This book is not about lists and temperatures and volumes; this book is about ingredients, tastes and combinations.
In a chapter ‘On Boiling and Pickling with Water‘, we learn, for example, that the French have seventeen words to describe the various stages of water boiling. Thom Eagle guides the reader gently through the cooking that is thus enabled by the characteristics of the water bubbling its way through these various stages.
The language is vivid, but gentle. The reader is simmered, not boiled.
This beautiful book elevates food writing way beyond the functional; it is an imaginary journey towards a lunch (towards the end of the book it is pronounced to be a lunch with 5 friends to taste the very best of the new Spring tastes) … it is an evocation of simplicity and seasonality, lightly sprinkled with provenance and history. It is a rare insight to the mind of a man who has skills and talents but who also – clearly – has an interest in food and experience and knowledge aplenty in its ways and mores.
This is a beguiling book that both makes the reader want to cook more (and better) and encourages you to gather folk around a table to celebrate tastes, of course, but companionship too.
This is not a recipe book … this does not count in the next game of ‘how many cookbooks is enough'. No, this is worth a dedicated space on your shelf of ‘must reads‘, the section of your collection marked ‘read often‘. Like a fine meal, this is a book to savour, brimful of words to roll around the mind and the mouth. This book is an inspiration to learn more, to gather friends, to source great tastes.
But ‘First, Catch‘ …
Read
December 23, 2022 When is a recipe book not a recipe book? When it is a book filled with menu ideas, but has no precise recipes in sight. This is a decidedly different sort of volume that will appeal to food connoisseurs who look more for ways to enhance what they are cooking, rather than seeking actual recipes.
Thom Eagle is a chef based in London England. He has been interested in food much of his life, finally putting pen to paper. His book shows a multitude of ways that can take your cooking to new levels.
The reason why he does not tout exotic recipes is because as he notes, “recipes are lies.” That being said, he does offer ways to prepare certain foods. You can say he subtly includes recipes, even if he does not say he does.
He talks about ways to prepare water, such as the many ways to boil it. In fact there are seventeen steps to accomplish this. Most of us put water on the stove in a pot, turn on the stove and wait for it to boil. Eagles creates a science out of something so simple, and it does take cooking to new levels because of it.
There is a lot happening in the book, with salt the key to everything, from brining to bringing out the best in all sorts of meats. He concentrates on one type of meat in particular which is rabbit, creating the ideal way to blanch and prepare it.
He studies many items on the menu, whether they are celery, potatoes, pickles, broccoli, or sea trout. He incorporates many tricks of the trade, that people take for granted, whipping up the perfect spring (or whatever season) meal. This book is unlike any other food book you would ever read in your lifetime.
Thom Eagle is a chef based in London England. He has been interested in food much of his life, finally putting pen to paper. His book shows a multitude of ways that can take your cooking to new levels.
The reason why he does not tout exotic recipes is because as he notes, “recipes are lies.” That being said, he does offer ways to prepare certain foods. You can say he subtly includes recipes, even if he does not say he does.
He talks about ways to prepare water, such as the many ways to boil it. In fact there are seventeen steps to accomplish this. Most of us put water on the stove in a pot, turn on the stove and wait for it to boil. Eagles creates a science out of something so simple, and it does take cooking to new levels because of it.
There is a lot happening in the book, with salt the key to everything, from brining to bringing out the best in all sorts of meats. He concentrates on one type of meat in particular which is rabbit, creating the ideal way to blanch and prepare it.
He studies many items on the menu, whether they are celery, potatoes, pickles, broccoli, or sea trout. He incorporates many tricks of the trade, that people take for granted, whipping up the perfect spring (or whatever season) meal. This book is unlike any other food book you would ever read in your lifetime.
December 19, 2019
I received an advanced reader's copy of this book through a Goodreads Giveaway - thank you, Goodreads!
An almost stream of consciousness series of essays from a British chef as he inspires and assists the reader to prepare a spring meal, I found this to be a sensuous (in that it speaks to all of our senses) love letter to food, a basic life sustaining need. Including no recipes, since they're all really more like guidelines anyway, but speaking more to technique and flavor, and using our senses to determine when something tastes right, or is done cooking, rather than a somewhat arbitrary number of minutes, you can tell the author loves his subject matter. It's not pretentious, but achingly human, and honors what we eat with the utmost respect and care, really leaving the end result up to the reader and their preferred ingredients, methods, and flavor combinations. For anyone who loves food, enjoys cooking, or perhaps just sitting down to a well-prepared meal, I'd say this is a fairly quick, engaging read, and will make you look at your food, or perhaps just a pot of boiling water, through new eyes.
An almost stream of consciousness series of essays from a British chef as he inspires and assists the reader to prepare a spring meal, I found this to be a sensuous (in that it speaks to all of our senses) love letter to food, a basic life sustaining need. Including no recipes, since they're all really more like guidelines anyway, but speaking more to technique and flavor, and using our senses to determine when something tastes right, or is done cooking, rather than a somewhat arbitrary number of minutes, you can tell the author loves his subject matter. It's not pretentious, but achingly human, and honors what we eat with the utmost respect and care, really leaving the end result up to the reader and their preferred ingredients, methods, and flavor combinations. For anyone who loves food, enjoys cooking, or perhaps just sitting down to a well-prepared meal, I'd say this is a fairly quick, engaging read, and will make you look at your food, or perhaps just a pot of boiling water, through new eyes.
September 19, 2020
*I received a digital copy of this book on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*
If you are looking for a cookbook, you may be felt like you were led slightly astray.... If you were looking for a cookbook of sorts and have a mind for wandering adventures that will eventually get you more or less to where you were going, you are likely the perfect reader for this book.
FIRST, CATCH is a meditative approach to cooking - intimidating for the novice cook, and uninteresting for the stodgy scientifically-minded. I love food. I love thinking about food, eating food, making food, talking to people about what makes the food they love so entirely delicious! Eagle really encourages a slower meditation on food, that allows a reader to sink in and contemplate what makes a spring meal, a spring meal.
I think this would be a lovely gift for a home cook who enjoys thinking about food and likes to cook from the hip rather than from strict recipes. Assuming they have an interest in a lot of French + Italian cooking traditions!
If you are looking for a cookbook, you may be felt like you were led slightly astray.... If you were looking for a cookbook of sorts and have a mind for wandering adventures that will eventually get you more or less to where you were going, you are likely the perfect reader for this book.
FIRST, CATCH is a meditative approach to cooking - intimidating for the novice cook, and uninteresting for the stodgy scientifically-minded. I love food. I love thinking about food, eating food, making food, talking to people about what makes the food they love so entirely delicious! Eagle really encourages a slower meditation on food, that allows a reader to sink in and contemplate what makes a spring meal, a spring meal.
I think this would be a lovely gift for a home cook who enjoys thinking about food and likes to cook from the hip rather than from strict recipes. Assuming they have an interest in a lot of French + Italian cooking traditions!
June 19, 2018
A beautiful meditation, well not really a meditation more like a transcript of all the things that go through a chef’s head as he prepares the menu for one spring meal.
There are so many cool anecdotes and enjoyable considerations. (The five stages of a boiling pot of water and what each stage is best for, the texture of blood in desserts) but my favourite part was it’s reflection on what food is, something that is always consumed faster than it is created, always part of a bigger story than you can realize, and almost always in some part out of your hands.
It’s a unique kind of cookbook that is really making me think about cooking differently, especially as someone who mostly cooks from recipes. This book argues and shows that perfection is the wrong -and futile- metric to look for in food.
There are so many cool anecdotes and enjoyable considerations. (The five stages of a boiling pot of water and what each stage is best for, the texture of blood in desserts) but my favourite part was it’s reflection on what food is, something that is always consumed faster than it is created, always part of a bigger story than you can realize, and almost always in some part out of your hands.
It’s a unique kind of cookbook that is really making me think about cooking differently, especially as someone who mostly cooks from recipes. This book argues and shows that perfection is the wrong -and futile- metric to look for in food.
January 8, 2019
I loved this contemplative book on, not exactly how to cook recipes, but how to understand the best ways of choosing and preparing. Using water, the effect of different boiling temperatures is especially fascinating...but then again, so is most of the book.
Was less keen on the chapters about rabbit and cooking with blood but, nonetheless I was transfixed. Who knew eggs and blood have similar properties when it comes to using them in the kitchen?
It is rambling, yet very focused, detailed in how to make the best of ingredients and yet throws you into the mind, method and madness of cooking. Loved how, even the coffee at the end of the meal is dissected. A fabulous riff on a springtime meal.
Was less keen on the chapters about rabbit and cooking with blood but, nonetheless I was transfixed. Who knew eggs and blood have similar properties when it comes to using them in the kitchen?
It is rambling, yet very focused, detailed in how to make the best of ingredients and yet throws you into the mind, method and madness of cooking. Loved how, even the coffee at the end of the meal is dissected. A fabulous riff on a springtime meal.
July 4, 2020
This book deserves a slow read- to truly take in all the musings and thoughts laid out. For example, my husband and I debated the point that fish seem to be treated outside the scope of other animals/mammals, even by many vegetarians (who are truly pescatarians). This debate stemmed from just a few paragraphs written by Thom Eagle, but pointed us down the road of philosophy, psychology, and a Saturday morning discussion about life in all its forms. This is what I loved about this book. Perfect for people who love to read about food, not only recipes, and who want to feel a deeper connection to culinary layers within our communities and lives. The author brings food to life, in an extremely beautiful and poetic way.
June 3, 2021
This was a 4.5/5 for me but I'm going to round up. I think this book was great. It really brings the reader back to the basics of cooking, re-teaching us how to cook with water, salt and heat, how to season with the sweet and the sour, and how to let our own taste buds determine how we cook. It also emphasized the need for us to reconnect with our ingredients and use what is fresh and good. I agree! The only thing that kept it from being a perfect five was that the language was a bit too...stream-of-consciousness for me? It was very beautiful...just a bit too much of "but I digress..." kind of sentences.
August 22, 2021
Not a cookbook, but the story of cooking a meal: picking the ingredients, then thinking through the process of how and what to cook with them. Thoughtful and interesting.
(It also contains the most arrestingly unpleasant sentence I've ever encountered in a food book, advising that when blanching trotters to make stock:
"... once you have covered them in cold water and brought it to a vigorous boil, a sort of greyish-green scum will begin to ooze out of the feet.")
(It also contains the most arrestingly unpleasant sentence I've ever encountered in a food book, advising that when blanching trotters to make stock:
"... once you have covered them in cold water and brought it to a vigorous boil, a sort of greyish-green scum will begin to ooze out of the feet.")
January 5, 2020
I won this in the Goodreads giveaways. This was a phenomenal read. It makes me want to cook and has changed the way I think about cooking. I look forward to trying these techniques on my own. This is so much more than just a book about cooking a rabbit. I look forward to discussing the book with my wife once she's read it.
April 13, 2020
75% cookbook 25% rant/memoir This book is great for those of us who scour food websites and love reading the process. It humanizes food and bring rationaility to a seemingly asture world at higher degrees.
I would definitely recommend reading this one slowly and take the lesson from each chapter into your life one day at a time.
I would definitely recommend reading this one slowly and take the lesson from each chapter into your life one day at a time.
March 25, 2020
This book is pure joy! If you're looking to read some food writing that is refreshing, brilliant and witty, then you should definitely get started with First, Catch. Not a recipe book in the classic sense, but a journey through the preparation of a meal. Definitely worth reading!
May 26, 2020
Well written book for people who love food and the whole process of cooking, curing food and seasoning food. It’s not your average recipe book! Though it contains recipes but like in a storytelling way, which I love!
October 31, 2022
Genuinely this is the best book on food I have read in a long time. He deals in honest food and the roots of it growing into a meal, which makes for a far more satisfying read than most of the outcome based food writers we tend to favor.
January 22, 2019
Fabulous
What an odd book. It is a story of a meal but not a cook book. No recipes but I learnt as much from this book as any.
What an odd book. It is a story of a meal but not a cook book. No recipes but I learnt as much from this book as any.
Want to read
November 30, 2019Mark Haskell Smith recommends
August 20, 2020
Not my favorite read. It was hard to read through, it's a great idea but I think more editing was needed.
November 22, 2020
Beautifully written "non-cookbook." The entire book is an informal recipe on a meal's ingredients, preparation, cooking, and the enjoyment of what has been prepared.
December 12, 2020
A pleasantly meandering ramble across time, space and food
May 3, 2021
The biggest message from this book...salt!
July 15, 2024
"The steady appreciation of constant change is one reason to cook."
July 19, 2024
I love to read about food and cooking. This is well written and inspired me to spend more time in the kitchen, especially with trying my hand at fermenting.
February 27, 2025
I think this was above my reading level.
February 8, 2021
recommended by Ines Neto dos Santos
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews