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Feast Days: Recipes from " The Spectator "
Following in Elizabeth David's footsteps at "The Spectator", and acknowledging her debt to this great writer, Jennifer Patterson is as entertaining to read as her recipes are to follow. Described with wit her recipes are inspired by special days, St Valentine's, Christmas, Chinese New Year, and by friends and the changing seasons.
- GenresCookbooks
192 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 24, 2020
It's not often I read a cookery book from cover to cover, but this collection of articles, written for 'The Spectator' by the inimitable Jennifer Paterson is a wonderful read. People who've seen her on 'The Two Fat Ladies' TV programmes will recognise her style immediately as her voice rings out from the pages.
The food is seasonal and linked to various feasts and saints' days. You might not want to cook or eat every recipe (or receipt as always called them) but the book is cover-to-cover entertainment!
A couple of memorable quotes: on guinea fowl - '...if you know they are reared in torture chambers please do not advise.' And on okra, or ladies' fingers - '...like finding slugs in a cabbage...'
Enjoy!
The food is seasonal and linked to various feasts and saints' days. You might not want to cook or eat every recipe (or receipt as always called them) but the book is cover-to-cover entertainment!
A couple of memorable quotes: on guinea fowl - '...if you know they are reared in torture chambers please do not advise.' And on okra, or ladies' fingers - '...like finding slugs in a cabbage...'
Enjoy!
November 11, 2015
In one of the best Introductions of any book I’ve read, A.N. Wilson succinctly observes that, “Jennifer Paterson is the best cook I know. She is unfussy, eclectic, and extremely fond of eating, …” . His sharp observation for the absurd and his perfect timing continue:
… “I can remember sitting opposite Mr Enoch Powell while he discoursed upon one of his favourite themes – as it were, the American takeover of the world, or the primacy of St Matthew’s Gospel – and watching Jennifer come up behind him, tickle the top of his head and say in a baby voice – “Coochie-coochie-coo!”. He displayed no consciousness that this was happening to him, and continued to speak earnestly, his eyes ablaze with the seriousness of his own opinions. …”
At just over four pages, it’s worth buying this book for A.N. Wilson’s Introduction alone. But then at the turn of a page, that first frisson is replaced by the surge of Jennifer’s Preface, beginning, “I think I am the only member of my immediate family who ever willingly set foot inside the kitchen. …”. Promptly banishing questions of culinary competence, from that point onwards, it is near impossible to put this book down. Like a tactical missile, Jennifer succinctly, yet so very entertainingly, recalls memories of wartime, scavenged foods, and ‘sweetbreads’ that it later transpired were testicles. Thankfully her own culinary trajectory was rescued, and set straight through the publication of Elizabeth David’s books .
“Feast Days: Recipes from The Spectator” is one of the very best cookery books for reading, that I have chanced to come across. I read it cover to cover, barely taking a break to eat myself. For most readers it will be a ‘chat ‘n eat’ book, and a very, very good example of that genre; indeed unputdownable. My only criticism is that very occasionally sheer eclecticism can veer very close to the edge. The previous owner of the copy that I now own was clearly perplexed by the reciept (recipe) for Asparagus Mousse (p.122), which unfortunately omitted printed instructions for making aspic. In the book in my hand all was not lost; handwritten annotations on pgs. 146-7 yank the cook out of the pot.
This IS a cookbook to cook from; unlike much published today, many ingredients that Jennifer specifies are obtainable in the UK (2015). As for eating in season, those readers who are Roman Catholic will find an additional pleasure in Jennifer’s humourous comments and anecdotes on the Catholic Faith; something that Dave Allen would have doubtless pushed much farther; but Jennifer maintains an affectionate decorum on. The rest of us can warmly smile, book in hand, whilst whipping up a Devil’s Food Cake (pg.140) – I do like the instruction to use chocolate Menier.
This is a book with legs; it’s not a book to risk lending to careless or inconsiderate friends or acquaintances. Neither is it a book to be left on the shelf. Use it, love it, and leave those sad supermarket ready-meals in the shop, whilst you grow your friends (literally).
… “I can remember sitting opposite Mr Enoch Powell while he discoursed upon one of his favourite themes – as it were, the American takeover of the world, or the primacy of St Matthew’s Gospel – and watching Jennifer come up behind him, tickle the top of his head and say in a baby voice – “Coochie-coochie-coo!”. He displayed no consciousness that this was happening to him, and continued to speak earnestly, his eyes ablaze with the seriousness of his own opinions. …”
At just over four pages, it’s worth buying this book for A.N. Wilson’s Introduction alone. But then at the turn of a page, that first frisson is replaced by the surge of Jennifer’s Preface, beginning, “I think I am the only member of my immediate family who ever willingly set foot inside the kitchen. …”. Promptly banishing questions of culinary competence, from that point onwards, it is near impossible to put this book down. Like a tactical missile, Jennifer succinctly, yet so very entertainingly, recalls memories of wartime, scavenged foods, and ‘sweetbreads’ that it later transpired were testicles. Thankfully her own culinary trajectory was rescued, and set straight through the publication of Elizabeth David’s books .
“Feast Days: Recipes from The Spectator” is one of the very best cookery books for reading, that I have chanced to come across. I read it cover to cover, barely taking a break to eat myself. For most readers it will be a ‘chat ‘n eat’ book, and a very, very good example of that genre; indeed unputdownable. My only criticism is that very occasionally sheer eclecticism can veer very close to the edge. The previous owner of the copy that I now own was clearly perplexed by the reciept (recipe) for Asparagus Mousse (p.122), which unfortunately omitted printed instructions for making aspic. In the book in my hand all was not lost; handwritten annotations on pgs. 146-7 yank the cook out of the pot.
This IS a cookbook to cook from; unlike much published today, many ingredients that Jennifer specifies are obtainable in the UK (2015). As for eating in season, those readers who are Roman Catholic will find an additional pleasure in Jennifer’s humourous comments and anecdotes on the Catholic Faith; something that Dave Allen would have doubtless pushed much farther; but Jennifer maintains an affectionate decorum on. The rest of us can warmly smile, book in hand, whilst whipping up a Devil’s Food Cake (pg.140) – I do like the instruction to use chocolate Menier.
This is a book with legs; it’s not a book to risk lending to careless or inconsiderate friends or acquaintances. Neither is it a book to be left on the shelf. Use it, love it, and leave those sad supermarket ready-meals in the shop, whilst you grow your friends (literally).
May 5, 2013
I recently rediscovered this little book published before Jennifer Paterson achieved fame as one of the two fat ladies. It was originally published in 1990 and was reissued in 1997 and 1998. I have the 1992 paperback edition.
The book is a gem, worth reading for Jennifer's inimitable narrative of each feast or fast day meal, as much as for her lovely recipes. It is a collection of her writings and recipes which first appeared in the Spectator, arranged in chronological order over a few years. This means that Lenten dishes for example may be scattered in three or four different places, and there is sadly no index entry to bring them together. As well as perfectly lovely dishes for treats such as asparagus and aubergines, it has the odd helpful hint such as how to use malt vinegar to remove stains from the bath. It also features some rather saucy black and white drawings of things such as ice moulds and spaddles. An excellent book.
The book is a gem, worth reading for Jennifer's inimitable narrative of each feast or fast day meal, as much as for her lovely recipes. It is a collection of her writings and recipes which first appeared in the Spectator, arranged in chronological order over a few years. This means that Lenten dishes for example may be scattered in three or four different places, and there is sadly no index entry to bring them together. As well as perfectly lovely dishes for treats such as asparagus and aubergines, it has the odd helpful hint such as how to use malt vinegar to remove stains from the bath. It also features some rather saucy black and white drawings of things such as ice moulds and spaddles. An excellent book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews