Keep it Simple: Fresh Look at Classic Cooking

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Everybody has a variation on the dauphinois theme. This version was first shown to me by Rowley Leigh who was taught how to cook this dish by the Roux brothers, so the pedigree is faultless. It is unfashionably rich, expensive and unhealthy, so very small portions please. Little, Alastair (1996). Alastair Little's Italian Kitchen: recipes from La Cacciata. London. ISBN 978-0091813659. {{ cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher ( link) The chef also published a number of cookbooks including: Keep It Simple (1993), Food of the Sun (1995), Italian Kitchen (1996), and Soho Cooking (2000). At this point shout triumphantly as the caramel-glossed Tarte Tatin smiles at you in rustic perfection or, as may well be the case, burst into tears as overcooked apples cling tenaciously to the toffee in the pan and you contemplate an unattractive mess. Drain the prunes and apricots and discard the tea, and add them to the pears. Replace the lid and allow to cool completely before refrigerating overnight. The compote is now ready to serve. I prefer to leave the spices in, but if you do so, warn your guests that they are there for decorative effect. Not everybody likes to crunch on a peppercorn while eating pudding.

Roast for 1 hour. After 30 minutes, baste every 10 minutes until done. The potatoes will brown on top and crisp, fanning apart along the cut lines. Do not attempt to move the potatoes while they are cooking.

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By 2002, however, he had left the restaurant partnership. For most of the previous decade he had spent his summers running a cookery school near Orvieto in Umbria where, in 1995, he met Sharon Jacob, an Australian marketing manager whom he married in 2000. Alastair Little, who has died aged 72, was a leading figure in a new movement in London restaurants in the 1980s known as Modern British cooking, whereby intelligent, educated chefs employed French techniques but looked elsewhere for ideas and inspiration and featured simple, seasonal ingredients. I have never been passionate about figs in their raw state and, yes, I have eaten them in Italy, perfectly ripe and straight off the tree. But roast them and combine with honey ice-cream and I am a happy convert. Take care that the honey you use is not too herbal - some of them are so heavily scented they are more suited to the bathroom than the kitchen. We had both been born in Lancashire and been educated at Cambridge. Alastair had studied Archaeology and Anthropology at Downing College and once told me that he had been woken up by the college’s porters to be told he must attend a morning lecture. Apparently, Prince Charles, a student of the same subject, was also expected. However, he spent most of his time at Cambridge cooking dinner parties from the books of Elizabeth David for friends, one of whom was Rowley Leigh, who was also to become a very well-known chef and food writer.

Ocr tesseract 5.0.0-beta-20210815 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 1.0000 Ocr_module_version 0.0.13 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA-NS-2000429 Openlibrary_edition Sutherland, Alastair Scott (2009). The Spaghetti Tree. London: Primavera Books Ltd. p.214. ISBN 978-0-9557892-0-5. The addition of several unpeeled garlic cloves to the roasting juices gives a subtle depth to the flavour. These cloves are delicious: sweet and nutty without being overpowering. Little, Alastair (5 January 2019). "Alastair Little's recipes for four winter soups". The Guardian . Retrieved 4 August 2022. Alastair Little, the chef who recently died aged 72 in his sleep at his home in Sydney, Australia, while waiting for a heart operation following a complication of COVID-19, was very well known to me.I believe the original recipe for Tarte Tatin uses sweet shortcrust pastry, but I like puff pastry and find the bought, frozen variety good enough for domestic interpretations. Anyway, since it will be drenched with sugary juices, the quality of the pastry is by no means the most significant part of the finished dish. This book won the Glenfiddich Award in 1994 and I still sometimes hear it referred to reverentially as the godfather of modern British cooking. It is, and it isn't: it clearly marks a break from the French dominated nouvelle cuisine & cuisine classique that had lorded British gastronomy in the 1970s and 1980s; it equally clearly has influenced developments in British dining culture since then as well as in food writing and home cooking. What some people might have forgotten is that British cuisine, as it is today, did not emerge miraculously in its present form from under the tyranny of heavy sauces - there was the rebellious phase of fusion food marking the journey. Pasiya, Lutho (5 August 2022). "Culinary industry mourns the death of Chef Alastair Little". www.iol.co.za . Retrieved 7 August 2022. Throughout his career, he received numerous awards, including the Times Restaurant of the Year in 1993 and the Glenfiddich Award for the Best Food Book of the Year for "Keep It Simple". Preparation: Measure out all the ingredients and sift the flour into a bowl. Grate 1/2 teaspoon of zest each from the lemon and the orange, using the second-finest grating surface. Born in Lancashire, from a very early age Alastair Little paid careful attention to the food and flavours around him. On early holidays around Europe with his parents, his eyes (and tastebuds) started to open up to a new world of possibility. After graduating from university, a career in food was far from clear; but 1970s Soho in London became the launchpad for a self-taught chef who has had a real and lasting impact.

The tart is characterised by the use of halved apples baked in caramel with the pastry lid becoming the base when the cooked tart is inverted to be served still warm. It is one of those dishes that sounds simple and is actually difficult to get right. On average it takes a cook in my kitchen a week of trying before he or she produces a saleable tart. In the restaurant we use a frying pan rather than a cake pan, and I prefer crisp English apples such as Worcester Pearmain or Braemar to Le Golden, which the French choose as a matter of national honour.He is survived by Sharon and their son Alexander, and by George and Frederika, his children with Pedersen. In 1995, the partners opened a second restaurant, also named Alastair Little, off Ladbroke Grove in West London. The Times's restaurant critic Jonathan Meades described it as feeling "altogether right". [4] Sitwell, William (2020). The Restaurant. A History of eating Out. London: Simon and Schuster. p.211. ISBN 978-1-4711-7961-7. Soho's service model broke with multiple then-common dining norms. Little dispensed with cover charges and 'extras' for service and vegetables. The menu, which was restricted to soup, salad, fresh fish and meat, plus puddings, was changed twice a day, according to the availability of supplies. [4] [3] There were no tablecloths, the napkins were paper, and the kitchen could be seen from the dining room. [4] Drew Smith of the Good Food Guide described it as "the finest cafe in the country". [7]