The sliced potatoes require clarified butter, which is easy enough to make. Melt some butter in a saucepan over a moderate heat and spoon away any foam or whey that rises. Carefully ladle the butter through muslin into a bowl, leaving behind the white solids.

Mayan gold and yukon gold potatoes cook a treat in this recipe, king edwards work very well, and good results were also enjoyed with baking and roasting potatoes.Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6 and line a baking tray with parchment. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface. Cut the pastry into 16 6cm-wide squares. A glimpse at Lee’s bookshelves provided within the book give as good as clue as any to the kind of chef he is and the type of cooking that inspires him. While a few modern books can be seen – Nigella Lawson’s How to Eat​, Nuno Mendes’ Lisboeta​, and St John’s Complete Nose to Tail​ to name but three – his shelves sag under the weight of far older, well-thumbed books from the likes of Julia Child, Jane Grigson, Elizabeth David and Madhur Jaffrey. As he describes the recipes in Cooking​ himself, this is home cooking rediscovered after a lifetime spent in professional kitchens. Lay a triangle of chocolate just inside one of the corners of the pastry square. Brush the edges of the pastry with a little cream. Fold the pastry in half diagonally over the chocolate, making a triangular turnover. Repeat with the remaining squares and arrange the turnovers on the prepared baking tray at least 3cm apart. The recipes in Cooking are arranged by favorite ingredients and occasions and include an introduction emphasizing the importance of the quality and provenance of ingredients. From plum compote with ricotta and hazelnuts to perfect anchovy dressing, this stunning collection of recipes is a love song to simple dishes crafted with the finest ingredients. It seems almost redundant to point it out, so obvious is it, but I’ll say it anyway: Cooking by Jeremy Lee is the cookbook of the year. If you know anyone at all who loves spending time in the kitchen, buy them this book.

In a large bowl, beat together the whole eggs, then add the egg yolks. Slowly pour the milk on to the eggs, stirring gently with a wooden spoon, keeping any froth to a minimum. Let it stand for while, then pour the warm custard through a fine sieve. Spoon away any foam sitting on the surface.For his spirit boundless spirit alone, Lee should be classified as a national treasure. Likewise, this book is one to treasure. The book is arranged with a chef’s eye for ingredients, and favourite things to eat throughout the seasons, rather than in courses or meals. A chapter on blood oranges sits between Biscuits and Breadcrumbs, while Impromptu Dinners provides meals (such as a perfect pork chop and pan juices) that can be made for one or scaled up; and there are simple, joyous meals to feed a crowd (little meatballs, or fennel and lemon spaghetti). On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry large enough to line a 25cm x 2.5cm tart case with a removable bottom. Pop this into the fridge until required. Place the fillets of hake in a deep ovenproof dish, lightly season with salt and white pepper and lightly dress with a soup spoon of olive oil. Pour in enough cold water to cover the bottom of the dish. My parents liked to read, cook and eat, quite liked their brood and made efforts to have us all at the table every day. In the kitchen, a small pile of cookery books (pulled from laden shelves), with a pad and a pencil for notes, awaited my mother’s interest.

One vivid memory is of a great table of polished oak in our dining room, piled high with oranges and clementines, Mum being notorious for panic-buying citrus fruits. Another is the huge array of my mother’s extraordinary baking for the Christmas hols, surrounded by Christmas lights and candles and all manner of festive thingummyjigs. Especially cakes – and lots of them. One year I counted seven, and pointed out to Mum that we were only a family of six. Mum pointed to a cupboard where tins with more biscuits and cakes were piled high, and then, laughing merrily, pointed to the freezer, where she’d stashed even more “emergency rations for just in case”. In 2012, after eighteen years at the Blueprint Café, Jeremy was offered a new head chef role at the iconic Quo Vadis hotel in Soho. It had just been bought by Sam and Eddie Hart, the restaurateurs behind Barrafina. ‘Eddie and Sam wanted to turn Quo Vadis into a celebration of British produce, and when they approached me to become head chef I realised that you only get one chance to work in a building so grand and iconic,’ says Jeremy. ‘I couldn’t say no.

So, in us, the likes of David had a following, but they didn’t get the wider attention they deserved until, perhaps, the 80s. At this point, great changes began in food, produce and restaurants; books began to appear with more frequency on every kind of cooking imaginable. As walls were being pulled down and boundaries blurred and as the classics lost their grip, restaurateurs started speaking of menus inspired by Elizabeth David. She, Jane Grigson and Julia Child were uttered by the lips of even staunch French chefs. A whole new generation of restaurants was opening, run and staffed by folk who devoured cookery books like thrillers. These books, written decades before, suddenly became, quite literally, the plat du jour. When ready to bake, roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface. Lift it up and swiftly drape the pastry on the tart tin, pressing gently until fitted snugly within. Refrigerate. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. To assemble the tart, roughly spread the frangipane on the bottom of the pastry case. Strew with the pears then heap on enough mincemeat to just fill the tart. Put this in the fridge to settle.