Thursday, September 13, 2012

Ripe: Nigel Slater's Rhapsody on Fruit

Last weekend, I was wandering about at Williams-Sonoma. I enjoy savoring the feeling of endless possibilities that swirl about in cooking stores. I have the same experience at hardware stores...endless possibilities in all those bins of bolts and wing nuts. I digress.

I found Nigel Slater's hefty book: "Ripe: A Cook in the Orchard" and the vibrant photo on the cover drew me right in. Its not often that a three inch thick, hardcover cookbook turns out to be a page-turner, but this, my friends, this book...this is a book you can read.

Ripe is a rhapsody on fruit, and not just any fruit. Mr. Slater has an orchard planted in his small city garden. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific fruit, and starts with an eloquent and passionate ode, which makes me want to run to my nearest farm stand and bury myself in apples.  He goes on to describe different varieties of each fruit, including a notation about what can be found in the US, as well as in the UK. And before launching into a full chapter of recipes that highlight the fruit-of-the-moment, he provides his view of "pairings" in which he lists other foods that pair well with the highlighted soloist. This section alone is worth the price of the book...because it is here that the imagination begins to run wild.

I knew nothing of Mr. Slater prior to this. As it turns out, he has been the food critic for The Observer for 20 years, has written a dozen books, and hosts a show on BBC1 called Simple Cooking. 

Mr. Slater's website describes him as a cook who can write. I don't know if he can cook or not, having not yet tried his recipes, but write, he certainly can.

I've just ordered "Tender: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch."


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