h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Taking you up on your suggestion on the "Foie Gras" thread.

I am not so sure that it's true when you say "If I can do it, you can". That implies all SORTS of things that may not be true.

Anyway I'm really only setting the ball rolling.

ATB
Ian

Hi Ian,
Sorry for the delay in replying! I`m not yet totally au fait with H2g2 pages - still finding my way round them.

I think you should write a cookery book as you have the experise and experience and have the feedback (no pun intended) from guests at La Souvigne and from posters on the message board. The problem would be to decide on the focus so that there is some consistency throughout the book. For example, would you do recipes from around the world - problem here is that there are so many cookery books covering different cuisines. One idea which springs to mind is to do recipes which are set into stated menus and give wine suggestions. I may be wrong, but I don`t think there are many currently which combine recipes which are contextualised into a menu AND give wine suggestions. If you could advise on budget/medium and higher priced wines to serve with dishes that could be a unique selling point when talking to a publisher. You have an added advantage in that you could talk to a UK and a French publisher!

Having looked at your web site for La Souvigne, it looks as though you would have a great location for outside shots. I did work with a colleague developing recipes for healthy eating for a publication for the Scottish Health Education Board (SHEB) and our shots were done inside by a really good photographer and another for a company were the photographer was a bit of a prima donna. Anyway, I digress, on the (SHEB) job we had a stylist who went to London to get plates for the food and came back with a variety of plates, some costing £40 - 50 each! Given that we were trying to appeal to a population who wouldn`t spend more than a couple of pounds on a plate, at the time it seemed to me a bit excessive. However, the finished result was worth the effort!

A couple of things I learnt - slightly undercook meat and poultry dishes. Cooked to time they can look too done. We did a stir fry recipe and experimented with beansprouts - cook as per the recips and they photograph badly, really badly as they wilt before you take a decent photo! Add in raw at the last minute they look great. I used to use an artists paint diffuser is great for adding a fine mist of water or oil which makes the food look fresh.

I know I`m being presumptious here, but I have lots of worked out menus which I could post if you want on the basis that many of yours will use the same dishes but you could reject/change etc as you want.

The cheese course could be a problem as you serve local cheeses. Or it could be an opportunity to talk about the specific cheeses that you serve, their uniqueness and flavours and then suggest combinations of cheeses available in the UK. I reckon it could make a really interesting and unique chapter.

Anyway, that`s probably enough for you to think about for now! If I can find a spare copy of the SHEB work I`ll post it to you. (I`m busy previewing this and it just occurred to me that I might be able to get my neighbour to scan it and send it to you electronically, if I can find a copy! She`ll do it for home made scones and sweets!)


Meanwhile, I`ve not worked out how to initiate a message so I`m going to kill two birds etc and post the other nougat recipe here.
It is from the text: Good Housekeeping Chocolates, Sweets and Toffees by Pat Dunbar (1979). The Turkish delight recipe that I posted is based on one in the same book - if you fancy seeing the original let me know!

NOUGAT de MONTÉLIMAR

rice papaer
75g (3oz) honey
3 egg whites
50 g (2oz) glacé cherries, chopped
25g (1oz) angelica, chopped
150g (5oz) blanched almonds, toasted and chopped
350g (12 oz) granulated sugar
600ml (1 pint) water
50g (2 oz) powdered glucose
few drops of vanilla essence

Dampen a 30.5 x 10 cm(12 x 4 in) tin or an 18 cm (7 in) square tin and line it with rice paper. Melt the honey in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Add the egg whites and beat until pale and thick.

Mix together the cherries, angelica and almonds. Dissolve the sugar in the water in a small heavy-based saucepan. Add the glucose and boil for about 4 1/2 minutes to 118 - 130C (245-265F) (hard ball stage). Add a few drops of vanilla essence.

Pour this syrup on to the honey mixture and continue beating over hot water until the mixture reaches 118-130C (245-265F)(hard ball stage). This may take 30-40 minutes, but it is important if the nougat is to set firmly. Add the fruit and nuts and put the mixture into the tin. Cover with more rice paper, put some weights on top and leave until quite cold. Cut into fingers and wrap in waxed paper.
Makes about 700g ( 1 1/2 lb)

Note This nougat will keep quite satisfactorily for 2 weeks
*************************

As you can see, it is quite short and succinct.

IIRC correctly from your web site, you are rather busy at the moment, so please don`t rush to reply.

All the best,
Alison (aka Archiduc)

Hi Alison,

Thanks for such a detailed and complete answer. I'll be honest with you, I'm very much in two (or more) minds about a cookery book. I have no doubt in my mind that I've got the cooking skills, general food knowledge and writing skills to write something that would be a very good cookery book. I'll tell you where I run into trouble. Firstly, over what _kind_ of book to write, as you say. At first I thought that what I'd like to do would be to write a cookbook of traditional and modern English food, to act as a challenge to the French to throw off some of their prejudices. A title like "Osez vous la Cusine Anglaise" would throw down the gauntlet very suitably. I wouldn't have a problem amassing a couple of hundred suitable recipes and might even succeed, with help from Jacquie, into casting them into French. I'd certainly be able to write a good introduction, that would explain why I can say that "English cooking is full of delicious dishes" while at the same time their experience in the Uk eating out, has been lamentable.

However, I really don't want to limit myself just to English cooking, that would be like only listening to Byrd and Tallis, wonderful in itself, but how could one cut oneself off from Palestrina, and Josquin? So then I thought that what I should do is to make a much more definite tie-in to our cooking here in La Souvigne. Something like "Food in Forges" I'd then be able to use a far more heterogenous collection of recipes, with some of my favourite hungarian dishes, from my mother's origins, some Armenian food and so on. That might let me tie in with what you say about menu planning. I do have some definite ideas about that, and even if people reading me don't follow an exact menu, the general principles are valid anyway.

Matching food and wine is another topic that has been a hobby of mine for many years and that's rarely covered. Anyway....

As for locations. Yes, we're surrounded by some of the most beautiful scenery in France, I feel - not that I'm neutral. Alison. I'm truly uneasy about the role of photos in a cookery book. I KNOW they help sell it, but IMO for all the wrong reasons. I can live with the illustrations in Mastering the Art, as they are designed to teach something that is hard to describe in words. I can even live with a picture if it helps show how something ought to be done or presented, but moody photos (as you see throughout books by GR (both of them) et al.... They send me into shudders.

Nougat
I've been reading up recipes on the web. Very interesting with very wine variations. However, I'm entirely at a loss over the GH recipe. I didn't want to ridicule it in a public forum, but I promise you, you can beat until you're blue in the face and your machine has given up the ghost, but you won't get a mixture to get hotter than the water underneath it. That's because all that would happen is that the excess heat you generate would evaporate a little more water, which uses up a lot of heat, but the mixture would stubbornly stay at 100C.
Really odd. I might just write to GH and ask them.

Thanks again - and yes you're right, we're fairly frantic at the moment and will continue to be until the 18th, when things calm down, as my niece and her family come for a whole week and take the entire house.

All the Best
Ian

Hi Ian,
I got your post earlier today but wanted to mull over what you`ve written.

So, we are agreed that you have the skills etc to write a book. Ultimately, in order to get a return for your effort it needs to be a marketable product that will compete successfully in the market place.

Maybe there is an opportunity to write 2 books. One would be directed at a French audience and concentrate on UK Food. I am assuming that when you say "cusine Anglaise" you would include some Scottish recipes like Cullen Skink, Cranachan, Atholl Brose and soem from Wales and Ireland, after all what is the diffence between a rally good Irish Stew and Navarin of Lamb? - La Cuisine Traditionale de La Grande Bretagne? (hope I`ve got the spelling right!)

The second book idea which you mention is "Food in Forges". I can understand where you`re coming from with this idea. Also I do think that it could be related to your cooking at La Souvigne. However, if I saw a book with a title like that on the shelf in a shop I wouldn`t be tempted to buy it. I`m putting on my business head here - not trying to be rude! If I saw a book entitled: Wine and Dine - Recipes, Menus and Wine suggestions for Home Entertaining, now that I would look at. I would expect the book to contain a narrative chapter about your experiences (as author) in running La Souvigne and managing the hospitality aspects with anecdotes and pithy advice for the home cook.

I do think that including wine suggestions for each recipe is something that you could make quite unique. Just think of the number of times you give advice on the messageboard! Again, you have the skill to turn the advice into an income generating project. At the end of the day, given that some considerable work will be involved, I reckon you need to look at it as a project and consider what will make it unique in a fairly busy marketplace - and I keep coming back to the combination of recipes, menus and wine. I think that about 99% of cookery books give recipes only and leave readers to construct menus. Judging from some of the ideas and requests I`ve seen posted on the messageboard, this is where people and even experienced cooks need help. In other words, people (your readers) will need help in constructing balanced menus in terms of flavour colour and texture, in managing time to enable pre-preparation of dishes (do the day before and/or in the morning) and finishing off on the day/evening.

I have to say that I think some photographs will be essential. Yes, they raise the production costs but we`re talking about a competitive marketplace. I know YOU don`t need a photograph, and I have to say that the texts that I refer to time and time again don`t contain them. However, and I don`t mean to sound arrogant when I write this, but, you and I have sufficient knowledge and experience not to need a photograph or be influenced by one when buying a cookery book. Many of your prospective readers will want an illustrative photo - even 6 is better than none. If you look at Michel Guerard`s books, particularly Cuisine Gourmande, he has quite a few composite photos showing 3 - 4 dishes in each photo which is one way to reduce production costs. In other words, it can be done.
Anyway, I`m going to put the matter to a test and start discussion on the messageboard and see what people think, phrased in such a way as to enable you to have your say!

All the best,
Alison

Hi again Alison
It's late, I'm shattered and we've got a hard week coming up but I didn't want you to think I'm not appreciative of your time and thought. I know you said "don't rush to reply" but nevertheless I'm going to give you an immediate "top of the head" answer, and then come back more thoughtfully later.

I'm sure you're right when you say that there are really two books to be written. I see no sensible way in which they can be combined. The French have this irritating tendency to call everything from the British Isles "Anglais" and although a book called "...la Cuisine Britannique" would be more accurate, it really wouldn't have the same resonances in the French mind. It would have to be some kind of throwing down of the gauntlet, because the awfulness of "english" cooking is really firmly rooted in the french psyche, to the extent that I think it fulfils a deep inner need in their make-up.

As for the other one. This presents an interesting dilemma. Although I have quite a lot of British visitors, I'd say that over 60% of my clients are French. Am I aiming my book at "satisfied customers" or at the average British cookbook reader. Has to be the latter, I guess, as even at the rate of about 200 couples a year, that's only about 3000 all told and that's not enough to make me rich!!

I take your point that menu planning is a vastly understudied discipline. When I see people planning a meal where all three courses are stuffed full of cream, or where all of them use pastry - or fruit for that matter, I groan!! Although in recent years, the food/wine match we offer here to B&B clients is fairly perfunctory, that doesn't mean I've got out of the habit. The only thing that would worry me about this would be over my lack of knowledge of many of the wines currently available in the UK. I do take your point about photos, and it has to be evident from posts on the board, that for many, a photo matters. Sigh...

As I said - a top of the head answer.

Thanks so much for the time and thought you're giving me. Oh... and by the way, I bought three local farm chickens today and will be making supremes de volaille a l'Archiduc for our customers tomorrow.

All the best
Ian

Hi Ian,
A quick thought.

There are two ways of doing a book.

First is desk top publishing. Write, combine and bind (spiral binder from e-bay about 20-30 euros - I`ll get back to you on this) and sell on site at La Souvigne to guests. I did calendars for my family for Christmas and they were really cost effective (bought photo paper from Morrisons) and imported photos from image google but you could use digital photos. This method limits your readership but, as it would be stored, you could print as necessary and develop or work on during the low season. This method limits circulation but could be a useful testing ground.

Second is contacting a publisher and being commissioned to write a text. For my money the text which would be a money spinner and appeal to a publisher and would be (sorry - changed the title): Contemporary and Complete dinners - menus, recipe and wine.

Now, they are not mutually exclusive, just a lot of hard work!

All the best,
Alison