The much-loved Quo Vadis chef reveals his long-awaited recipe book, packed with classic dishes that are as easy to make for one as for a family dinner
When Jeremy Lee received the very first copy of his new cookbook from his publishers, he immediately threw it in a drawer, then cycled from his home in east London to get on with his day at Soho’s Quo Vadis, where he is chef-patron. The book, Cooking: Simply And Well, For One or Many, was the result of many years of work, on and off, and he wasn’t quite ready to face its reality.
Loved by the London food world since making his mark at Terence Conran’s Blueprint Cafe, it seems like an oversight that Lee has not published a cookbook until now. “I had shied away, I suppose, mostly because I thought it had all been done. God knows that this kind of thing is standing on the shoulders of the great and the many,” he says, gesturing to the shelves on all walls of his home. They’re filled with books about food, from nouvelle cuisine pioneer Michel Guérard to current London pastry sensation Ravneet Gill. And of course, the holy trinity of Elizabeth David, Julia Child and Jane Grigson. But Lee had long felt a volume of his own work may be simmering away, and when approached by Fourth Estate in about 2016 he knew it was time to make it real, eventually.
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