Jennifer McLagan’s Bitter book, edible Aesop scent ingredients; Stevie Parle and Tom Dixon’s upcoming Craft London complex... a taste of what we like this week at Cook
Jennifer McLagan is a writer with an eye for an arresting title (previous tomes include Fat, Bones and Odd Bits). And just as an eloquent entomologist might bring you round to the beauty of the common fly, so McLagan manages – with her unique choice of focus – to make even the most humdrum foodstuffs shine. This month she publishes Bitter (Jacqui Small, £25), a recipe book that revels in this most edgy of flavours. Braised chicory, grapefruit tart, beer-glazed carrots and tea custard are just some of the dishes that stopped us in our tracks.
Cook, it has to be said, is a sucker for good skincare. Handcream, skin tonic, essential oils – you name it, Cook’s hiding some under a desk somewhere. So it’s with great delight that we read a recent piece by Trends on Trends (a culinary trendspotter website) about the edible side to the Aesop experience. Ah Aesop, those beautiful black-and-white striped labelled bottles, those heady, enveloping aromas ... those impossible price-tags. Here, the “nose of Aesop” (a man called Hans Hendley) and his two colleagues, Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson, have dissected the scents, specifying how you might use the same ingredients in your cooking: camomile, calming for the skin and a knock-out with a fingerling potato; green tea, awesome in a punch and an excellent antioxidant … Aromatically instructive.
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