Edwards Terry - Cooking for Friends: Bring People Together, Enjoy Good Food, and Make Happy Memories

Terrys recipes are as fun to prepare as they are to eat and share, and Cooking for Friends is the kind of book that will get grubby and well-used in the home and holiday kitchen. Its for anyone who loves entertaining friends. So happy friendly feeding. MARK HIX, CHEF AND RESTAURATEUR Wonderful ideas beautifully crafted and filled with northern soul, just like George. CHRISTOPHER BAILEY, BURBERRY CHIEF CREATIVE AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER What a great book, a real fun read, some wicked recipes but always approachable. DAVID MOORE, TWO-MICHELIN-STARRED RESTAURATEUR

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This book is dedicated to our mums, two amazing women who are a massive part of who we are today and the food that we cookwe couldnt have done it without you! Cheers, Mum! xxCONTENTS

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Hello, we are the co-founders of Check Ona pop-up restaurant company focused on creating unique events. DAVID MOORE, TWO-MICHELIN-STARRED RESTAURATEUR

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This book is dedicated to our mums, two amazing women who are a massive part of who we are today and the food that we cookwe couldnt have done it without you! Cheers, Mum! xx CONTENTS

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Hello, we are the co-founders of Check Ona pop-up restaurant company focused on creating unique events.

Imaginative yet unpretentious food is at the heart of our pop-ups, and bringing people together against the backdrop of a relaxed and friendly setting. In our first book, we want to share some of our favorite recipes with you and hope they inspire you to make incredible, exciting (and stress-free!) meals to feed your friends at home. Whether you want to go all out with a show-stopping beef Wellington or a simple yet tasty fish pie, we have it covered.There is nothing better than gathering friends, family and loved ones together for a delicious meal. Food trends will come and go, but breaking bread with your nearest and dearest wont.We dont want to get too mushy here but sod it, here goes...For us, memories make great dishes and its our memories that have inspired every single recipe in this book. What we hope is that the meals you create from these recipes will make new memories for you. Sharing a meal together is a simple act, but one that is so powerful it can comfort, heal, restore, excite, delight and surprise us andmost importantlyput a smile on your face.TerryGeorgeTERRY: After leaving school at sixteen I began working in pubs and bars.

I didnt really know what I wanted to do career-wise but there was something about cooking programs that had always intrigued me from a young age. While my mates were playing the latest Nintendo games, I was transfixed by Keith Floyd cooking up a paella or Marco Pierre White showing how to create the perfect pasta. Keith, Gordon, Marcothese were my heroes (not forgetting Everton FCs legends Neville Southall and Duncan Ferguson) growing up. As soon as I decided I wanted to get into cooking professionally, I never looked back. Ive been living and breathing food ever since. I first met George in a sticky-floored music venue in York around 2009.

I had a week off from working for Paul (Heathcote) and was helping out on tour with a friends band. George was back home in Yorkshire taking a break from recording his second album in Brussels. We didnt talk much that night, we just had a few drinks after the gig. Fast forward nine months and wed both moved to London and started hanging out. I was working at HIX and George was just about to release his second album with One Night Only. Wed eat out once or twice a week with friends on my nights off from the restaurant.

This was all around the time that amazing pop-ups, supper clubs and, in fact, the whole street food revolution was just starting to really emerge. It was an exciting time, particularly as up until this point, you often had to spend quite a bit to get what all the foodies were talking about. Now everyone, including the younger generation, had access to incredible food at affordable prices. I remember George and I going to Broadway Market in East London and picking up a delicious, quality beefburger for a fiverlittle more than your average takeaway meal deal but so much more satisfying! GEORGE: My mum is an incredible cook and there was always a delicious roast or pie in the oven; I enjoyed eating a good meal but in terms of cooking one myselfI didnt know where to start! When the band and I started touring, I lived on junk foodit was a case of food as fuel to keep me going. I started hanging out with Terry at his place and he casually got me involved with cooking. It was a very organic process; he never said, Right, George, today Im going to teach you how to fillet a piece of fish.

I do remember the first night we cooked together for some friends. We made these awesome short rib beefburgers with tarragon mayonnaise, crispy bacon, iceberg lettuce, sweet potato fries and green tomato ketchup and they went down a treat. I put some classic American vinyl on the record player and started to make some of our nutty White Russians. That was really the night that Check On was born. We were talking about how a lot of people will just get a case of beer and a couple of pizzas and leave it at that. Lets be honest: its lazy and bad for you (I should know, Id done it myself plenty of times).

We like to think we know how to put on a great party where everyone leaves happy, full and tipsy. I was running a club night in Camden at the time and Terry made these wicked Jack Daniels mince pies and a great spiced mulled cider for the Christmas party...people went crazy for them. It was a great night but it was the reaction to the food that was mind-blowing, especially as people kept coming up to ask where they could sample more of our food. We realized then that we really wanted to start doing pop-up events. Trying new things with Terry, like making fresh pasta or learning to cook a perfect steak, just made me want to taste more, eat more and eventually cook more. Terry taught me the importance of quality ingredients and also that great food can be fun and imaginative without being intimidating.