Knab Peter - Cooking in Provence

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Epub ISBN: 9781448118625
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Published in 2008 by Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing, A Random House Group Company

First Published in Great Britain by Headline Book Publishing in 2003

Ebury Publishing is a division of the Random House Group

Text copyright Alex Mackay 2003

Photography copyright Peter Knab 2003

Alex Mackay has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

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Designer: Estuary English

Photographer: Peter Knab

Stylist: Diana Knab

ISBN 9780091924942

Visit www.alexmackay.com

To Jess with all my love for all your love and support.

Special thanks to Pete and Di for their great friendship, for being the most wonderful photographer and stylist to work with and, not least, for putting up with me every summer.

Thanks to Delia for her lovely foreword and very generous encouragement.

Thanks to my editor Susan Fleming; Mum; Raymond Blanc for the huge part hes played in my career; my former assistants at Le Baou, Mary OHare and Florence.

Heartfelt thanks to Fiona MacIntyre, Carey Smith and Imogen Fortes at Ebury Press for bringing this book back to life. Also to Tony at Estuary English for the new design.

Thanks to my old suppliers Jacky, Doume and Bruno for their glorious produce.

Lastly, thanks to all of our guests and friends who made the five years of Le Baou so special and who have tried, tested and tasted all of these recipes with bubbling enthusiasm and barrels of laughter while living and cooking in Provence.

This is the easy part: saying thank you to everyone who helped in making this book a reality. Easier still is saying a special thank you to Diana who has made this corner of Provence so special.

The hard part is having to cope with all those endless days of glorious sunshine.

Harder still is having to eat all the wonderful meals Alex is able to invent with such evident skill and laissez-faire.

Cooking in Provence is a collection of recipes born out of the experience of running a cookery school in the heart of the Provenal countryside. When talented young chef Alex Mackay and internationally renowned photographer Peter Knab realised their dream of opening a school La Baou dInfer not far from St Tropez, they were inspired by the intoxicating flavours and food of the region. The recipes offered here reflect the changing seasons dishes that truly capture the regions unique identity.

From refreshing summer classics such as Salade Nioise and Soupe au Pistou and the warming comfort of Daube en Boeuf and Bouillabaisse, to indulgent puddings such as Tarte aux Pommes and Millefeuille aux Fraises, each recipe is clearly presented and gloriously photographed on location in Provence.

Accompanying the recipes are vivid descriptions of the scenery, markets and people. Together they conjure a vision of Provence and the food integral to the region from the fish caught along its breathtaking coastline, to the aromatic herbs and vegetables harvested from its fields and the fruit grown in its orchards. This sumptuous book provides not just a wonderful collection of mouthwatering dishes, but a slice of the warmth and beauty of this enduringly popular region. It is an indispensable companion for lovers of good food and the good life.

ALEX MACKAY is, first and foremost, a brilliant chef. Yet at the same time hes also much more than that. He has a quite rare and very special gift which goes beyond simply creating beautiful dishes. That gift is the ability to teach, inspire and enthuse others who want to learn how to cook creatively. This is something I personally admire a great deal and is why I have asked him to lead the food and wine workshops in the restaurants at my beloved Norwich City Football Club.

There is, though, another connection here, as Peter and Di Knab are two of my husband Michaels and my oldest friends, and we have watched with delight their dazzlingly beautiful house in deepest Provence being transformed into Le Baou dInfer cookery school, and becoming an internationally famous centre of good food, wine and the warmest hospitality. Now added to all this is a very fine and beautiful cookery book indeed, which I am proud to present as a fitting tribute to all they have achieved.

I FIRST MET Peter and Diana Knab in 1995 while working with Raymond Blanc on A Blanc Christmas. We became close friends and, one evening, at a jazz club in Soho, we hatched a plot that was to become Le Baou dInfer Cookery School. Pete and Di were looking for an excuse to spend more time at their house in Provence. An Antipodean chef-teacher, young enough to be their son, was an unlikely part of that plan, but the seed was sown. The logistics were discussed, and soon the house was being adapted to its new role.