Aleksandra Crapanzano - The London Cookbook: Recipes from the Restaurants, Cafes, and Hole-in-the-Wall Gems of a Modern City

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

One day, not many months ago, as I was considering photographers for this book, I came home from a long day of errands to find my son, Garrick, on the floor of his bedroom surrounded by stacks of cookbooks. He had taken it upon his nine-year-old self to filter through a mountain of books to help find me the best photographer. With a keen eye, hed boiled it down to three finalists and presented me with an impassioned, articulate case for each. Had I not been so interested in his arguments, I might have burst into tears. That he supported this undertaking of mine, despite the weeks Id spent abroad doing research, the late nights copyediting, and the weekends of recipe testing, moved me to the core. Garrick is like that. He never fails to surprise, and his well of generosity never fails to replenish. His thoughtfulness is true thoughtfulness, carefully considered, imagined, and executed with love. This book is dedicated to him.

Theres not a page that leaves my desk and enters the outside world without first being edited by my husband, John. In this, I am truly lucky, as not only is his editing fierce and exacting, but it affords me the confidence and fearlessness that I, for one, need in order to write. He is my favorite writer and reader, and, at heart, everything I write of my own, I write for him.

My dog, Griffin, is a Bouvier des Flandres, a soulful, wise, gentle furry noble giant, who leads me upstairs to my desk to write every morning. I simply follow his work ethic as best I can. When I doubt myself, he steadies me. When I finish, he is there to play. When I wake, hes there to set the day in motion. Thank you, my sweet Grif.

Everything I know about food I know thanks to my parents. They had the wonderful sense never to give me kid food, but rather to introduce me to the best food and assume it would captivate me. It did. And when we moved to Paris when I was ten, I took to accompanying my father when he went to the cheese shop, Barthlmy, the bread shop, Poilne, the Patisserie Grard Mulot, and the market on the rue de Buci. My father, with impeccable French and elegant manners, would take time to discuss the food with the shopkeepers. His seriousness was understood to be a sign of respect and was rewarded with generous discussion about such and such a cheese or the merits of a poulet de Bresse, the virtues of a particular Calvados, or the secret stash of fraises des bois. I had no idea how much I was learning.

But it was my mother who taught me to cook and to write. She will tell you she cooks by the book, but the margins of her cookbooks are marked with notes and changes. She will tell you she simply adds more of what she likesmore butter, more wine, more thymebut in recreating the balance of a recipe, she always seems to improve it exponentially. She will tell you to come over and have a bite and several sumptuous courses later, you will still be feasting. When I was little, if I gave my mother something Id written, shed return it marked up in red felt-tip pen. Her editorial remarks were true to the New Yorker, where she writes, and the strange symbols seemed loopy and foreign to me, but what I understood was her dedication to the possibilities of language. I learned to ponder and question every choice I made, to reach for simplicity, and to never be less than precise. Today, it is with hungry anticipation that I give my mother what I write, knowing how very much I have still to learn from her.

London is now the home of two of my dearest friends, Nader and Alexandra Mousavizadeh. It is their house that has been my home away from home. Their immense generosity and friendship made this book possible. Their upstairs floor became my ground zero and their kitchen table conversation, my reward.

Every recipe in this book has been tested at least twice and made countless times for pleasure. My intern Chrissy Tkac proved indispensable. She has the precision of a true baker and the dedication of a real chef.

Numerous publicists helped me in London, but a very special thanks must go to Sophie Orbaum at Gerber Communications, Sarah Canet at Spoon PR, and Gemma Bell at Gemma Bell PR.

A first book is a leap of faith. While Id written numerous screenplays and countless articles, Id never tackled a book when my agents Eric Simonoff, Eric Lupfer, and Elizabeth Sheinkman at William Morris Endeavor took me on, believing somehow that if I could write a good thousand words, I could write a good eighty-thousand. I could not ask for a more loving, more enthusiastic, or more loyal team.

Of course, the biggest leap of faith was made by Ten Speed Press and, in particular, my editor Jenny Wapner. Jenny, with great straightforward and honest grace, has nudged where needed and given freedom where desired. With uncanny accuracy, she can pinpoint a problem before it is made, saving headaches and anguish. A true publisher, she moves seamlessly and brilliantly between the micro details of editing and the big picture vision of shaping a book. It has been a pleasure working together.

As a journalist, Ive been privy to Kristin Casemores book launches for over a dozen years. No one does it better. What fun it is to finally be on the same team!

Assistant editor Clara Sankey answered all the silly questions of a first-time book writer with such graciousness that I never felt the least silly.

Ive been a fan of creative director Emma Campions work for years. When she agreed to take on this project, I knew I won the lottery. Watching her design this book has been quite thrilling. Somehow out of my inarticulate ramblings on aesthetics and vision, she made sense and turned it into art.

As did Sang An, whose photographs illuminate these pages. With the help of the wonderful food stylist George Dolese, Sang turned his elegant eye to the food, people, and places of London, giving visual life to this book. Their work may appear effortless, but they worked tirelessly to make it so.

Of course, there would be no book without the chefs here portrayed. Someone asked me when I started this book if I worried that chefs would refuse to give me their recipes. No, I answered, surprised. Great chefs create anew every day, dish to dish, as ingredients appear and ideas spark. They are fluid, energetic, and profoundly creative thinkers. And they are, by and large, a most generous lot, as eager to share their discoveries as to offer up an evening feast. But their hospitality (and lovely British manners) far exceeded all expectation. Nowhere have I received a lovelier welcome than I did at the restaurants in this book. It would seem, in cooking, that heart and talent are most always entwined, and that where the food is good, chances are the chef is a generous one. This book is about chefs, and it is for them.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Aleksandra Crapanzano is the recipient of the James Beard Foundation M.F.K. Fisher Award for Distinguished Writing. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Best Food Writing, and she has written extensively for the New York Times Magazine, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Saveur, Departures, Travel & Leisure and the Wall Street Journal, where, for the last five years, she has written the dessert column A Little Something Sweet. Aleksandra has spent much of her life in Europe. She now resides in Brooklyn with her husband, the novelist John Burnham Schwartz, and their son, Garrick.