Torode - My Kind of Food: Recipes I Love to Cook at Home

Copyright 2015 John Torode The right of John Torode to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. First published as an Ebook in the UK by Headline Publishing Group in 2014 Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library. eISBN: 978 1 4722 2584 9 Designed by Mark Harper at Bonbon London
Photography: Yuki Sugiura
Food styling: Lizzie Kamenetzky
Food styling assistants: Poppy Mahon and Emma Miller
Prop styling: Cynthia Inions
Recipe editor: Imogen Fortes
Repro at BORN Group HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP
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www.hachette.co.uk My Kind of Food is a very personal book from John, full of the food that he loves to cook and eat, recipes that he makes away from the cameras and professional kitchens.
In Johns words: My world as I know it started with my Nannas roasting tin, a chicken and a wooden spoon. The food she cooked was always simple, but delicious. Her cauliflower cheese was awesome, her caramel slice wonderful and I am still searching for a recipe to make her apple tea cake.

So life started simply for me. Since then I have cooked in professional kitchens, run my own restaurants and done a lot of telly. Some of you may have eaten in my restaurants, some may have seen me on MasterChef, but I guess that not many of you know what I really cook for myself and my friends and family. This book is about how I cook at home and the chapters reflect me and the things in life I love how I eat and how I cook. At its heart, it is simple, but its definitely also influenced by my years in restaurant kitchens. I dont tend to define my food by type or style.

I guess you could say that these are my real favourites a behind-the-scenes look at my own kitchen! John is one of the UKs best-known chefs and TV presenters. He is the host and judge of BBC1s top-rating MasterChef, Celebrity MasterChef and Junior MasterChef and presenter of A-Z of Cooking on BBC2. John went back to his roots with a culinary road trip across Australia for his series John Torodes Australia, which was the top-performing show of 2014 on the Good Food channel, with a 70% above slot average and which has also just aired on Watch. A popular TV personality, much sought after by many shows, John has also hosted Have I Got News For You and Saturday Kitchen, and has made numerous guest appearances on BBC Breakfast, Loose Women, Alan Carr, The Alan Titchmarsh Show and National Lottery Stars. John also writes regularly for Good Food, Olive, Waitrose Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Red and Delicious and he appears at all the annual BBC Good Food Shows. Over the past 12 months I have had a ball writing and cooking for this book, but of course, no man is an island and the only way a book like this comes together is because a caring team of wonderful people gets stuck in and makes it happen. Over the past 12 months I have had a ball writing and cooking for this book, but of course, no man is an island and the only way a book like this comes together is because a caring team of wonderful people gets stuck in and makes it happen.

My thanks are in no particular order (Maybe in order of appearance?) Jo Carlton, thank you for continuing to believe in me, for pushing the boundaries and listening to me when I rant. I know its not often but I do rant. Jonathan Conway, for putting the deal together: you are very clever and a really nice bloke. Thanks. My Lisa, for pushing me, making me stick to my guns and listening when I needed you to listen. You rock my world.

The team, as I have now collectively decided to call you, you all know who you are. A great big sloppy Aussie kiss. Thank you. Yuki Sugiura, you are one heck of a photographer. You are so lovely, your pictures are beautiful and you let me be the cook. The greatest respect.

Thank you! And to the wonderful Clarence for all the teas and laughter we really missed you on our last day. Cynthia Inions, a stylist who is indispensible. Thank you for working so hard and making the ordinary extraordinary, for taking my few thangs and making it my book. You are brill. See you soon. Thanks to Mark Harper, a great chum and a man of calm and persistence.

You slapped my smile all over this beautiful book and it looks and feels just the way I wanted it to. Pictures of food dont just appear and I have to give a big hug and thanks to Lizzie Kamenetzky and Poppy Mahon, for working in my little kitchen and taking my food and ideas to the place they belong, on the pages of this book for all to be inspired by. I couldnt have done it without you. If I could spell and write I would still ask for Imogen Fortes to edit my future books. Thank you for your patience, your attention to detail and for allowing me to use my words. What a joy.

Every team needs a captain and my captain is Muna Reyal. I bow to you. Your belief and trust has made this all possible. And thank you to the rest of the Headline team, particularly Elizabeth Masters and Viviane Basset for getting My Kind of Food out there and spreading the word. Thats it until next time. Thank you for taking the time to read my book.

Dedicated to my children Marcel, Casper, Jonah and Loulou Contents This book is about how I cook at home, and the chapters reflect me and the things in life I love its how I eat. This book, My Kind Of Food , is a document of my life in food, and of my travels and my loves. Why did I decide to write it? Because cooking is what I do and what I have always done. I do it professionally and it is my way of life, but cooking is also the way I relax. It is the thing I dream about the most; it makes me smile and it is something that I am proud to be able to do well. Yes, I am a judge on MasterChef, where I taste thousands of dishes, and yes, I am a trained chef, which has had me commanding some of the biggest brigades a kitchen has ever seen.

Yes, I have travelled the world and cooked on TV and at food shows up and down the country, but in my heart I am a home cook. I do most of my cooking at home for my friends and family and for me, so this is a collection of those recipes. It is the food I love, that I cook all the time, and it is a book full of recipes that have a story, a soul and a reason. I also wanted you to know me and what my kind of food actually is. Its not a single style French, Asian, Australasian or British its not modern, old-fashioned or classic; its a mix of all these things. And at its core is a boy who loved to cook with his Nanna.