Chef and restaurant cookbooks can be dull, formulaic things that are pitched either too low or too high to be of much use to anyone. That’s not the case with Cooking for people, the debut book from South London chef Mike Davies. Having cut his teeth at top gastropubs The Anchor and Hope and The Canton Arms, Davies launched Frank's Cafe in 2008 and followed up with the nearby The Camberwell Arms in 2014 (he co-owns the latter with James Dye, who is also behind Gladwells and the more recently launched Bambi).
Much like restaurant-chef-turned-august-food-writer Simon Hopkinson, Davies has a knack for creating simple, non-cheffy dishes that are more than the sum of their parts and are easy for others to replicate. Arranged into a series of three-course meals, the book is packed full of detail with each recipe accompanied by chef’s notes and even prep schedules. Though these and the book more generally are primarily aimed at home cooks, Davies’ writing is packed with the useful details and insights that are so often lacking in chef-penned books.
For example, his recipe for shellfish rice with preserved lemon painstakingly describes how the dish is prepared at The Camberwell Arms with a rice base made and carefully cooled before being finished as the dish comes on order. His explanation for cooking a rib of beef, meanwhile, runs to nearly 800 words and starts with the line: “this recipe feels more like an opinion piece”.
On top of this, the recipes are brimming with personality, somehow managing to be both homely and sophisticated. There’s also a progressive streak to the book thanks to a surprisingly high proportion of the set meals being suitable for vegetarians and even vegans. It’s highly likely that Davies’ debut cookbook won’t be his last.
Cooking for people
Mike Davies
Number of pages: 320
Must try recipes: ‘Nduja squid and parsley salad; pumpkin and Swiss chard with burst tomatoes and brown butter; apricot tarte tatin with roasted almond cream
Publisher and price: Pavilion, £30