If we wanted a contrast to Raymond Blanc's book and its abhorrence of chef-y conceits (see feature, page 12), then Jean Christophe Novelli's cookery book, Your Place or Mine? would be just the book to turn to. Novelli, who in a couple of years has opened a cluster of restaurants in London and recently in France and who is a ubiquitous figure in the UK media, seems in the book to show us just what a clever, complicated cook he is.
His food is taller than a millennium tower, and some of it is so preposterously silly that it actually makes me laugh. Call into a bookshop, open Your Place or Mine? at page 37, have a gawk at the photograph of "Trout tartare with cucumber crown, quail's egg, caviar and chilled gazpacho dressing" and see if your reaction isn't a chortle at the ridiculousness of it all. This is the sort of stuff nine-year-olds prepare for Junior Masterchef, before they wise up and get a life.
Jean Christophe Novelli's Your Place or Mine? is published by Quadrille, price £25 in UK)
You would learn more from five minutes at one of Linda Booth's Valentia Cookery classes than you could ever glean from Novelli's book, so anyone who wants to polish up their skills will be delighted to know that she has just begun a new series of classes, with a range of courses planned for the spring. The five sessions of the fish cookery course seems to be just the sort of thing domestic cooks need to improve their repertoire of fish dishes, and to gain confidence when buying fish and shellfish, but there are also courses on desserts, quick entertaining, Mediterranean food and barbecues. The courses take place on Tuesday evenings or Thursday mornings, while weekend courses take place on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings. For full details and a brochure, tel 01-278 2365.
Valentia cookery, 25 Avoca Park, Blackrock, Co Dublin.
If you don't want to learn to cook at a cookery class, but you do want brilliant food on the table, then consider this. John Desmond, luminary chef of Cork's Island Cottage Restaurant, on Heir Island, is running a private dinner party service in Cork city and county for the months of January, February and March.
He offers a special menu at a charge of £19 per person which includes purchase of ingredients, preparation, cooking and service for a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 16 people. "You could say we are bringing Island Cottage to your home," says John, and I personally couldn't think of anything nicer.
Those who live away from the area but who would like to study with the maestro will be delighted to know John's one and two-day cookery courses on Heir Island will be available from March to June. They have added a small extension which gives more comfort for the overnight stay of those doing the two-day course. Full details from John and Ellmary on 028-38102.