The best meal of my life by Fergus Henderson
In the second of our series featuring a different guest writer each month, Fergus Henderson, chef and evangelist of 'nose-to-tail' eating, tells us about his most memorable meal
"Many years ago I was studying to learn Italian in Florence. After a month the school said I was a lost cause, washing their hands off me, and therefore leaving me plenty of time to do lots of eating and drinking. My supper in a small restaurant called Coco Lezzone has stayed with me for a long time. The waiter leant into the hatch to the kitchen and shouted out the order to Mamma and Papa: pasta and white truffle. Perfect. Then roast lamb, just one slice on the plate but what a slice. It had an almost impenetrable crust. But within this, the lamb melted on your tongue, and mastication was almost unnecessary. To finish, red fortified sweet wine and biscuits. If I ever feel our food is getting too complicated, I just have to remember this supper and I am pulled back.
A close second
I cannot mention this supper without including Sostanza, an almost neighbour of Coco Lezzone, and another education in simplicity. Being simple is far from being easy. They serve the best steak Florentine, from particular white cows in a certain valley. I had always been wary of the big steak, that it will defeat me before I’ve even begun, but this is cooked to a sublime state, kept out in the kitchen where it reaches room temperature before it goes on the grill. No shocks to the steaks.
I’m not sure I can go on, it’s all too much, my juices are going crazy…"
Fergus Henderson
About Fergus and St. John
Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver opened St. John in October 1994. Fergus is the author of Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Cooking and Beyond Nose To Tail Eating. The restaurant is perhaps best known for his signature dish 'Roast Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad'. (if you want to try it at home here's some good advice). Meanwhile here's the dish being plated up at the restaurant - thanks to Whpstars. (I've eaten it many times, it's delicious - Ed.)
More of this sort of thing
The best meal of my life by Chris Pople
Top Five Restaurant Nightmares
Image of Fergus Henderson by by Patricia Niven
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