He recently opened a restaurant in Bath, Koffmann & Mr White’s, with his old apprentice Marco Pierre White. I had never eaten pig’s trotter when I started out, but I’d had mash loads of times – I just never imagined that whipping tons of butter or a big dollop of duck fat into the spuds could improve them quite so much. You don’t get any more rustic than his most iconic dish, stuffed pig’s trotter with mash. There is such simplicity and honesty about Koffmann’s food, but that also means there’s nowhere to hide it’s all produce plus flavour. Reading the book, you’re drawn to something on practically every page: salt cod cassoulet, fricassée of guinea fowl with garlic, french beans in cream, tarte aux pommes … They’re all classics in themselves, but also, as a menu, that’s one I’d happily have as my last meal. It’s all about the technique, which is the essence of peasant food: how to make the best of what little you’ve got – cheap cuts of meat, seasonal veg. There’s nothing complicated about his recipes, either: no daunting lists of unfamiliar ingredients, only four or five cooking stages. What Michelin-starred chef these days would have the balls to write a book about the food their mum cooked them? It’s so refreshing. His classic book, Memories of Gascony (1990), isn’t a memoir of a professional kitchen, it’s a memoir of home. His cooking is rooted in rustic French, specifically Gascon cuisine, and more specifically what he ate growing up. The funny thing is, Koffmann hit these heights without reinventing the wheel – or even trying to.
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