Naturally fast food
It isn’t every day you find yourself fighting a bookshop employee for the single remaining copy of a cookbook, however this seems to be the kind of passion Leon– Ingredients and Recipes, inspires in people.
Once the fight was won and Leon was mine, leaving the weeping retailer behind I quickly took my purchase to a quiet café near by, and over a long afternoon latte, devoured the images, information and recipes within.
Born out of a small chain of ‘naturally fast food’ restaurants, Leon is jammed full of great facts, quirky images and artwork, and original 1970’s photos of the founders and staff as children. A fun book to browse through, Leon is full of easily digestible information, straight forward recipes and great little extras such as a pull out seasonal food guide and a cheese highlights of Europe map, both of which now have a place in my kitchen.
Leon is a bit of a UK success story, founded by Cordon Bleu trained chef Allegra McEvedy and two friends who were frustrated with the quality of ‘fast’ food available around London. In 2004 the first Leon opened in London’s trendy Carnaby St and within six months they won the Observer Food Monthly’s Best New Restaurant in Great Britain award. Four years on, another eight Leon’s have opened and they have recently been named Best Restaurant Concept in Europe.
The concept is quite simple – ‘fast’ food that tastes good and does you good. The focus of the restaurants is on ingredients and seasonality, knowing where each ingredient comes, how best to use them and when – common sense really. This common sense flows on to the book, giving people not only recipes, but useful information, hints and tips. All the recipes in the book are based on food you can dine on in the various Leon restaurants, depending on seasonal availability, of course.
The first section of the book is dedicated to the ingredients themselves - fruits, vegetables, dairy, cheese, fish, meat, herbs, spices, grains and nuts. While not comprehensive and with a definite UK slant, the information on each ingredient covers some useful basics - where each are grown, their use, their benefits to the body and also who their ‘friends’ and ‘relations’ are. In the case of pears and quince for instance, cheese, cinnamon, pastry are ‘friends’ and apples are ‘relations’.
I particularly like the ‘anything else’ quick facts for each ingredient such as French dramatist, Alexander Dumas, leaving his entire collection of 300 books to his local village, on the proviso that they gave him twelve melons a year for life. The chicken and egg joke in the fold out chicken section is an absolute winner as well!
The second section is the recipe book, beginning with breakfasts and moving through to desserts and then onto a few select cocktails – all recipes books should be put together this way!
Being a touch alternative and very British, there is a great recipe for brown sauce, beef and Guiness pie and a number of puddings and cakes which involve rhubarb and raspberry. These are interspersed however with a selection of Leon’s favourite Indian, Morroccan, French, Spanish and other international dishes. I especially liked the soup section, with the recipes divided into the four seasons and with such tempting creations as chilli pumpkin and wild mushroom, Moroccan Harira, and winter root soup with sage and chestnuts.
With a 1930s style yellow cover of a beautiful woman holding aloft an orange, Leon won’t be hard to miss in your bookshop, but given it is a UK restaurant chain, there is only a limited release of the book here in Australia. We can only hope that Leon restaurants will spread its magic to Australian shores one day soon – in this world of obesity and the domination of a small number of fast food chains, it would be a welcome newcomer. Until then, we will have to make do with the recipes within or jump on the next plane to London . . .