Food for celebrities - a book

"Staying in really is the new going out." Nisha Parmar

The pile of books on my desk is not getting any smaller because I keep on adding to it. It's becoming a bit of an addiction which is a somewhat worrying thought.

So today I decided to tackle yet one more - a birthday gift from my son and his ex, so it dates back to June. I did look at it pretty much straightaway, but then it ended up in the dreaded pile.

So a quick summary - a beautiful cover - well done designers. Gold lettering on a sage background to denote class, a very tempting photograph, and a subtitle which actually tells you what the book is about, rather than the actual title which is one of those one word titles that seems to be the current trend - Fusão, Lugma, Tonight, Flavour, Rumi, Boustani, Tonight, Linger, Pranzo, Comfort ... the list is pretty much endless. They're pretty uninformative too - either because they are in a foreign language which you don't understand, or they are pretty vague and could really mean everything or anything. So in those contexts, the name of the author is pretty important, and Nisha Parmar's name is clearly there - the last thing you read.

If you are British you may know her as she was the runner up in their MasterChef UK competition in 2018, which made her dump her high-flying job in banking to in favour of catering for dinner parties - increasingly for celebrities - which seems to have been aided by impressing British chef Joe Wicks at a charity dinner she had catered for.

And look she's beautiful too. Of course she is. Of Indian parents, married with two children, she has nevertheless built a successful career, Her Instagram following is in the many thousands, rather than the millions, but that's probably all she needs, And success breeds success. It's who you know that's important. That charity lunch at which she met Joe Wicks - a British celebrity chef, who has helped her with finding customers, was given to her by one of her banking customers from UNICEF.

So what does distinguish her from the pack? Not her writing, which is full of all those gushy, feel-good statements that tend to mouthed by cooks and recipe developers these days, particularly by all those beautiful Instagram and TikTok ladies - often of Asian origin and even the super greats are not immune from that.

No - it's the food, which I have to say looks pretty good. There are lots of yellow stickers poking out of the pages, attached to recipes that I obviously thought required a second look. However, I thought I had better have another look because I had once again been mildly put off by all the usual chat and rather than being disillusioned I actually added a few more stickers to those already there.

In summary the food is a mix of Asian - mostly Indian I guess - Middle-Eastern which I suspect has come from the fame of Ottolenghi because you can see the influence in certain dishes - even a touch of British and Italian here and there. So yes she is adding to the fusion trend. But then she is a fusion herself - British and Indian with a touch of Kenya as well. Also following the current trend there are lots of suggestions as to how you can vary the actual recipe particularly with respect to making them vegetarian or vegan, plus her willingness to use shop bought ingredients to make things easier. And finally there are even suggestions as to how to make your tablescaping perfect and menus you could try. And did I mention the large selection of things like spice mixes, granitas and ice-creams, breads and chutneys and so on? In summary it looks daunting and glamorous, but actually there is a lot in there that you could have a go at.

So a few examples - perhaps one from each section of the book.

Small plates and Asian tapas - I have to say this is a particularly strong section of the book, and actually there are other dishes throughout the book which would just as easily fit here. This one is Nori tostadas with tajín - and you know I might try this. It is so - simple - rice paper glued to nori seaweed with water, cut into squares and fried, before topping with canned sweetcorn, spring onions, avocado mayonnaise and that tajín seasoning - and I think I bought a bottle on a whim one day - so perhaps I should have a go at this next time the family are here. But here's the interesting, no alarming, thing. You can buy the ingredients and recipe online for $54.50 heavily reduced from $109.00 on a website called Shop but emanating from a British foodie website called Sous Chef. I can only assume - because the picture is identical to what is in my book- that Nisha Parmar has sold the recipe, and/or rights to Sous Chef. Now the ingredients are not costly - you can get them all at your supermarket, and the method is dead simple - and besides you would still have to assemble it all at the very least. What a rip off! Somebody is making a huge amount out of this. You could buy the whole book for less I'm guessing.

Beautiful plates - where "I reveal some of my top-secret signature dishes that have won the hearts of famous clients.". Sort of ugh! My example here is Aubergine Tarte Tatin, the recipe for which - and also a video - can be found on The Doctor's Kitchen website. As I say, the text can be a bit off-putting, however, if you like eggplant this looks pretty good - a kind of Ottolenghi influence at play here perhaps. Georgina Hayden has a similar recipe that she demonstrats on Instagram from her book Greekish - called Sticky aubergine, pomegranate and herb Tarte Tatin Same idea, different flavours in the sauce.

Masala plates - a collection from her Indian roots with some Thai and Malaysian input as well. Sri Lankan chicken masala traybake on the House and Garden website. "Another recipe born out of a fridge raid to use up curry leaves and tomatoes on their last legs." Which goes to prove that good things can be derived from the dying things in your fridge. The tomatoes don't have to be dying of course, and you can also use tinned ones. Moreover it can be made in advance and the flavour only improves. It looks gorgeous, is simple and even uses a shop-bought curry powder. I could consider this for an upcoming family get together

Layered plates - the Ottolenghi effect is on full display in this section and initially I had not bookmarked anything - however, just to be representative here is yet another gorgeous looking roasted carrot dish. There are so many of them out there on the net, and I have yet to make any of them which is really stupid because I love carrots and I've always got some. So maybe I should try her

Roasted harissa carrots with whipped feta and crispy chickpeas the recipe for which can be found on the Food and Travel website. It follows the usual pattern - a soft base - in this case the whipped feta, your main focus - the carrots - something crunchy - in this case roasted chickpeas, a drizzle of zhoug - and a scattering of herbs. and dukkah. The problem in this house is the harissa.

Last minute guests - the introduction to which she begins with "The best relationship you can have is with your store cupboard." So true, but then Robert Carrier was saying that way back in the 60s and probably lots of others before him. There are lots of cheating kind of recipes here - so I present two - the first of which is Cheat's Turkish mantı - the recipe for which can be found on That One Dish. "Shockingly easy to throw together", says that website - I mean it uses shop bought frozen dumplings or tortellini, sits on yoghurt with some garlic, and is sprinkled with chilli butter. A toddler could do this. And they could also make the 10 minute sticky Chinese chicken, which is even quicker and easier - just soak the chicken in a marinade of five spice powder, garlic powder, light and dark soy sauce and olive oil and cook on a griddle. Then sprinkle with honey, chilli, sesame seeds, lime and coriander. Basic. But I bet it tastes good.

Sweet plates - I'll end here with a coouple of

examples - Grilled amaretto peaches with whipped amaretti mascarpone - Press Reader. It's dead simple and I guess not very original. I'm sure Nigel would have something similar, although he may have put them in a tart or on toast. I was also tempted by Kataifi pistachio cheesecake with berries - but there was neither a picture nor a recipe online. Which always makes me wonder in a book that has most of the recipes illustrated but some not - how do they decide which ones to photograph and which ones not? I guess it's an economic decision as to how many to photograph, but which ones? How would you make that decision? And nobody has made that recipe as yet either and so I don't even have an amateur photograph.

The book doesn't end with dessert however, there are three more sections - Cocktails and mocktails; Sides, chutneys and pantry and Tablescaping and plating and those menu plans I mentioned earlier.

So would I recommend this book? Well yes I think. I haven't made anything from it as yet, but will try one of those that I have illustrated here at least. The whole thing is a sort of halfway house between supermarket magazines and somebody like Nigel Slater with a big dash of Indian food which comes from her mum who is often mentioned.

I was very shocked by the price of that nori and rice paper appetiser. If she is the one pulling in the cash then I guess it shows she's a very canny marketer. Besides who pays that sort of money for that sort of thing? I quail at $14 for a jar of Ottolenghi spices but it's nothing compared to over a hundred dollars for just a recipe and ingredients.

And yes it's a bit over the top in good vibes, but that's OK. And the underlying spirit is right. After all:

"What's more important that celebrating life for absolutely no reason at all?' Nisha Parmar

POSTSCRIPT ON PHILOSOPHY

Two things I perhaps could have said in my last post on Philosophy and the food curriculum.

Number one - I mentioned that religion and philosophy had some things in common but mostly not. But actually when you think of all those moral and health food movements, then maybe each of those movements is nearer to a religion than philosopy. There are strict rules, even rituals sometimes, and definitely a religious fervour and belief. And often with a high priest of sorts proclaiming the rules. But if philosophy also means a way of life, then yes, they are philosophies. They are certainly often referred to as such.

Number two - Admiration of the Ancient Greek culture and its philosophers - well any culture come to that - is always predicated on what the major figures in that culture - the ones who go down into history - achieve whether that be good or bad. And yet the vast majority of the people who made/make up that culture had nothing to do with it. The Ancient Greek philosophers were few amongst many. Even their followers and students were few - and privileged. At the other extreme - any fanatical extremists are few in number. There are literally billions of muslims in the world, but only a tiny percentage are terrorists. We should remember that. History, and the news cycle only tell us about the ones who draw attention to themselves in some way. The rest of the world just goes about living as best they can, with just one of their major differences the food that they eat. And today even that is disappearing as a distinguishing feature. Everyone it seems eats pizza and tacos these days.

There is obviously much more to be said on that subject, and I have made a lot of generalisations. The world is a complicated place. So perhaps we should just 'celebrate life for absolutely no reason at all'. Other than that we have it.

YEARS GONE BY

October 16

2024 - Chop-chop

2023 - Normandy apples and cream

2022 - What was it all about?

2021 - Hot dipping

2020 - Missing

2019 - Couscous

2018 - Lucky dip and 'a word from...' all in one; Eliza Acton and Everton toffee

2017 - Does how you eat tell people what you are like?

2016 - Local wine on a windy, sunny day