Some of my earliest food memories are of Fortnum & Mason: my mother’s favourite chocolates were their rose and violet creams; my great-aunt would come to London sporadically and take me out there for the world’s most lavish and exotic ice cream sundaes, at a time when pretty much everywhere else was just vanilla, chocolate or strawberry. So, understandably, the Fortnum’s Cook Book has a strong nostalgic appeal for me, but a cookery book cannot survive on sentimentality alone, and I have insulted the book’s elegance already, besmirching it with hideously garish post-it notes. Although I was tempted to bring you their recipe for Scottish Tablet, I just had to go for the Scotch Egg with Mango Chutney Mayo and Piccalilli.
Fortnum & Mason: The Cook Book by Tom Parker Bowles
Photography by David Loftus
Published by 4th Estate, 2016