Rootsy recipes to Gather
Look to the land for simple, yet exceptional dishes, Laura Brehaut writes.
In Gather: Everyday Seasonal Food from a Year in Our Landscapes, British chef Gill Meller encourages home cooks to go back to the beginning. To connect with the food-producing landscapes that surround us — the farms, fields, gardens, harbours, orchards, seashores and woods.
“All the foundations and building blocks of good cooking stem from an understanding of where the ingredients you’re eating come from,” Meller says.
“And then the cooking really comes at the end. Cooking can be as simple as combining a handful of lovely fresh things from the garden and appreciating it for what it is. It’s not necessarily a complicated and overthought process. That’s the case with much of what I do.”
Gather is both distinctly of a place — Dorset in South West England — and readily translatable. The techniques and ingredients are accessible and inviting; Meller’s recipes will draw you into the kitchen, wherever it may be.
The 120 seasonal recipes are presented in eight chapters, organized by where the key ingredients come from: cheese and pork from the farm; mussels and oysters from the seashore; oats and barley from the field.
“Even if (readers) live in the city, they can still look at these images and descriptions and connect with them — even in the most primal sense,” he says.
Fans of the River Cottage TV series will likely be familiar with Meller; he has been cooking alongside celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at his pioneering food empire for more than 10 years.
An advocate for ethically produced, sustainable food, Meller also teaches at the River Cottage cooking school and contributes to cookbooks. (Gather is his first solo volume.)
Going back to the source doesn’t necessitate having a full garden at your disposal, Meller emphasizes. Grow your own herbs in a window box or visit a pick-your-own farm during harvest season to see where your food comes from.
“Even if it’s just picking some herbs and putting them in pasta … just the fact that you’ve gone and plucked them and grown them (makes it) so much more rewarding,” Meller says.
“They might taste the same to anyone else. But to you, the whole process has been one of enjoyment and intrigue and reward.”
Recipes reprinted with permission from Gather: Everyday Seasonal Food from a Year in Our Landscapes by Gill Meller, Quadrille Publishing c/o Chronicle Books.