THE KITCHEN REVOLUTION

And when you smile for the camera
I know they're gonna love it

Rosie Sykes was the engine behind one of DH’s favourestest restaurants The Sutton Arms. A simple unassuming dining room above a pub in Clerkenwell, it was a sort of (very superior) canteen that I went to whenever I finished work at a late hour and had a hunger that needed assuaging. Despite the kitchen being not much bigger than a domestic version there was a constantly changing menu which provided plenty of choice and always reflected the seasons long before ‘seasonality’ became voguish.

There would be always be delicious homemade bread to start, then a little amuse. Starters might be a dense, rich Chicken Liver Parfait with a big Veal Chop to follow and then maybe a zingy Lemon Possett accompanied with homemade shortbread for pud. If I couldn’t finish a whole bottle of wine John, the friendly front of house would store it away, ready for my next visit.

The highlight of the year would be the Christmas Party where about thirty like-minded food obsessives would cram into the little room and Rosie would not only come up with a choice of lovely dishes for each course (a huge tranche of Brill lives long in the memory) but she would even bake some water biscuits to go with the huge slabs of cheese we brought along. Happy days indeed.

In the intervening years Rosie has become somewhat of a peripatetic chef and it’s probably not an exaggeration to say that if you’ve eaten out in London over the past five years you would have eaten Rosie’s food. To top it all she’s now gone and written a book with Polly Russell and Zoe Heron.

To call The Kitchen Revolution a cookbook is a bit like calling a Chuletón de Buey from the famed Galician Carne Roja beef a 'steak’. It’s actually a complete system for buying and cooking for a whole year. Chock full of recipes that look straightforward to prepare and that will produce stuff that you’d actually want to eat (how could you not love a dish called Giant Sausage Roll) it’s the perfect answer to the eternal dilemma of “What shall we eat today ?”. Well, it’s an eternal dilemma in the Dos Hermanos household – that’s why I bought a copy. Oh, and you can access recipes and shopping list online here.

The launch of The Kitchen Revolution was in a fine looking hall called The Tab Centre. This 19th century building was built by the Shoreditch Tabernacle Baptist Church and for many years provided a meeting place for the local East End community. It continues that role today as an arts and community centre and for tonight as a venue large enough to host the multitude of friends, family and liggers (that'll be me, then) who turned up to celebrate publication.

Food was simple, robust and generous (that'll be me, again): truckles of cheese, fine homemade soda bread, bowls of radishes and tomatoes with salsa verde and cheese straws. There was also plenty of wine, beer and jugs of elderflower cordial to wash it all down with.

I think I can safely say that a good time was had by all.

PS Apologies for the even worse than usual photos - it's pretty hard to snap away when you're holding a large glass of Burgundy (white) and chomping on an enormous cheese straw.

PPS And good luck to Rosie on her next venture !