The Spanish Kitchen

"It is a very affectionate personal account of his life in Spain. It is not your normal classic cookery book. There is a lot of chat and interesting little ideas. We have had this book for years, and it was one of the books that we learnt from early on. It is a very well thumbed book. He talks about the calzotada – which are amazing things, like half a spring onion and half a leek, that grow in Catalonia. Every January or February they have festivals where they cook hundreds of these calzots outside, on charcoal. You eat them with a classic romesco sauce, which is a pepper and almond-nut sauce. Just reading that recipe makes me hungry to go and see them being cooked. Now we can actually buy this vegetable here in the UK and do something similar in our restaurant. Yes, from both Spain and the Middle East. We have always had a very deep-rooted passion and love for that area. We went to Syria last year, Lebanon this year, and it is absolutely tragic what is going on. We have never made it out to Iran, but would love to go there. The people are so generous and kind. Often the picture which is painted is very different from the reality."