On the Menu by James Mackenzie is not just a cookbook; this is a book about the food, the pub, the people, seasonality and local produce.The book tells the story of James and Kate Mackenzie's East Yorkshire pub The Pipe and Glass Inn, a pub that was awarded a Michelin star in 2010. You get to know James and Kate, their suppliers, a thing or two about seasonality and obviously the food, all captured through beautiful photography by Jason Lowe.


On the Menu contains a collection of 74 recipes of dishes that feature or have featured on the menu of The Pipe and Glass Inn.
There are eight chapters in the book: Cow, Pig, Sheep, Fish, Shellfish, Poultry & Game, Veg Patch and Afters. In the meat chapters James Mackenzie provides concise but clear information on cuts of beef, pork and lamb and on how to use them. The recipes use both cheap and more expensive cuts of meat and include Cow heel stew & dumplings, Pork belly with liquorice soubise or Rack of lamb with reform sauce.

 

All the recipes in the book focus on great British produce, sometimes translated into rustic dishes with flair such as Wood Pigeon Pithivier, Duck Bresaola, Spiced potted pork with sticky apple and crackling salad and sometimes into British classics with a sophisticated twist like Lemon Verbena posset, Crispy lamb with 'hotchpotch and Mushroom tart with Yorkshire Blue rarebit.

 

On the Menu is mouth-watering book that apart from the great recipe collection also gives you an insight of James Mackenzie's cooking as a representative of top-clas gastropubs and their place in the culinary Zeitgeist.