Book: The Complete Nose to Tail - A Kind of British Cooking

By Fergus Henderson and Justin Piers Gellatly

If I hadn't been given this book as a gift, I would have bought it anyway, despite already owning Nose to Tail Eating and Beyond Nose to Tail. The Complete Nose to Tail is a compilation of the other two books but includes a lot more, such as a recipe for a ginger loaf I tasted when Fergus Henderson was in Hong Kong as guest chef at the Blue Butcher, on Hollywood Road. It was the gingeriest gingerbread I've ever tasted and absolutely delicious.

The Complete Nose to Tail is written in Henderson's chatty, casual prose which is, occasionally, laugh-out-loud funny. The photos, by Jason Lowe (who photographed the food in the other two books), are, by turn, whimsical, gory, stark and irreverent. The new recipes include calf's brain terrine; deep-fried calves' brains; pig's head and potato pie; soft roes on toast; eel pie; and chocolate cake with chocolate caramel sauce.