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The Modern Peasant

The Modern Peasant

Adventures in City Food

Summary

*WINNER OF THE FORTNUM & MASON FOOD BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2014*

Inspired by those who were bold enough to make that leap, but firmly rooted in London, food writer Jojo Tulloh wondered if some kind of peasant-like self-sufficiency could be achieved for city-dwellers; looking around her she found she was not alone.Beneath Victorian railway arches, on inner city roof tops and on borrowed land, a new breed of food producers were baking bread, making cheese, keeping bees and growing vegetables. Inspired by their success, Jojo watched and learned.

In this evocative and illuminating book, Jojo shares her knowledge of this fast-changing culinary scene. Alongside vivid stories from her visits to producers and tips for baking and pickling, fermenting and foraging, she presents fresh tasting, achievable recipes for modern peasants – sourdough pizzas of nettles and sausage, celebratory paellas of squid and home-grown peppers, chutneys, jam and pickles – and in doing so shows how a food philosophy that takes the best from past traditions can put flavour and excitement back into everyday cooking – even amidst the roar of city life.

Reviews

  • This book is the thoughtful, entertaining result
    Carolyn Hart, Telegraph

About the author

Jojo Tulloh

Jojo Tulloh is the author of two books, East End Paradise (Chatto & Windus 2011), which explored seasonal cooking and growing inspired by her East London allotment and The Modern Peasant (Chatto & Windus 2013) which won the Fortnum & Mason Food Book of the Year award in 2014. The latter used the skills gleaned from interviews with independent food producers to gain a new level of self sufficiency in baking, butchery, beekeeping, vegetable growing, fermenting and cheesemaking and combined stories with recipes. The book, inspired in part by Patience Gray’s cult book, Honey From a Weed, began with a journey to the legendary food writer’s remote Apulian home. For five years Jojo wrote the Kitchen Garden Cook column for Gardens Illustrated (for which she was awarded The Fortnum and Mason Cookery Writer of the Year award in 2017). As well as writing for the Financial Times and the Observer she has written and published pamphlets of her own on Elizabeth David’s marginalia, Patience Gray and Dorothy Hartley and most recently the previously untranslated recipes of Marguerite Duras. Jojo is currently working on a food book inspired by a garden designed on forest garden principles on the edge of Exmoor in North Devon. www.jojotulloh.com
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