Simon Hopkinson has always been regarded as a thinking man’s chef—intelligent and thought-provoking in his approach to food. In his excellent book The Vegetarian Option, he manages to inspire yet again. I’ve featured another of his books here before, the brilliant Roast Chicken and Other Stories. I love these books for many reasons, and if I were a selfish man, I’d think, “Damn, I wish I’d had that idea.” But he’s done vegetables proud here, creating dishes that I actually want to eat. It’s not necessarily about how the food looks (though the beauty of simplicity is always present in his cooking) but how it tastes.
On the first page or so, Hopkinson recounts having a dish of vegetable bouillon at Marc Meneau, a 3-star Michelin restaurant in France, and being utterly blown away by its flavour, colour, and consistency. It reminded me of making gallons of the stuff at Kinnaird House all those years ago—a precise recipe of half white wine, half water, with a pinch of saffron. The flavour was incredible, and like Hopkinson suggests, we stored it in Le Parfait jars in a cool place to let it develop further. Stock is the backbone of most good dishes, and this vegetable stock is no exception.
The recipes in this book are straightforward and appealing. Think cucumber, melon, and tomato salad; grilled aubergine with pesto; wilted radicchio with green sauce—this is my kind of food. A spinach mousse with parmesan cream sounds intriguing, and the parsley, radish, and celery salad with capers feels like the perfect summer dish to enjoy outside with good bread and cheese. And then there’s his soup au pistou—a classic, and so tasty.
Widely recognised as one of the UK’s leading food writers, Hopkinson has a loyal and well-deserved following. His Roast Chicken and Other Stories was once hailed as “the most useful cookery book of all time” in a survey of chefs, cooks, and food writers. Maybe one day, I’ll write that book myself—can someone lend me some extra time, please? But before you all rush to pre-order my unwritten cookbook on Amazon, pick up this one—even if you’re a devoted carnivore.
