fergus henderson cooks

"if you're going to kill the animal it seems only polite to use the whole thing"

Had the good fortune to score front row seats at a cooking workshop by chef Fergus Henderson a couple of weeks ago. Henderson is a founder and the head chef at the St John restaurant in London. Having dined at St John Bread and Wine (a sister restaurant of St John) a few times, I count myself a big fan of his style of rustic British cooking. Derived from traditional British recipes, the food is simple but not unsophisticated. There is a tremendous respect for the integrity of the ingredients and their inherent tastes and properties throughout the whole process, from preparing the ingredients right up to the dining table. St John is well known for serving offal and other parts and cuts of meat that are often not eaten, based on Henderson's philosophy of nose to tail eating, in every edible part of the animal is used. Dining at St John, especially for a first time patron, is always laden with small surprises and discoveries, unfamiliar and neglected parts of animals, more often than not, turn out to be unexpectedly delicious. In the workshop, he demonstrated two of his signature dishes from St John, pot roast pig's head and roasted bone marrow with parsley salad, and laced with some good olde deadpan british humour.