A few weeks ago, the British Library hosted a food season discussion featuring novelist Michèle Roberts, biographer Francesca Wade, writer Eli Davies, and food writer Rebecca May Johnson. The topic was women's culinary lives and the kitchen as a space of creativity, resistance, and intellectual life. Although I could not attend, the discussion was reportedly brilliant and hopefully recorded.
I have read all four authors' recent books. Davies' The Spinster Cookbook explores cooking for one in a society built for couples and families. Wade's Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife delves into Stein's legacy, leaving readers to decide if she was a genius or high priestess of unintelligibility. May Johnson's Small Fires is welcoming and challenging, filled with tomato sauce. Roberts' second cookbook, French Cooking for Two, is a slim volume with 170 short, uncomplicated recipes.
Roberts' Culinary Philosophy
Food, cooking, and feminism are constant themes for Roberts, the French-British author of critically acclaimed novels, including the Booker-shortlisted Daughters of the House. Her first cookbook, French Cooking for One, was published in 2024, and French Cooking for Two followed last year. The recipes are adapted from historical sources, particularly La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange (1929), and personal recipes from her aunt Brigette, who ran a domestic science college in Isigny-sur-Mer and kept kitchen notebooks. Arranged by season, the recipes offer a no-nonsense introduction to French cooking: herb soup, green beans with peppers and almonds, braised mussels, chicken with tarragon and capers, lamb Normandy-style, baked eggs with cheese, redcurrants with soft cheese, leek and tomato soup, and coffee ice-cream. The message is clear: cooking should be fun and self-nourishing, not complicated.
A Dish for Friendship
Roberts' writing is fun and nourishing, with swift, unfussy recipe instructions and witty observations. French Cooking for Two is about friendship; its opening line states, "Friendship is my oxygen." She continues, "Friends delight, surprise and sustain me. Spending time with them fills me with warmth and happiness." She once noted that "sex and poetry and anchovies and friendship and pasta = delight." Her recipe for chicken saute with tomatoes and mushrooms also equals delight.
The dish was reportedly confected for Napoleon after a victorious battle, when supplies were left behind but the chef remained. He put together an impromptu dinner with what he requisitioned from a local farmer. Roberts notes that subsequent generations of chefs overcomplicated the recipe. This simplified version celebrates friendship, not war.
The Recipe: Chicken Saute with Tomatoes and Mushrooms
Serves 4. Ingredients: olive oil, 8 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs, 4 large tomatoes, 100g mushrooms, salt, black pepper, dry white wine, 1 tbsp minced flat-leaf parsley, 1 garlic clove, stale bread.
Working in a large, deep frying pan or casserole, add a thin layer of olive oil, then lay in the chicken thighs skin side down and put the pan on a medium-low heat. Leave to fry until the skin is golden, then turn over and brown the other side—about 20 minutes in total. Meanwhile, nick the tomato skins, plunge them into boiling water for three minutes, then lift into cold water to slip off the skins easily. Halve the tomatoes, scoop out and discard the seeds and tough bits, then roughly chop the flesh. Wipe the mushrooms and quarter them. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, add the mushrooms, and toss for a minute. Pour in a glass of white wine, let it sizzle, then add the tomatoes and minced garlic, and leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Towards the end, stir in the parsley. In the last minutes, fry cubed bread in olive oil with a little salt to make croutons. Serve the chicken with a few croutons on each plate.
Roberts suggests buying pudding from a shop, as it is more fun to lay the table, polish the glasses, and light the candles. Then you are ready to open the door and welcome your friend.
