The Art Of The Tart

Tamasin Day-Lewis

Editions

Review

My mother was a shocking cook.  She did things to the Sunday joint that could make one feel sorry for raw meat.  But, and what a but, she could bake like a dream!  Where I was raised in Glasgow, the W.I. didn’t dare to venture, but local church bazaars and school fetes benefited from many an Albert Sponge, Battenburg Cake and, best of all, the stuff of suburban legend, her unrivalled Dusted Fancies.

Sadly, but in true Mendelian manner, the baking genes have skipped a generation: my short pastry seldom crumbles and my feuilleté often fails to rise to the occasion.  Help, however, has recently come to hand in the form of Tamasin Day-Lewis and I can now reveal that I can replicate some of my mother’s greatest triumphs thanks to the skills I have learned in this book.

She offers a classic ‘Quiche Lorraine’ and a delicious ‘Tomato and Prosciutto’ variation for summer, a ‘Potato, Garlic and Parsley Tourte’ for the coldest weather, and at the opposite end of the sugar scale, a completely foolproof ‘Tarte Tatin’ and an unusual ‘Rhubarb and Lemon Cream Tart’.

Each recipe is preceded by a short account of how she came upon her treasures and she is extremely generous in allowing her friends, co-authors, restaurateurs and journalists due credit.  Her cousin Deborah gets lavish praise for her ‘Cheese Strata’, movie star Julia Roberts gets a mention just for liking a particularly rich ‘Treacle Tart’, fellow travellers Mark Sainsbury and Sam Clark get a plug for their very good restaurant ‘ Moro’ and A.A. Gill is recorded as actually enjoying something, the weird sounding (and as yet untried by me) ‘ Fig Tart with Tobacco Syrup’.  Over the past months I’ve tried all the others and several more.

I’m feeling quite flaky with success! - review by Stewart Grimshaw