Following on from the success of his first cookbook, chef Mark Moriarty has come up with another practical guide to elevated home cooking, that perfectly represents his ethos and approach to food.
The Irish chef, documentary maker, author, and now podcaster explained that his new book, Season, is more of a reference point for home cooks, to allow them to appreciate the abundance of nature by leaning into seasonality when cooking at home.
“The main idea for the book is as a follow on for Flavour which did really well,” he says. “It was a practical handbook of recipes that people could make again and again at home. So, I didn’t want to go away from that, but I wanted to bring a little bit more of restaurant cooking to it.
“We don’t shove it down people’s throats saying they have to only eat or buy certain ingredients, but it gives the feel of seasonality that we follow in restaurants—lightness in spring, richness and indulgence in autumn, etc.”
Season is full of straightforward recipes that any home cook can make at home. Moriarty emphasizes the importance of doing the basics well and provides the kind of chef’s tips and tricks that elevate an ordinary dish into something special. His vanilla rice pudding with shortbread and jam is a good example. It’s something that seems simple, and it is, but if you follow Moriarty’s instructions, you can get consistently great results, like you would in a restaurant.
“It’s about baking off the rice in the milk, so you get that nice char on top, which adds to the flavor and mixing through whipped cream to lighten it up at the end, like we do in a restaurant, but people may not know about that,” he says.
As we all know there are a multitude of benefits to eating seasonally, it’s how we are supposed to eat. It’s something Moriarty outlines in his book.
“If you’re eating seasonally, you’re eating food with less carbon footprint,” he says. “Things are in abundance, supply and demand economics means they’re cheaper to buy, and it’s going to taste better. You’re also supporting a local ecosystem of businesses by buying local, in-season ingredients.”
With the book divided into four chapters representing each season, you must wonder, does chef Moriarty have a favorite time of the year for seasonal cooking?
“I just love winter” he says. “I love hearty, comfort cooking like stews, there’s a beef bourguignon recipe in there with mashed potatoes, 50% butter, 50% potatoes, that’s my kind of cooking, food is comfort for me. Even in my restaurant cooking where the food looks really high-end and fancy, there’s always something there that where it reminds you of comfort eating at home.”
