I was introduced to Anna Jones by a friend whose eyes lit up as she described this one-pan lemony pasta where the cooking water becomes the sauce. The enthusiasm verged on fanatical, but was entirely justified. Since then, I’ve been a follower and fan of Anna Jones. My own favourite recipe is her spectacular “double greens and filo pie” from A Modern Way to Eat.
One: Pot, Pan, Planet provides more showstopping recipes that I’m dying to try. The Saag Aloo Shepherd’s Pie exemplifies the combination of taste and comfort that can be found in so many of her recipes.
you’re going to feel better after eating it, it’s going to be doable, and you’ll want make it again…
Cooking an Anna jones recipe is a joy, and provides a number of things you can be sure of. It’s going to taste fantastic, you’re going to feel better after eating it, it’s going to be doable, and you’ll want make it again. In One: Pot, Pan, Planet the food isn’t just good for us, it’s good for the planet. With information on how to eat more sustainably and to reduce food waste, this truly is a cookbook for the times in which we find ourselves.
Here’s an extract from One: Pot, Pan, Planet, where Anna describes how she came to write it, and the philosophy it embodies. – Martin
My books have been gentle in their approach to putting plants at the centre of your tables. And while food and cooking, for me, are absolutely about the joy and the connection and beauty of sharing a meal, I feel now it’s time to stress the changes we need to make. I want to make it clear that how we eat can actually help to shift the world we live in.
each small choice we make matters…
While we need to be real about the seriousness of what’s going on, I think it’s important to focus on one manageable step at a time. We make 35,000 decisions a day; that’s a lot of potential for making a change. What we need, of course, is a systematic change in our food system led by our governments; but each small choice we make matters and it is up to us to make different choices as well as demanding action from those who hold the power and purse strings.
My new book is, I hope, where thought meets practical action, and where theory is grounded in reality. I want to show you a way of eating which WILL help the planet. None of us is perfect and the science is complicated. At times it feels hard to make the right choices. But every small change adds up.
I think the past year has changed us all as cooks.
It was proven to me over the months of the pandemic that we can cook, that we can make the time to cook, that we can waste less and we can be creative with recipes and ingredients. I think the past year has changed us all as cooks. We came to value food for the miraculous life-giving stuff it is. If we had been told in the months before the coronavirus crisis how much appreciation we would have for a simple bag of flour or an egg in the midst of it, I doubt any of us would have believed it.
Anna Jones is a cook, food writer and stylist. One grey, late-for-the-office day, she decided to quit her day job after reading an article about following your passion. Within weeks, she was signed up on Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen apprentice programme. She went on to be part of Jamie’s food team – styling, writing and working behind the scenes on books, TV shows and food campaigns. She has also worked with other well-known chefs, such as Henry and Tom Herbert (The Fabulous Baker Brothers), Stevie Parle and Antonio Carluccio, and cooked for royalty, politicians and LA school children alike. She lives, writes and cooks in Hackney, East London.
