A new cookbook celebrating Suffolk’s food industry has been backed by Ipswich Town boss Mick McCarthy.
More than 45 dishes submitted by independent food producers, restaurants and delis from across the region feature in The Suffolk Cook Book.
The Blues boss was asked by the publishers to enter a dish and he provided details for his wife’s classic beef stew with Yorkshire pudding.
The cookbook states: “Using local ale and good-quality Suffolk beef, it is simple, hearty and full of flavour.”
Mick yesterday met up with Pascal Canevet, owner of French restaurant Maison Bleue in Bury St Edmunds, who has two recipes published (Cornish Sardines and Creedy Carver Duck), at Ipswich Town’s training ground to officially launch the cookbook.
Asked if he was proud to be included, Mick joked: “I’m surprised! But it’s nice to be asked.
“The food is Suffolk is really good. We often visit restaurants in and around Ipswich.”
Around 20% of the UK’s outdoor reared pork is sourced from Suffolk and three quarters of Suffolk’s land – around 300,000 hectares – is farmed.
In a foreword for the cookbook, Jimmy Doherty, owner of Jimmy’s Farm in Wherstead, which also submitted a recipe (roast pork with crackling and apple ketchup), said: “From pork, beef or lamb to breads, jams, preserves or ice cream, Suffolk has so much to offer when it comes to produce.
“There are many world-class producers as well as some established family firms that have been producing some of the best food and drink for generations.”
Mick said he usually watches fellow Yorkshireman and chef James Martin’s BBC cookery show, Saturday Kitchen.
“I would love to be able to cook, but someone tell me when I have the time,” he said.
“I watch chefs on the television making something really nice, and I envy the fact I can’t do it.”
On his beef stew, he added: “We’re getting that weather now when it’s time to have dumplings and stew.”
Mr Canevet said the cookbook will enhance Suffolk’s growing reputation as a well-regarded food-producing region.
He said: “With the Aldeburgh and Bury St Edmunds food festivals, we are showing everyone that Suffolk is the place to be.
“We have made huge progress, and this cook book shows there are very good, high-quality recipes in Suffolk.
“I was born in Brittany and the food in Suffolk is better than in some places there.”
Other recipes include Saxmundham-based Friday Street Farm Shop’s raspberry roulade and Sutton Hoo’s Autumn Chicken one-pan roast.
The Suffolk Cook Book costs £14.95 and is available from Maison Bleue and all of the region’s businesses featured, as well as select gift shops, bookshops including Waterstones and online at www.amazon.co.uk
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