The Art of the Tart by Tamasin Day-Lewis

Tamasin Day-Lewis' introduction to The Art of the Tart has to be one of the best discourses written on English food for a while. She captures what we are all fighting against, the relentless ebb of the supermarket giants as they remove our right to freedom of choice by swamping the small producers and local shops that we have loved. She is standing on her soapbox and fortunately, for those who might not buy this book, the introduction, entitled Tarts with heart has been archived on the Daily Telegraph's website, www.dailytelegraph.com.

But to get back to the book on tarts of the pastry kind. The book has a tart for virtually every day of the year, notwithstanding the fact that they remain uncounted in this household, it is much more fun to cook them. There is definitely one for each meal of the day. Breakfast tart, which began its life as a joke, is a brilliant idea. However, the thought of making pastry first thing in the morning might be enough to make us roll over and go back to sleep. But brunch, yes, now we are talking and washed down with Black Velvet. For lunch, tempt the palate with scallop, artichoke and smoked bacon tart. Tea sees you settling down to bite sized bubbling jam tarts, filling the house with the delicious smell of burning sugar. There is nothing like it, listening to the squeals of delight as small people bite into crumbly pastry and the sweetest of raspberry jam. Mr. Kipling, eat your heart out.

Tamasin eschews shop bought pastry and attempts to demystify its making at home. Those with bad circulation are already half way to perfection. If your hands are cold, the ingredients will remain at a constant temperature. She is credible in her assurance of success.

Devoting over twenty pages to other people's tarts at first seems rather a pushover but read on and Tamasin gives her explanation. She felt that some tarts, although not of her own creation, demanded their own space in the book too. They are from friends and culinary luminaries that she has interviewed for Food Illustrated. They all share, in her words, ‘a passion for a really good tart'.

The photography cannot pass without a mention. David Loftus' work is positively brilliant. The photographs are clean cut and modern, vibrant in the food they depict. Demands for roast fig and honey tart with Cointreau are raging; the crisp pastry, the seductiveness of the fruit and the honeyed syrup flowing into the crevices. And as Tamasin puts it, it is ‘a real painterly tart'.

It is hard not to quote the author; she is direct and speaks her mind. ‘If you don't like the layout of this book, I imagine you are reading it because someone bought it for you'. The Good Web Guide's advice is that if this is the case, read on. You will find that The Art of the Tart is illuminating. Add it to your library of cookbooks, growing ever larger with the must-haves of this year's crop.

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*****
Publication Details:
144 pp. Photography by David Loftus. £16.99
ISBN 0304354392. Published by Cassell & Co
2000

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Other books by Tamasin Day-Lewis
West of Ireland Summers: A Cookbook
The English Woman's Kitchen (editor)