Home Farm Cooking Cookbook Review

Home Farm Cooking

We are finally sharing with you the review of one of our most anticipated cookbooks of the year the Home Farm Cooking. From all the reviews we have done so far this year, this is definitely one of our favorites.

‍Home Farm Cooking is a beautiful cookbook from Catherine Pawson and celebrated architectural designer John Pawson. For those who are thinking that we lost our mind for bringing you a cookbook from an architectural designer please trust us on this one. We are sure that you'll not regret it!

Home Farm is the Pawson family's base in the heart of the English countryside. Five years in the making, the beautiful house was built to unite friends and relatives in a bucolic, simple setting. In this personal, inspiring recipe collection John and Catherine share 100 favorite dishes they most like to cook at the farm for family and friends. The result evokes a sense of food prepared, shared and enjoyed in a space designed to accommodate the different ways of cooking and eating through the seasons.

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Pawson's Living and Eating

The Home Farm Cooking is a personal cookbook that describes the kind of dishes that John and Catherine, share and enjoy at their Oxfordshire home. There are comforting country staples such as roast chicken and shoulder of lamb, ideal for a cozy night at home or garden dinner party. There is also a range of simpler, yet no less delightful, recipes like roast carrots with creamy tahini dressing or burrata and grilled peaches, all of which are easy enough that they can be whipped up as a quick and satisfying lunch.

Arranged according to the four seasons, the book features some beautiful nature writing and a number of touching family recollections. As with many home cooks, John and Catherine draw their recipes from a wide range of sources; in the book they offer credit where credit is due, citing everyone from Elizabeth David to Yotam Ottolenghi, while also acknowledging the influence of old magazine clippings, their social set, and the house and its setting too.

The recipes have easy-to-follow instructions, and the book is thoroughly indexed, enabling home cooks from all skill levels to whip it out and whip up a meal in minutes.

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A Gorgeous Cookbook

The Home Farm Cooking combines crisp photographs of the dishes in question with landscape depictions of Home Farm and the surrounding countryside, as well as the Pawson's themselves. The photographs of the farm and the finished dishes narrate the cycle of seasons through the house - the changes in light and texture - and illustrate the ways the space is used to prepare and serve meals throughout the year.

The combination of both types of photographs will appeal to home makers, interiors enthusiasts, and anyone else for whom home and home cookery are inextricably linked. It's strange for us to say that a cookbook can appeal to an interior enthusiast, but as you go through the book it is impossible not to be blown away by its graphic quality.

The New Yorker describes Home Farm Cooking as "one of the most wonderful cookbooks ever published" and we couldn't agree more. We love absolutely everything in this book, being its delicious and simple-to-make recipes or the stunning photographs of the farm.

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Final Thoughts

Home Farm Cooking is one of a kind! Beyond its recipes, it features unprecedented insight into Pawson’s lifestyle and home through personal stories and captivating photos. It all boils down to a book that is both a practical manual and escapist retreat, ideal for foodies and architectural enthusiasts alike.