Hi Tesco Books readers!
Since winning the Great British Bake Off I have been busy, and I mean busy. Straight after I finished filming, I was working in a bank as an asset financier. Whilst this was a great role for me, I have the attention span of a goldfish with amnesia so I could tell it just wasn’t going to work out. Instead I decided to take the plunge and offer my book proposal to publishers. I met with a few different publishers, but knew straight away when I met the lovely girls at Headline Publishing Group that they were the team for me – even though they did almost choke my literary agent on a chocolate cake. It turns out they liked me too, and so my book John Whaite Bakes: Recipes for Every Day and Every Mood will be published by them on April 25.
While writing the book I have been testing recipes all day every day, which is never an unwelcome task in my house. The theme of the book is baking by mood, and so the recipes have depended on my ever changing and erratic personality, but it has really been such fun to bake different types of cakes, tarts and breads, not forgetting a few cocktails – testing those has been, well, interesting but most of it is lost in a boozy blur. I am so excited about sharing these recipes with you all and I hope so much that you’ll enjoy reading and using the book as much as I have adored writing it. There are a few personal stories in there because as it’s my first ever recipe book I really wanted to be honest about how I came to adore baking so much, and how I use it to my advantage if I’m feeling blue, calm or joyous.
As well as scribing and baking, I’ve been lucky enough to be accepted into Le Cordon Bleu in London. I am learning from some of the top chefs in the world and I am having such a great time. It isn’t easy, and it is a very professional environment, but that too is all part of the fun. This past month I’ve learned how to properly prepare a fruit salad. When I first heard this brief I thought “oh gosh this is going to be so basic” but I learned so much about my knife discipline and how to properly prepare fruit, that I could probably write a book on just that. I won’t though.
It doesn’t stop at fruit salads I can tell you. Over the coming months I will learn how to work properly with chocolate, how to make patisserie standard pastries, as well as attend lessons on wine and cheese – please god let there be some tasting sessions involved! The course I am attending is a 9 month patisserie diploma, and so by September I will be a qualified pastry chef, and probably 20 stone heavier, but at least I’ll have a tasty time getting there.
In 2013 I will be attending various food shows dotted around the country, so I do hope to see some of you there for a good chinwag, or to answer any food related questions that you may have. I’m really looking forward to writing this blog and sharing my recipes and thoughts with you in the build up to publication day.
Until then, all the best and a very happy new year.
John x
