Carnival of Man: A Gentleman’s Cookbook

Blood, brains, bones,, and joints, Tse Lim knows his food and isn’t afraid get his hands dirty.  Carrying on with our Carnival of Man series, Tse points us to a real mans cookbook: Nose to Tail Eating.   

You might accuse Fergus of monotony – duck fat, green sauce, sea salt, pepper, cook till “giving” – but every page, every single recipe, right down to the terrine of lamb’s brains, sounds like something I would love to cook and serve. The now customary lecture on the need for perfect ingredients is absent, and there is no glossary nor directory of purveyors nor list of tools – these are all unnecessary, because this food is so transparent. You need nothing in your pantry beyond salt and pepper, and the most basic of tools. Some recipes call for a food processor – or you could just chop faster.

And if you’re thinking to yourself, butchering animals without instructions isn’t what makes you a “man,” Tse has a few thoughts on why defining masculinity has become so hazy. 

We can no longer describe masculinity because even though sociology tells us we live in a gendered world, we no longer feel comfortable claiming traits for genders.  If we start talking about an aspirational masculinity, things we believe masculinity should be about, then I’d like to sign up with Fergus – idiosyncratic, unpretentious, deeply serious, and completely without bravado.

Off The Bone: A Gentlemans’s Cookbook

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