There's absolutely no point in doing this unless you have a good stock. That means not using a stock cube. No point equally if you have potatoes that are floury and will fall apart.

Stock - chicken / beef / duck / pheasant

Firm potatoes

Onions

Garlic

Slice onions and garlic.

Cook slowly for 30-40 minutes. Do not let them colour.

Oil a gratin dish.

Slice potatoes…

As well as writing books, making films about places  and stealing other peoples' recipes, Jonathan Meades also makes art. 

In January  2016 he will be mounting a one man show at the Londonewcastle Space in Redchurch Street, Shoreditch. The show will comprise works on paper and canvas. They will vary in size from A3 to 3 metres by 2 metres.

 

He comments:

This stuff is a continuation - and, evidently…

This is a dish that appears not to have travelled far beyond Friuli and even there it's hardly commonplace. There are numerous ways of making it. Indeed the name is also attached to a dish of scalloped potatoes which bears no ressemblence to the excellent version served at the Hotel Franz in Gradisca d'Isonzo 40km north of Trieste. The balance of cheese and potato is crucial. The ordained cheese is…

Shepherd's pie is an accredited health hazard in canteens, schools, hospitals.

Hachis parmentier is very different.

Still, here is the one shepherd's pie recipe that is worth essaying. It was my father's. His genes and voice apart I have not nicked much from him so am unabashed about this theft.

Leftover lamb leg or shoulder

1kg onions

Celery

Potato

Milk

The best known recipe in the Alice B Toklas Cook Book is for hashish fudge. She got the recipe from Brion Gysin who had got it in Tangier where it would have been known as mahjoun. It is of Berber origin. The problem with it is the problem of cannabis in any form - it turns the most delightful people into dull obsessives or insensate, giggling bores or borderline psychotics. Protracted exposure to…

"Copy anyone but never copy yourself." Picasso did not of course heed his own advice. Self-plagiarism is probably the most common form of plagiarism. The perpetrator fails to notice - for this or that tic has become a habit, an unacknowledged signature. Equally likely he hopes the world won't notice it. After all, it's just about not straying from one's familiar territory.. .Maybe comfort zones should…