Pies packed with the finest flavours of Devon
enquiries/orders Tel: 01409 281407
E-mail philip@coombefarmpies.com
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WHY THIS PAGE ?
To me, one of the great pleasures is shopping for cooking ingredients. I spent three years living in Paris and was captivated by the sound of banter between buyer and vendor, as much as the colours and smells in the street markets. I also value highly the relationship that we can build up with our local butcher, baker, fishmonger and greengrocer.
During my food smoking days, my time spent selling my produce at various Farmers Markets was a joy. The rapport with and feedback from ones’ customers served to encourage and inspire.
This lack of a personal aspect is something so lacking in the Supermarket and even more so with internet shopping.
This page is an attempt to personalise your shopping, and I hope that in some way, by giving away something of myself, you may be able to understand better the food. It is such a privilege for me to have been living here in Devon for the past ten years. We are surrounded by the most wonderful countryside and coastline. My cooking draws its inspiration from the amazing quality and array of ingredients here on my doorstep. It is my attempt to produce English food inspired by the landscape, and its traditions.
TITTLE TATTLE
How do I see myself: The world’s finest all-weather, all-terrain, picnicker.
How do I think others see me: He does go on a bit
Flavour: White truffles.
Places: Dartmoor, Cornish Coast.
Building: The Great Pyramid, Giza.
Motto: “If at first you don’t succeed, then change the plan”-and believe me, I have changed a few!
Stance: Advocatis Diaboli!
Food man: Brillat-Savarin.
Must see: Mayan ruins.
Dinner party guests: Orson Welles, Marlene Dietrich, Bobby Fischer, Stephen Fry.
Last Supper: Seafood Platter.
Greatest Meal: English Breakfast (the smoked salmon & scrambled egg variety).
Likes: Style, passion and obsession.
Dislikes: Whoever uses far too much glue to stick down the first folio on a loo roll!
My wife Lisa with Oscar and Muffin
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Philip and his five year old twins, Oscar and Muffin , with bark and moss rafts. Dartmoor. |
Some food quotes
“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are”-Brillat-Savarin.
“Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education”-Mark Twain.
“The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later, you’re hungry again”-George Miller.
“You needn’t tell me that a man who doesn’t like oysters and asparagus and good wines has got a soul, or stomach either. He has simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed”-Saki.
“My Doctor told me to stop having dinners for four, unless there are three other people”-Orson Welles.
“The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found”-Calvin Trillin.
“The first zucchini I ever saw, I killed it with a hoe”-John Gould.
You can say this for ready-mixes - the next generation isn't going to have any trouble making pies exactly like mother used to make. ~Earl Wilson
I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead - not sick, not wounded - dead. ~Woody Allen
A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus, if you let fruit rot, it turns into wine, something Brussels sprouts never do. ~P.J. O'Rourke
The cardiologist's diet: If it tastes good, spit it out. ~Author Unknown
And I find chopsticks frankly distressing. Am I alone in thinking it odd that a people ingenious enough to invent paper, gunpowder, kites and any number of other useful objects, and who have a noble history extending back 3,000 years haven't yet worked out that a pair of knitting needles is no way to capture food? ~Bill Bryson
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MY FOOD PHILOSOPHY.
Essentially I come from the “you are what you eat” school, and so from this beginning comes my stance on the quality of the ingredients. These are the building blocks, and frankly, so long as individually they are cooked properly, and the marriage between them is harmonious, then I do not think you can go far wrong. To use another construction metaphor, I believe that the building blocks can only be laid on a solid foundation, and that is a great stock.
We all know there are tried and tested formulas that work. Whether it be bread and butter or scallops and bacon. What I try and present is a changing selection of these established happy marriages with some more unusual ones that I try to unearth or create, but always using ingredients from around me here in Devon, although I allow myself certain license to roam in the use of wine and seasonings for example. I simply do not have a pepper corn producer anywhere near my doorstep!