Talk:Fergus Henderson

Undesirable ingredients?

Where on earth did this term 'undesirable' come from? Is Wikipedia in the business of judging people's cooking habits now? They may be unusual parts to cook with, but to describe them as 'undesirable' is inaccurate, non-NPOV, and, above all, ungentlemanly. Having just eaten bone marrow, pig's cheeks, and sweetbreads at St John, i can tell you that at Anderson Towers, they are now highly desirable!

It seems especially odd to use this word when the term offal is less loaded, more precise, and more informative. Offal doesn't strictly include bone, but this strikes me as a fairly minor deficiency.

-- Tom Anderson 2006-08-17

After reading the entry about Fergus Henderson, I was apoplectic to see the food Henderson cooks with beng described as the undesirable parts of the animal. I was pleased to arrive in the discussion page and see Tom Anderson had had the same thoughts days before.

It shows how little people think about what they are eating; why are cheeks any different from rump? Is it because one comes vacuum packed from any supermarket, whereas the other requires a little more effort? Heaven forbid you should have to go to a butchers *as well as* the supermarket.

What all those who write these kind of cuts off as 'undesirable' are missing is that those bits tend to be the tastiest. Most animals spend 90% of their time chewing, and hence have some pretty well used muscles. When properly cooked, cheek is some of the most tender, flavoursome meat you'll ever have. It beats sweaty supermarket steak hands down.

-- Tom Williams 2006-08-21

Parkinson's disease?

Not sure if it's worth mentioning, but Henderson wrote the afterword for the recent cookbook 'The Perfect Marriage', which was intended to raise money for the Parkinson's Appeal. He mentions that he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and then treated with deep brain stimulation. --86.132.145.135 22:37, 9 October 2007 (UTC)

Style

Oy, the tone and info contained in this article is so not good. Reads like a fewwbww magazine's wroship page. Will fix if no NPOV foodies want to know. On watch. Plutonium27 (talk) 22:04, 7 March 2008 (UTC)

Leading sentence

I came to this page for basic information about Henderson and was aghast to see the superfluous details in the leading sentence. I have removed "near the famous Smithfield Market and St John Bread and Wine, next to Spitalfields Market" and replaced them with the missing essential detail, "London." This improves the first paragraph to a practical introduction to Henderson. Jedwards01 (talk) 23:20, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Fluff removal

I've taken out a lot of what looks more like promotional material than information. Some of it may for all I know be true but no evidence is apparent. Here are some things that might be worth putting back if they turn out to be verifiable:

• "His restaurants became the 'hangouts' for the Young British Art scene and also the unofficial London clubhouse for gatherings of the world's great chefs."
• "he has since become a symbol of hope to other sufferers [from Parkinson's disease]. He now uses his considerable influence on the now affluent British Art Scene to raise money for Parkinson's charities."

and some things that seem to me not to belong on the page at all (but I'm leaving them here in case others disagree):

• Fair enough to mention that he has no formal training in cooking; but "his approach was dictated by what he had learnt from his mother and the architectural principles of his training."? Architectural principles?
• "These were honed by his involvement in Le Cassoulet lunches, the dionysian speakeasy at 17 Mercer Street and the Globe in Notting Hill." (Presumably the "dionysian speakeasy" is the Crazy Bear Members Club.) What does "involvement" actually mean here? Did he work for these places? When? What did he do? (I've seen at least one article that claims Henderson has "literally never worked under another chef".)
• "Early dishes on the menu included Boiled Egg and a Carrot and Mince and Tatties but have since been dropped."
• "London's beau and demi mondes celebrate success with his suckling pig; the powerful plot their coups over the woodcock or grouse; squirrel is an annual treat in season." (Perhaps the fact that he serves squirrel sometimes is interesting enough to merit inclusion. The rest seems obviously not.)

It would be nice to have more information about his early career: where did he study architecture? was he still a student when he dropped out to become a chef? etc. Gareth McCaughan (talk) 11:14, 12 May 2011 (UTC)

Assessment comment

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Fergus Henderson/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

The article badly needs updating, he has released another book, 'beyo nose to tail eating' and launched a product called TROTTER GEAR, currently only available in selfridges I think. Also, there is so much more easily verified info out there, great articles and interviews in the observer internet archives and discussion about his pioneering operation for parkinsons should be considered for entry

Last edited at 14:59, 30 September 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 15:04, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

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