Lee’s father was an artist at the Scottish media company D.C. Thompson. ‘He was quite senior,’ says Lee, ‘so he could work at home. There were drawing boards everywhere, stuff scattered all over the place. It was part of daily life.’ The influence of these creative surroundings can be felt not just in Lee’s plates of food, but also in the way he designs the whole experience of eating – from a small vase of delicately arranged flowers to the right cutlery and beautiful glasses. ‘The devil’s in the detail,’ says Lee.

From a lifetime of cooking with some of the UK's greatest chefs – as well as lessons from his mother – Cooking is a book about good food honed from good ingredients, whether it is a particularly good bundle of asparagus or a great box of artichokes. The ingredients invariably spark the idea of what to cook next. Heat a griddle or frying pan over a high heat. Lay the spring onions on the hot pan to blister, turning after 3-4 minutes to blister the other side. Jeremy Lee, photographed at his restaurant, Quo Vadis, in London. Photograph: Phil Fisk/The Observer While the pork chop is cooking, grind the garlic, lemon zest, thyme and rosemary with the fennel and celery seeds in a pestle and mortar and set aside. Lee made his bones under Simon Hopkinson and Alastair Little, among the architects of the renaissance in modern British cooking. Alongside contemporaries such as Fergus Henderson, of St John, Lee takes as much credit as anyone for the extraordinary flourishing in our national cuisine over the past few decades.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. To assemble the tart, roughly spread the frangipane on the bottom of the pastry case. Strew with the pears then heap on enough mincemeat to just fill the tart. Put this in the fridge to settle. To make the rough puff pastry, sift the flour on to a wide surface or into a large bowl. Add the cold butter and salt, then, using your fingertips, work the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse crumbs. Slowly add the water, about 50ml at a time, working deftly until all the water has been added. The dough will not be even but shape it into a rough ball, cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Lightly flour the surface and roll the ball into a rectangle, about 40cm x 20cm. Fold this in three and turn 90 degrees. Roll into the same sized rectangle again and fold in three. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Repeat this two more times, turning each folded rectangle 90 degrees. Chill the pastry for an hour, or overnight, or freeze for future use.

Should the spirit be willing, making mincemeat is a lovely job done early on in December – you could even make a large batch, and keep any leftovers for next year. Make the pastry the night before you need the tart, or, alternatively, up to a week before and freeze it. A visit to the supermarket for golden sugared almonds and candied mint leaves is always worthwhile to jolly along a Christmas pie. You will need a 23cm-round tart tin. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry large enough to line a 25cm x 2.5cm tart case with a removable bottom. Pop this into the fridge until required. Something changed in the nation’s appetites after the second world war, both for food and what was written about it. Elizabeth David’s first book, Mediterranean Food, published in 1950, switched the nation on to simple, good cooking from warmer climates. War and rationing were grim memories; writers in this period wanted sunshine and cheer, not the clipped tones of Mrs Beeton or Constance Spry. And what revelations! They opened eyes to the French and Italian regions, beyond capital cities, where markets reflected the seasons and good ingredients cooked simply were the greatest prize. If you grew up in a remote part of the country, as I did, outside Dundee, those books were almighty. A whole new generation of restaurants was opening, run and staffed by folk who devoured cookery books like thrillers

Brush them with cream and put the tray in the fridge to rest for at least half an hour before baking. A beautifully written instant classic that is every bit as exuberant and delicious as the man himself!' Nigella Lawson