The Quo Vadis chef’s ebullience and wonderfully extravagant personality transfers effortlessly onto the pages of the book with his too brief potted life history and general observations that make up the introduction a beautiful overture for what’s to come – only Lee can make a description of a daily porridge-making ritual so beguiling or quote T. The food world was still starched and traditional: high hats, an implacable kitchen hierarchy and Escoffier was God. His smoked eel sandwich – a simple combination of smoked eel, horseradish, fried bread and pickled onions – is the sole reason many people book a table at Quo Vadis. As he describes the recipes in Cooking himself, this is "home cooking rediscovered after a lifetime spent in professional kitchens. According to Stone: “The major growth areas in the market in recent years have been healthy and vegetarian cookery and Middle Eastern cuisine, while titles that offer quick and easy recipes are always popular.

Oh golly, so many factors contributed to the time taken, not least building the confidence to realise that not all had been written about food as food evolves constantly as does cooking, ingredients and seasons.While a few modern books can be seen, his shelves are packed with classics from Julia Child, Arabella Boxer, Jane Grigson, Elizabeth David and Madhur Jaffrey. Many chapters grew wildly such as fish, a chapter that could have been twice the size until Louise calmly explained about the flow and balance of the chapters.

Quo Vadis is open for breakfast on weekdays, serving traditional British favourites such as a full English, kippers, porridge, eggs and pastries from the on-site bakery. For the last 10 years, however, Quo Vadis has been under the careful stewardship of the Scottish chef Jeremy Lee. The huge rise in interest in food in recent years has books appearing with such speed that keeping up with the new is in itself a great occupation.

This is one of those – a collection of mainly vegan recipes from countries where abstaining from meat for religious or cultural reasons is the norm.

A chapter on blood oranges sits between Biscuits and Breadcrumbs, while Impromptu Dinners provides meals (such as a perfect pork chop and pan juices) that can be made for one or scaled up; and there are simple, joyous meals to feed a crowd (little meatballs, or fennel and lemon spaghetti).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. I somehow always worked in kitchens where we were encouraged to read cookbooks and we read them like thrillers. When Putin’s troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the world changed – and Hercules’ life was transformed – she is now an activist as well as a cook. Now a book illustrated with a couple of ink drawings and the occasional frontispiece may well seem challenging beside a lavishly photographed volume.