Five Fat Hens ― The Chicken and the Egg Cookbook

A love of eating and of good ingredients led Tim to build a henhouse in the corner of his garden for a daily harvest of fresh eggs. His take on the role of keeping chickens is amusing and insightful, but this book is more than just a DIY guide to keeping a few free-range birds, or a new slant on a chicken-themed cookbook. Much in the style of Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries, it takes the reader through an entire year, month-by-month, skillfully combining the author’s passion for cooking in diary form interwoven with his recipes, thoughts, and observations and with the premise that even the smallest garden can be home to a supply of the freshest eggs imaginable.

Tim Halket is neither a trained chef nor a smallholding farmer; his recipes draw on his real-life experience in the kitchen where he reproduces food that he enjoys cooking on a daily basis for his family and friends. He ranges from the highly original such as Duelos y Quebrantos and Persian Chicken Supper through variations on everyday Italian or French classics to simple and comforting nursery food.

This timely book passionately describes an appealing style of life and will inspire food lovers whether they intend to keep chickens or not.

Tim Halket was born in Bromsgrove, England, in 1967. In his early twenties, he opened an art gallery in Cambridge, later enrolling at the Architectural Association to study architecture. He has spent his recent years as a full-time house-husband and fits his writing in around his children’s needs. Throughout his life, food has remained a constant comfort, and he continues to write about food, whether it is for his local parish magazine or his next book. He lives in Suffolk, England, with his wife and three children.