Tomato ketchup is one of the most reviled food dressings in the world, especially by chefs, who view the condiment as fit for use only in practical jokes as a source of fake blood.
Yet the Ketchup Cookbook, by Birmingham born food writer, Sizewell B Power has been flying off the shelves as fast as the printers can turn them out.
"They said it couldn't be done," said Power. "They called me a food Philistine, but I proved them all wrong. You see, ketchup is everybody's guilty secret. I bet you there's a bottle of ketchup in all the top chefs' larders, but of course, they'll deny it. They're all bleedin' liars and hypocrites, that lot.'
Power does seem to have a point - hot dogs would be pretty rubbish without ketchup, and the red stuff certainly enhances a chip butty, (sandwich - Ed) and this book lists a myriad of culinary ketchup applications.
Apparently, carrot and coriander soup tastes wonderful with ketchup, as the book points out in its dedicated sections.
Some of the stuff in the book will undoubtedly make the purists' go stiff with outrage, such as ketchup on a traditional Sunday roast, fillet steak with ketchup, sea bass with ketchup, vanilla ice cream with ketchup, and apple pie with ketchup.
This book's soaraway success looks all set to turn the epicurean world on its arse.
More as we get it.
