André Simon Awards: ‘The Apple Orchard’

The following extract is taken from ‘The Apple Orchard: The Story of Our Most English Fruit‘ by Pete Brown. Published by Particular Books it is one of the books shortlisted in this year’s André Simon Awards.

Now, in the middle of a fully organic orchard, eating one tiny mouthful, I have to accept that I have developed a serious allergy to apples.

I ate apples perfectly happily while growing up. I never pushed a bag of crisps out of the way to get to one, but they were fine – juicy and satisfying, but quite monotone: the crowd-pleasing Golden Delicious that always made me wonder if toffee-apple-makers had got the relative proportions of toffee and apple the wrong way round; or the fat, watery culinary fruit that went into apple pies which, for me, were just an excuse to eat custard, because the school dinner ladies looked at you funny if you asked for a bowl of that on its own.

Now the apple has tricked me. After all these years of indifference, it has made me want it, desire it. A whole array of exotic riches, treasure growing on trees, promising a breadth of flavour sensations I could previously never have dreamed of. I gave in, and now I can never submit again: this new object of desire has been taken away from me even as it hangs in front of me.

For me, the apple really is the forbidden fruit.

The André Simon Awards were founded in 1978 to recognise the achievements of food and drink writers. It is the longest running award of its kind. Previous winners have included: Elizabeth David and Rosemary Hume (the very first winners), Michel Roux, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Nigel Slater and Rick Stein. Last year’s drinks book winner was Suzanne Mustachich for ‘Thirsty Dragon’. The awards website can be found here.