No - he knew exactly how a recipe should be written and had numerous cookery books (which we still have). He was a poet - quite well known on the London circuit of stand-up poets at that time.
On topic, he would cook almost anything including on one occasion ox heart (interesting) which I probably wouldn't have cooked. The one thing he would have nothing to do with was flour, which he found messy and annoying. He was a bit of a neat freak.
