Marcella Hazan’s Chicken Roast with Two Lemons

This is the simplest most delicious roast chicken recipe I know — no fat, no basting, no stuffing.

I’M IN FLORIDA, it’s hot on Longboat Quay — over 27 degrees centigrade — even though it’s late afternoon. The long white sandy beach is almost deserted, there’s a pleasant breeze which the locals tell me is the tail end of hurricane Isaac.

It’s whipping up little waves on the warm sea, a few people are bathing but I’m lying back enjoying the cormorants and pelicans diving for supper. Along the shore are sandpipers, terns, allies, oystercatchers and avocets all lined up in the same direction like gentlemen in tuxedos.