AIDEN BRYNE - MADE IN GREAT BRITAIN

Although purchased before Christmas i have not in all honesty had the time to have a browse, but the book has been staring me in the face for the last five months from one of the numerous overcrowded bookshelves, but what prompted me to eventually pick up this volume is BBC 2's current series of the Great British Menu(see note). Aiden bryne is one of this weeks contestants in the regional heats of this brilliant series, until recently cooking at the Dorchester hotel in London with a Michelin star to his credit, and now with his own gastro pub in Cheshire -northwest of England.

The book with it's clever outer cover conjures up images of denim with a nifty little tag proclaiming the books title, in the style of very famous branded jeans - red tab anyone! A big picture of the man himself plating a dish also adjourns the front cover with two very influential write ups on the back cover from Mr jay Raynor(Observer food critic) and Marcus Wareing(multi Michelin starred chef), the two statements on the back are shouting this is a serious cook book, not to be taken lightly and certainly not for the kitchen novice.

Recipes are inventive with clever use of flavour pairings and great use of micro herbs and salads. With just over 220 pages and some great food photography this book nearly reaches the food porn category, but is clearly aimed at the serious home cook with big ambitions. I would expect to find this on every budding Masterchef contestants book shelve.

Recipes include Halibut with Beetroot and Orange salad, Roasted Scallops with Apple and Ginger puree with Fennel Sauce, Roasted Smoked Fois Gras with Onion Mousse, Beef Fillet with Parsley Risotto, Braised Snails and Red Wine Garlic. Desserts include Apple and Rosemary Mousse with Calvados Ice Cream, Strawberry and Red Pepper and Orange and Olive Oil Cake with Candied Celery. This is just a selection of many recipes with a good section at the back on fundamentals which include sorbets,stocks and purees. My only gripe with this book is,
that you have to consult other pages during a recipe for components of different dishes.

A really great book with wonderful use of seasonal ingredients, a must also for connoisseurs of fine food and cookbook junkies alike!

• ISBN : 978-1-84773-160-9
• £25 UK price
• newhollandpublishers.com

NOTE;

The Great British menu is a TV series on BBC 2 in the UK. This current series has Chefs from around the UK challenging each other for a place to cook for homecoming troops returning from Afghanistan. The banquet that they will cook for will contain four courses and the winner of each course will cook.All contestants are at the top of there game and most have Michelin stars. Previous series have seen the winners cook for The Queen and French Ambassador.

ESSENCE- RECIPES FROM LE CHAMPIGNON SAUVAGE BY DAVID EVERITT MATTHIAS

• Biased about this book - no chance. What is there to be biased about i've only eaten there 4 times, bought the book from the restaurant, went to school down the road , had the book signed from the chef, got invited into the kitchen to make bread which i declined, silly now but fear was the reason. So of course I'm biased, this is the best damn restaurant in the world in my eyes.
  
  It was on our first visit to this establishment that i saw the book for sale. Not only was it amazing to be eating in our first 2 Michelin starred restaurant, but a chance to purchase the man's book was somewhat exciting, making the whole experience that little more special.
  
  
  When Essence was first published it was widely claimed to be the English equivalent of The French Laundry Cookbook, and rightly so. David Everitt Matthias is not a celebrity chef, although very well known and respected in culinary circles, David is a chef who has not missed a service for 17 years in his restaurant, a distinction not many could surpass. The food he produces is excellent while his wife Helen runs a faultless front of house. Why the Michelin guide still has them down at two stars is beyond many, and belief.
  
  With the authors cooking firmly rooted to the terroir(land), this shows throughout the book with recipes using foraged wild foods and a quirky little section at the back devoted to identification.
  One of the strong points of this book is the break down of each recipe enabling the user to adapt parts to other ingredients. The author explains throughout that most preparations can and will work with other related ingredient parings, which in turn makes this a very user friendly cookbook at the high end of the market!
  Another surprise is the authors love of cheaper cuts and little used fish. This shows the authors great understanding of cooking and ingredients, and how with the right skills the cheaper fresh ingredients can be turned into the sublime. A section at the front describes some of the pre-starters such as crispy pigs ears,gougeres, and a lovely vichysoisse of alexanders. All of this is supported by good photography and wonderful recipes.
  
  Retailing at £25/$40 - a book that is honest and sincere and lives up to it's title Essence!
  
  191 pages
  isbn- 1-9045735-2-5
  http://www.absolutepress.co.uk/
  
  Le Champignon Sauvage
  24-28 suffolk Road
  Cheltenham
  Gloucestershire
  GL 50 2 AQ
  TEL (44) 01242 573449
  http://www.lechampignonsauvage.co.uk
  

MAZE- THE COOKBOOK BY JASON ATHERTON

Not another cookbook from a Michelin starred chef! Well yes in fact! A little different than your average chef cookbook with recipes actually having three variations rather than the impossible to achieve one recipe!
Having been a keen follower of Jason Atherton's cooking and impeccable credentials, i was rather pleased to find this book amongst the shelves of the local bookstore.
Jason Atherton has worked in some of the finest kitchens in the world el Bulli and Gordon Ramsay being just two of the many. His creativity and genius in the kitchen are quick to shine through in numerous recipes that adorn the pages of this beautiful book.
Mr Atherton is not afraid to say how he chanced upon some of his recipes from mistakes , this alone lets you know that this guy is human and not a culinary machine. A trait that is unfortunately evident in many high end cookbooks. Mistakes lead to excellent discoveries as in the perfect scrambled eggs page 69. Innovative recipes stand along side classics that have been adjusted to suit the modern times with a little science showing from time to time, but most recipe's relying on the skill and intuition of the chef.
A great touch within this book is the three variants of the principle ingredient. Although the recipes do not necessarily become easier, while you may feel that certain recipes are served in the restaurant while other's are for the table at home they are not impossible to achieve with a little skill. With outstanding photography from Ditte Isager this alone places the book in the 5 star category while complimenting the recipes to provide an excellent cookbook.
If you like innovative cuisine and like the idea of black olive caramel with your strawberry's or chilled pea soup with Parmesan ice cream, this is the book for you. The book has 254 pages with a foreword by the man himself and an introduction by Ferran Adria. With a small section on cocktails at the back of book followed by a comprehensive section on the basics you can't go far wrong! Retailing at £ 25 it is a little on the expensive side but worth every penny.

Isbn 978-184-00-597-0

www.gordonramsay.com/maze

www.ditteisager.dk

COOKING THE BOOKS-PART 2

Is this the year i hunt for old copies in charity shops, it certainly will be, but before we head for the old books, several new purchases have been made. In all honesty i headed for the sales armed with my christmas book tokens. Smugness and guilt aside i could buy happily in the knowledge that what i was spending was gifts from people close to myself. So i headed for the sales on the hunt for half price books. Half price books i found,but i was looking for specifics. I harbour a certain fondness for asia, mainly the orient with the food of south east asia and china being my greatest passion with the culture of the far east a close second. Although i cook asian food at least once a week i have never had the inclination to post my recipes,photos and mishaps.There are some wonderful Asian food blogs around written by people in the know, people who have lived or live in Asia, or from Asian descent. How could i compete with these people with my limited knowledge of asian cuisine. Back to the book tokens, with Asian in mind the hunt began with my first purchase being Balance and Harmony by Neil Perry. A wonderful book that shouts passion and knowledge of this wonderful cuisine, second purchase was non Asian but French - Ripailles by stephane reynaud. Third purchase was back to Asian with Sri Owens Indonesian Food. A delight to read with good insight into the food of Indonesia,a food that is often overlooked by the western world in favour of the well known south east Asian nations or china. Next up was a basic chinese cookbook that accompanied a Tv series here in the UK, at half price Chings- chinese made easy, fitted the the bill just perfect. There were other books i wanted, but maximum paper for minimum money was the order of the day.

So why Asian cookbooks? Well i want to take my knowledge to the next level, while using the Wok at home is not without it's problems, there is a lot more to oriental cooking than meets the eye, complex flavours and balance among many. In effect i am starting from scratch with oriental cuisine with a view to develop an in depth knowledge of skills,techniques and tastes. Most people purchase a wok and stir fry till there heart is content, but they are using a technique, rather than a style of cooking, but to many this technique is often abused, ingredients are thrown in the wok, soy sauce is dumped on top then emptied onto the plate only for the clueless eater to pour salt by the tablespoon in the hope of eating a meal that is edible. In my last cooking the books post i followed a recipe, although in the first post i said i look for inspiration rather than a recipe, i feel to achieve an acceptable level of knowledge as a non asian i need to cook the books.

COOKING THE BOOKS - PART ONE

Okay so this does not relate to Stockbrokers,Bankers or Bernie Maddof, this is a food blog for Christ sake not a hedge fund conspiracy. We are talking greed in a way, but forces that are darker and far worse are at play- Obsession, lust, betrayal and porn! What the hell am i talking about the latest blockbuster thriller or the darkest of Evil,or is it just one mans obsession with cookbooks!
It's a bad pre-occupation you know-just got have it the latest release,sometimes even before they are published- thank god for the net! Haven't tried therapy yet, and the other half is worried, no not about me, but space for Christ sake, where are we gonna store them!
OK an average month will see at least a couple of new editions but the last 2 1/2 months have seen a mini bookstore sprout up like a bean stalk, new shelves have been built and they are now full. During October my pre-orders arrived The Big Fat Duck Cookbook,Alinea and Under Pressure by Thomas Keller, along with November/December releases- A Day At el Bulli, Rick steins latest creation Coast to Coast and Indian made easy by Anjum Anand. You see i have no loyalty, this is the betrayal part I buy what i like, ok there is some writers i don't buy, maybe they are too girly and i'm too alpha, but truth be known i like restaurant cookbooks, expensive one's that are hard to purchase, that is the porn part in case you were worrying!
Just last week on a pre Christmas visit to my sister and family i managed to buy no less than 6 books, 5 of them on cooking, the 6th on photography(this will be used to hopefully take better food pictures).
But why, most of these books i will not use, for reasons other than skill levels, i do not possess the time or the equipment. Take under pressure(Keller) all the recipes use a sous vide water bath and require a vacuum packer. I do not have this equipment, and i knew what the book was about,before i bought it. Hestons latest book, his life in print, will it go to the kitchen -fuck no, it will stay on the shelf, and only come out for reference or too marvel at the culinary genius of this man.
I can't honestly remember the last time i cooked from a recipe, but i do use the books for inspiration, so we now come to the lust part. Yes there are books i lust after a couple more el Bulli books would be welcome, oud sluis from the restaurant, i want along with many others, but this will take time and money, luckily we still have the obsession part. Books old and new grace my shelves to be plucked from obscurity to find that somewhat lacking inspiration that creeps in from time to time. This coming year i have decided to collect old cookbooks, not antique but as old as i can afford, i will stalk the charity and thrift shops looking for the unwanted, and build shelves all over the house, ok the last part about the shelves is fiction, but i'm sure my collection will grow. I have read somewhere that Gordon Ramsay has over 3,500 cook books that's a serious amount of paper and serious cash. I'm not going for that amount but.......................

MORO - THE COOKBOOK

My copy looks how a cookbook should look, stained dirty and lived in. This is not a book for the shelf as my copy is testament, it should live in the kitchen and be used regularly!

Moro; from the Spanish word meaning Moor

Moro is a restaurant in London's clerkenwell road that specializes in Spanish and middle eastern food, run by a husband and wife, incidentally with identical names- Sam and Sam Clark. Without writing a mills and boon they met, shared there passion for Spanish and Mediterranean middle eastern food then embarked on a culinary tour of there favourite places, opened a restaurant to great reviews and three books later................. as they say the rest is history!
I dare any aspiring cook to try the saffron rice recipe on page170 it is a delight to eat, lovingly spiced with an appealing hue that tantalises the taste buds. Most of the recipes grab at you from the well crafted pages, even the non middle eastern food fans might even be inspired to cook this wonderful lightly spiced cuisine that is so often overlooked in favour of the nations you could only class as the culinary big hitters. If there is one book to convert the masses this surely is the book. Peppered with stories throughout, and quality insight into products with a suppliers list at the end. Recipes that are not only simple in their construction but approachable and cook friendly!
Spanish recipes abound with a section devouted to Tapas and Meze, a good introduction to sherry, not the cheap stuff British Granny's guzzle with such fervour that you end up questioning which group of people actually started the binge drinking culture. Since the publication of this book sherry has become more widespread,with appreciation reaching new proportions, due too it's ability to enhance other flavours and tastes.

The marriage between Spanish and the middle east is probably not a well known one, but read the history, you might just be surprised! With occupation by the moors in Spanish lands between eighth and fifteenth century's a culinary legacy and cooking style was mixed with surprisingly earthy and beautiful results.
Weighing in with 280 pages, and a retail price of £15 it is wonderful value and a fantastic read, a must have for any home cook with a passion for great food. Recipes in this book may appear to some as simple, but it is the importance of quality ingredients that make these dishes so special!

MADE IN ITALY FOOD AND STORIES - GIORGIO LOCATELLI

Sceptical at first about this book, as i was looking for a real italian cookbook, i did not want another book on restaurant cooking at that time, especially one from a Michelin starred chef. I was after a book offering authentic italian food, with reference to the country's relation between food, people and culture!
Having passed this book on the shelves on more than one occasion, i thought i just as well have a look, well how wrong could i have been? Very wrong- a quick glance was enough for me to make for the counter, and part with £19.99. This book is a masterpiece of food writing, an italian cookbook through to the core, probably the mother of all italian cookbooks(coincidentally this book along with david thompsons thai, are probably my two all time favourite food related books, both very similar in composition, and focused purely on the country in question).
A nice thick book that delivers for your hard earned money, 615 pages not including some photos at the end, like most books on italian food it is broken down into chapters with an outstanding first chapter on antipasti, which runs to 128 pages, a small book in itself! Other chapters include zuppa(soup),pesci(fish),pasta,carne(meat) and dolci(sweet). A stand alone chapter devoted to rissotto, running at 72 pages is passionate, but you wouldn't expect any less from a northern italian. This chapter like the others is more than just rissotto, included within are pages on the foundation of all good rissotto's. Pages on stock, porcini and for the wealthy amongst us truffle! To see rissotto with it's very own chapter is special, normally rissotto is tagged onto the end of a chapter on pasta, which i find infuriating.
Amongst the individual chapters you will find random pages on produce, food stories from the authors childhood, and a real sense of seasonality that has founded italian cooking, of course there are references to the restaurant(locander locatelli), but these are welcome, a nice touch that allows the reader to put the dishes in perspective.
A wonderful read with only one gripe, it's a pain in the backside to read in bed! An easy way to counter this is to take the book into the kitchen, start cooking the recipes and enjoy. I have!

French laundry cookbook

Five years ago, i chanced upon an article, featuring a restaurant in the Napa valley, california's wine country. The restaurant being reviewed was the French laundry. To say i was taken in by this review would be an understatement, so you can imagine my surprise 2 years later when i found a copy in my local bookstore. This book had to be bought, even though it was £40.

Is this the book that single handed changed the face of the modern cookbook.

What do you look for in a cookbook?

I think most serious amateurs would be looking for a lot more than just recipes. We all have our books jam packed with recipes, some handed down from relatives others bought secondhand or new, but there comes a point in every cooks journey, when an extra little bit of insight is needed, into the workings of an excellent chef and restaurant, in simple terms a culinary genius!



The whole book feels right,looks right, and reads very well. A well structured book, with outstanding food photography, shot with a flair that draws you into it's beautifully crafted pages!
The book takes you in a journey through the finesse of the restaurant and the special people who make it happen.

There are some wonderful recipes, although you would need a lot of skill and patience to undertake such offerings, but this is a book, from one of best restaurants in the world.

The recipes are not traditional recipes as you might find in your run of the mill cookbook,but rather plates of food, sometimes small bites, some complete courses. This approach really appeals and with the stunning photos to back up most dishes you are able to see the courses as they would be presented.

I have often broken down elements of each recipe, i once took the orange glaze that is served with pacific moi, and recreated this glaze to be used with pan fried duck, which worked wonderfully! I have used basil oil, instead of chive oil in a tomato dish, this is allowed, you are not trying to match or better Mr keller, but learn from him, you are not cooking 3* michelin cuisine at home,but you can sure impress!
A favourite recipe that i have adopted time and time again would have to be lemon sabayon tart with a pine nut crust, absolutely adorable!

The french laundry cookbook is large, it contains 325 well crafted pages and a total- 100 recipes, this does not include the several pages on purveyors a first for a cookbook, which highlights the intense relationship between nature,purveyor and cook. There are pages on how to make flavoured oils, braising,stocks,sauces,powders, how to stain and use kitchen tools properly! There are six pages titled the importance of......................
These pages refer to ingredients or techniques, giving an insight to often overlooked, but important cooking practices.

If only you read the page on salt,pepper and vinegar, you would gain a great deal of knowledge, i sure did!

NO doubt professional cooks the world over have benefited with insight and knowledge, now not a lot of cookbooks can make that claim!
I have seen this book grace shelves across the globe from delhi to valetta, then back to singapore.
Most memorable sighting was in a restaurant cum guesthouse, which sported a bookshelf in the dining room, this was north india, the guest house was so-so, but the food serious!
Unfortunately for myself this is probably the closest, i will ever come to the French Laundry, but for now i can live with that, if only for a while!

Probably one of my best investments to date, and without a doubt an eye opener!