Member Reviews
For me, a cookery book is not just about the recipes because I like to read it as a book! This hits the mark 100%, well written text, beautifully photographed and yummy recipes. To quote the title, it is a 'really quite good British cookbook'. Thoroughly recommended.
The Really Quite Good British Cookbook The Food We Love from 100 of Our Best Chefs, Cooks, Bakers and Local Heroes by William Sitwell, editor, is a wonderful and colored cookbook about British cuisine involving 100 cooks and bakers for serving to the readers all the best and innovative idea in terms of British food.
In the foreword it is specified something I didn't absolutely know: that in the past food, weather, politic, in general not treated during a normal conversations with friends because considered not too important topic.
Time pass by and changed the customs of Britons, all launched not just to remark that they love food, (and wine let me add this) but implementing all their knowledge about food, recipes, ingredients, resources, that they have with big influences of all the other ethnic group for creating a wonderful and stunning, yummy book.
This book is a melting pot of great ideas for every part of the day starting from breakfast, with recipes about strawberry jam but also brioche french toast.
Talking of snack unforgettable will be Pea and mint croquettes,a bruschetta,a bagna cauda and always in the snack we find a minestrone with orzo, pasta & mint pesto.
Analyzed all the dishes that local herbs can present to people.
A courgette soup with chard bruschetta, and for lovers of legumes, Burrata with lentils and basil oil a perfect dish.
Are you a ricotta lover? The recipe for you is: the Baked Chard Ricotta with a hot tomato, garlic & pepper chutney.
If you want to mix various flavors: meat and apples will be your answer with a great Sausage Meat & Apple Turnover.
Fish and Sea Food section: we all know that UK is an island and so we have recipes with oyster if you like them, a salted cod with winter cabbage bacon & beer sauce, a Happy Fish Pie, and many many more.
In the section Poultry, Meat and Game Courgetti & Beef Ragù, a tagliata di manzo, Poched Chicken with saffron sauce and cucumber, many recipes with lambs ad chicken as main protagonist and there is the appearance in a recipe of a rabbit, the Garlicly White Rabbit. The one of Alice in Wonderland maybe luckiest one ;-) and still alive.
If your son or daughter loves coca-cola you can't avoid to prepare Ham in Coca-Cola for a sparkle of happiness and energy.
Lamb chops & dirty sweet potatoes will be a great match.
Traditional roast rib of beef another interesting dish of the section.
A recipe truly versatile with with every meat is the pot-roast guinea fowl with wild mushrooms, prunes and thyme. I want to signal also the duck pie.
Pasta risotto & sides offers Risotto con piselli, limone e ricotta, Rotolo di spinaci al burro e formaggio, sausage, radiccio & lemon gnocchi, but there are also dishes, pretty tasty with polenta, and a rabbit lasagna and a classic risotto con funghi, and a recipe with farro as protagonist accompanied by roasted leeks & smoky-sweet romesco.
Baking&Desserts.
We find a recipe of burger buns, a chocolate bread pudding, cherry clafoutis, a chocolate guinnes cake, an eastern mess, pretty elegant, I would want to add. If you have some friends in love for grappa try this recipe: figs roasted with grappa & amaretto gelato.
Other recipes I want to signal: Bakewell pudding, summer pudding, and a yummy dark chocolate, chilli caramel, & macadamia nut tart, Granny's Honey and Apple Pie.
Saffron gives profundity to dishes, cakes and cookies and biscuits and here there is a recipe: Cornish saffron cake. Many recipes with plums.
I found the recipes original, multi-ethic and surely yummy! Great cookbook!
The cover is stunningly original and in the perfect British-style. Plenty of fantasy, color and innovation.
I thank NetGalley for this book.
I really quite liked this one. Great selection of chefs, fabulous pictures and yummy recipes. Clear and easy to follow with a strong layout and visual appeal. Admittedly we have only tried one or two but a really appetising cookbook (that will make a great present as there's something for everyone)
This book definitely lives up to its title! Beautifully photographed and chock full of recipes by food writers & chefs of the best & brightest in the British Food scene. The pictures will have your mouth watering. The recipes will have you in the kitchen cooking, just what a cookbook is suppose to motivate and inspire you to do, this book doesn't disappoint! Bravo!!
This is a stunning book. Huge compliments to the photography team of Lizzie Manson, Rosie Ramsden, and Tabitha Hawkins. I went through absolutely every page as soon as I downloaded my review copy.. I am posting this review before having an opportunity to try some off the recipes but I will definitely be making several. The recipes range from the simplicity and beauty of the "Yoghurt with Apricots, Honey & Pistachios" by Jason Atherton, Pollen Street Social to the tantalizing and ethnic "Kefttedes", by Rick Stein and "Poek Pibil" by Thomasina Miers.
Because the recipes are enticing and the photos so beautiful I have pre-ordered this book for myself. I think that is the best review I can give.
Unfortunately I was unable to view this book due to technical errors.
This is why I gave a 3 star rating. Had I been able to read the cook book then I have no doubt my score would of been higher.
I did connect with NetGalley however I was just unable to view the book.
This was such a shame as I have a passion for cooking and baking. I was so excited when I was given the chance to review this book. Especially as it contains recipies from several of my favourite chefs.
If I do however manage to receive another copy or another form then I will definitely review this book more fairly.
I don't wish my star rating to have a negative impact on the book as It doesn't reflect the content and hardwork the Publishers and Author has put into creating this collection of recipies.
I really hope I'm able to read this collection soon.
The recipes in here are great but the design of the cookbook leaves something to be desired. The photos are not of good quality and the layout is uncomfortable.
4 stars for the recipes alone
Mouth-watering recipes from famous (and not so famous) British chefs and food lovers,, both classic and original Beautiful photographs. Clearly explained .An absolute winner.
This cookbook has a great concept....famous chefs make the meals they'd cook for their friends and families. There are definitely recipes from some famous chefs like Gordon Ramsey, Nigella Lawson, Jamie Oliver and more, but many of the recipes come from chefs that are familiar only in Britain. Many of the recipes are complicated or contain ingredients unfamiliar to American palates. For instance, I would never make Rabbit Lasagna or Nettles on Toast.
There were many recipes that sounded really good, and the two that I cooked, Fillet of Beef with Basil and Lemon Courgettes and Risotto with Mushrooms were delicious. I will try a few of the more complicated recipe.
I just read through my NetGalley ARc copy and I quite like it. If you ever wonder which celebrity chef cookbook to get, you might consider this one. It has all the usual suspects and then some; with chefs ranging from Jamie and Nigella, to Angela Hartnett and Richard Corrigan, to Bake-offs Edd Kimber and Frances Quinn. If you're a fan of BBC cooking shows you'll see a lot of familiar faces.
The recipes range from fairly simple to quite complicated with exotic ingredients.
I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, so photos/recipe reviews will follow.
An excellent idea for a cookery book. I really like it. The photography is sharp, and crisp, tempting. I find is more interesting than a book from one chef only, there is plenty here to interest readers, to dip in and out of for ideas.
The page per recipe is good and easy to follow. Title of dish, chefs name and location. Serving numbers. prep time, cook time and skill level, all across the top of the page. You can see at a glance if this is possible to do, then beneath that is a good description of the dish itself. Below which follows the ingredients list and method.
My husband has cooked 3 and myself 2 dishes from the book , all were delicious. Our joint favourite being Whole sea Trout with coastal greens, from Richard Corrigan.
This would make a brilliant present for foodie friends and family. It's a good read whether you are looking for a recipe or not. I learned quite a bit about the contributing chefs. too.spending a pleasant afternoon browsing through before choosing what to cook.
I would be delighted if someone bought this for me, but meanwhile thanks to the publisher and netGalley for allowing me to read and review it.
This book has a variety of traditional and ethnic recipes which after reading this book look forward to trying out. There are some recipes which use ingredients I either don't use or wouldn't put in the dish but if you don't try how do you know they won't be delicious. I look forward to the next few weeks when I dish up something different.
Intriguing idea. Having famous cooks provide recipes for this kind of book generally results in lots of fun surprises and new cooks to explore.
I just love the photography in this Cookbook. It's always good to be able to see how exactly the dish is going to look, not only so you know how to present it, but whether you are visually attracted to it.
I only got a couple of pages in and I was hooked with the Brioche French toast which has banana and bacon ingredients. I have tried these flavours together before and loved them, so I am looking forward to creating this dish.
It's true to say that a lot of the recipes are probably going to push the average cook out of their comfort zone flavour wise. However, if you are more of the Heston school then this will be right up your street. One of the less appetising recipes for me was the Nettles on Toast with pollack and wild garlic and poached egg. I also wasn't too keen on the Happy Fish pie from Jamie Oliver, which shows the tail of the fish peeking from the pie - not sure the fish is really that happy!
There are however on balance lots of recipes I would love to try and it was nice to be able to put a face to those contributors who are a little less famous and to read about them.
I've already earmarked to make the Cherry Clafoutis - one of my fav desserts. This recipe also comes with some extra tips to know when it is cooked which is useful. I'm also drawn to the fig leaf and cherry brulee - however unlike the creator of the recipe, I do not know of any local fig trees. You will have no trouble sourcing the ingredients for Nigella's Chocolate Guiness cake though.
I think this would be a book perfect for any foodie - anyone wanting to stretch their cooking a little further and to leave on the coffee table for people to just drool over the sumptuous photographs within its pages.
I'm giving this book 4 out of 5 stars. My thanks go to Netgalley for a review copy of the book.
I was drawn to the hook of this cookery book - recipes that chefs actually make regularly for the people they love - because I thought it would be a nice change from the overly complicated, niche recipes that clearly were only cooked once to check it worked before it was published. The recipes in this are still very complicated, and things I can't see myself making ever if at all, but I did like the range of ethnicity and cuisines included. It's not all 'British' like the title suggests - there's some really exciting things here. But don't expect it to be simple, day to day cooking. It isn't.
I have tried several times to downloand The Really Quite Good British Cookbook and could not due to a download error.
My apologies; I was unable to fully review the book since it wasn't in Kindle format.