Rick Stein's Food Heroes: Another Helping
This is Rick Stein's follow-up to his guide to the Food Heroes of Britain. This time the focus is on favourite recipes he has picked up from across the world, with influences from artisanal producers he has met in Britain and Ireland.
The book is divided in to eight chapters, covering eggs, soups, fish, poultry, meat, game, desserts and basic recipes. Each recipe begins with an introduction from Stein, and his characteristic eloquence and wit drew me in. I felt compelled to read them, whether it was the history of the sole veronique or the ode to moules marinier.
It's an eclectic mix of recipes, and his passion never wanes, whether he is relishing the merits of pizza margherita, Turkish kofta kebabs or his "macho" lemon tart. The book's target market is the foodie rather than the professional chef, and while he states that most of the ingredients are readily available, he forgets that many readers won't have access to fabulous delis and Oriental stores, making supermarkets their only option. It's questionable, though, whether even the best deli could supply the more obscure ingredients such as conger eel or marigold petals.
Clearly one of the main objectives of the book is to remind us that great food is born out of great ingredients, and this, along with Stein's first Heroes book, is part of his crusade to encourage us to exploit the abundance of excellent produce on our doorstep.
The food photography does an adequate job of illustration but much of it lacks the sparkle the book deserves and is boring in comparison with the stunning landscape shots. Despite the fact that many chefs won't find much that is new in this book, in my opinion it's an enjoyable read and exactly the kind of book most professionals, and foodies, would love to have at home.
Even better, it's the kind of food we would all love to be eating in our small neighbourhood restaurants across the UK. Let's hope the chefs working in these restaurants read it and are suitably inspired.
Andrew Fairlie, chef-proprietor, Andrew Fairlie at Gleneagles, Auchterarder
Rick Stein's Food Heroes: Another Helping
Rick Stein
BBC Books
£20
ISBN 0-563-48752-6
Book picks at Harvey Nicks Harvey Nichols has picked up on the plethora of good cookbooks being published at the moment by launching its Cookbook of the Month promotion. Each month at the company's stores in London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Leeds a newly published cookbook will be the focus of cookery demonstrations and book signings by its chef-author.
In addition, Harvey Nichols's restaurants at the sites will showcase menus using recipes from the chosen book. Cookbook of the Month for April was Peter Gordon's A World In My Kitchen (see Caterer, 5 February, page 54), Mitchell Tonks's Fresh is scheduled in for June, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's new tome Meat is pencilled in for July. Further information is available on 020 7201 8631.
