Book review: Great Homemade Soups – 
A Cook's Collection

By Paul Gayler
Jacqui Small, £25

After the excesses of the Christmas period, there is often nothing 
more enjoyable than sitting down 
to a bowl of freshly made soup. Whatever ingredients you use,
there will be a style of soup to suit your mood, occasion or budget.

This new book from Paul Gayler, until recently executive chef at London's Lanesborough hotel 
and one of the UK's most prolific cookbook writers with more than 20 tomes under his belt, shows just how versatile and exciting soup can be.

While described as "homemade", I would actually suggest that a great many of the soups found here could happily grace the menus of some of the UK's finest restaurants.

Indeed, with the inclusion of Tom Kerridge's smoked apple soup with eel, bacon and mint oil, and Daniel Boulud's chilled asparagus soup with red pepper coulis, this really is a collection of some of the finest 
soup recipes around.

The basis of a great soup is, of course, a great stock, and Gayler kicks off the book with five, which will provide the reader with the foundation to create the recipes that follow. All the dishes are clearly written and beautifully illustrated with photography by Lisa Linder.

The wide repertoire includes natural broths and consommés (crispy pork belly soup with pumpkin, star anise and cinnamon), alongside soups
that are smooth and creamy (caramelised Belgian endive 
and Crozier Blue soup with winter salsa), hearty and wholesome
(salt cod, chickpea and chorizo), traditional favourites (New 
England clam chowder) or wild 
and exotic (Taiwanese beef soup with pickled mustard greens).

Gayler is never shy of experimenting with ingredients 
from far afield - hence the 
inclusion of flavours from Vietnam, Colombia, Japan and Spain.

With a range of sweet soups, such as jellied strawberry, and tomato consommé with basil sorbet, and an excellent selection
of garnishes and accompaniments, including dried citrus powder, which packs an additional flavour punch, this book is a comprehensive collection of enticing soup recipes that could grace the tables of 
a variety of restaurants, whatever their style or price point.

By Janet Harmer

If you enjoy this, you may enjoy:
•A Celebration of Soups, 
Lindsey Bareham
•The Soup Book, 
Sophie Grigson
•Soup Glorious Soup, 
Annie Bell