David Everitt-Matthias and Lisa Barber win Gourmand World Cookbook award
Two-Michelin-starred chef David Everitt-Matthias (pictured) and food photographer Lisa Barber have won a top UK award in the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
The chef-patron of Le Champignon Sauvage, in Cheltenham, who collaborated with Barber on Beyond Essence, his third book, has won an award for photography.
This is the third book, produced by Everitt-Matthias and Barber, to be recognised by the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Essence received the award for the Most Innovative UK Cookbook in 2006, while Dessert was named Best UK Cookbook at the World Gourmand Cookbook Awards in 2009. Dessert was also declared runner-up in the Best Cookbook in the World category.
Published by Absolute Press for Bloomsbury Publishing, Beyond Essence shows a marked evolution in Everitt-Matthias's food.
Reviewing his book in Caterer and Hotelkeeper, fellow Michelin-starred chef Eric Chavot wrote: "Beyond Essence illustrates how David keeps pushing the boundaries while still using humble ingredients. But that's no surprise. We all buy books and leaf through them, but David reads every page, and he's continuously on top of the latest releases. He has always been able to marry ingredients beautifully. One of his greatest skills is taking inexpensive ingredients and propelling them to a graceful and refined status.
This has proved to be an award-studded year for Everitt-Matthias, who in October, along with wife and business partner Helen, won the Observer Food Monthly Outstanding Achievement Award, having operated their restaurant for 26 years. In September, he was also named Chef of the Year in the 2014 Waitrose Good Food Guide.
Roast, a very British cookbook, by Roast restaurant chef Marcus Verberne, also published by Absolute Press and Bloomsbury, won Best Chef Cookbook in the UK. With a foreword by Iqbal Wahhab, the book celebrates the seasonal British menu from the Borough Market eaterie.
Both books will now go forward to the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
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