I like Nigella, Jamie, Delia, Tamasin Day-Lewis, Claudia Roden, Simon Hopkinson, Tessa Kiros, Gordon and Garry and I think if you like them too, you'll enjoy this book.


A "Newsweek" Rave!   April 4, 2006
 7 out of 8 found this review helpful

Nigella Lawson embodies this book's intimate nature, fetchingly photographed in her bath. She offers up a homey beef stew marinated in Guinness, with the reassuring comment, "If the stew looks like school dinner, it doesn't taste like it." There's the comfort of the familiar-a Wolfgang Puck wild-mushroom pizza, say, or a crab risotto from Jamie Oliver. Three-star chef Heston Blumenthal humbly delivers pea and ham soup, so unlike his scientific experiments at the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire; Alain Ducasse shows us his roast veal with vegetables, and Rose Gray and Ruth Rodgers of London's River Cafe reveal their classic sea bass with potatoes. But challenges abound, like Nobu Matsuhisa's salmon marinated in mirin and sake, or rock-star chef Gordon Ramsay's coffee panna cotta. Suspicious foam emulsion appears infrequently (do chefs really foam at home?), as do those odd towers of meat sliced like a Shanghai skyscraper. Endearing Briticisms abound: best-selling cookbook writer Delia Smith's recipe calls for "prime British gammon" (boneless ham, but with the skin remaining); courgettes are translated as zucchini, broad beans as favas. But the book's generous spirit is, not surprisingly, best captured in David Nicholls's own offering, My Anything Salad, which shows us that great chefs, just like the rest of us, "raid the fridge and make a salad using anything that's available." The book's dedication, "To Daniel, knowing that you will one day walk again," is reason enough to own it.


Good book, good cause   March 31, 2006
 7 out of 9 found this review helpful

This is a wonderful addition to any cook book library, and an interesting insight into the lives of some of the world's best chefs. But more than that, ALL of the money from this book goes to charity. Chef David Nicholl's son was left paralysed after an accident on a Sydney beach while on his gap year aged just 19 years old. This book is dedicated to him. While some of the other reviewers have left very negative comments, I think for that reason alone this books deserves our full support and I would encourage everyone to buy it.