Books : Roast Chicken and Other Stories (Ebury Paperback Cookery)

Rating: - Beware the Lemon!
I got this cookbook for Christmas and 1 year later, I've made a fair few of the recipes within the covers. They have been without exception delicious. I also like the writing on French food which I'm not particularly knowledgable on. I find some voyeuristic pleasure in reading what this guy has to say because he drifts into foods that you would never find in a supermarket (see chapter on brains!) and would probably never dream of cooking; but he makes it sound like your missing out on a massive treat!

The main problem i have with the meals i've cooked from 'Roast Chicken' is they always have too much lemon in. My family have always pointed this out to me. It makes the front cover of the book seem slightly ominous looking back, therefore BEWARE THE LEMON.

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Rating: - Roast Chicken and Other Stories
I found Roast Chicken and Other Stories a little different from the other cookbooks that I've used. The thing I like most about this book is the conversational tone throughout the book. Even while working through the recipes, I felt like I was having a nice conversation with the author. He'd tell me about the places he'd travelled, why he'd added this recipe to the book, or about an interesting experience. I think that perhaps this friendly, down to earth tone made me a little more willing to try recipes that I might not necessarily try otherwise. In all cases, I was thankful that I had made the effort because the dishes were absolutely delicious and quite easy to prepare once I had gathered all of the ingredients.

Although I liked the conversational tone, I don't think it completely matched the recipes in this book. The recipes are divided into sections, each one representing a different food from anchovy and chicken through kidneys and potatoes to squab and veal. From the title, I had expected a cookbook filled with down-home recipes that contained roast chicken and all of the fixings. I think the tone of this book would have matched that theme well. However, many of the recipes in this book included main ingredients that I wouldn't normally buy let alone know how to serve. Most of the dishes that I will cook again will likely be for special occasions rather than daily meals.

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Rating: - Waste of time
I wrote some time ago that this book was not worth buying, but it never got published. Give me Nigel Slater any time. I love to cook and over the years have bought many recipe books, but this was definitely the worst.

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Rating: - `The most useful cookbook of all time' - `Waitrose Food Illustrated'
I have to be honest, I am not normally drawn to this sort of `cookbook', but I am so glad I was and looked inside!
A friend and colleague described this book as a `grown-up' cookery book and I now understand what she meant!
Along with its companion, `Second Helpings of Roast Chicken', in its pale blue guise, the two volumes are just simply...... different!

Within the dark blue covers are not the oodles of colour photos that would normally encourage one to flick through.
In fact the only illustrations there are, are subtle and simple, and limited to the opening of each new chapter, and at the base of the odd page on a seemingly ad hoc basis. But, strangely enough, that is all that is required.
Additionally, any book that refers to the great `Elizabeth David`, is sure to find a place on my kitchen bookshelf!
`Some continental classics would not be the same without anchovy. Take `anchoiade' - this Provençal staple combines garlic, olive oil, a little vinegar and some pounded anchovies. It is then spread on to thick slices of toast according to Elizabeth David.
She goes on to say: 'This is not so much an hors d'oeuvre as the sort of thing to get ready quickly any time you are hungry and want something to go with a glass of wine....' What splendid advice.

From the rear cover:-
`Simon Hopkinson is not just one of Britain's top chefs, he is also a superb natural cook.
`Roast Chicken and Other Stories' takes Simon's favourite ingredients as its starting point - 40 of them, from anchovy and asparagus through lamb and leeks to tripe and veal.
Many of the recipes are drawn from classic French and British cooking, but ideas from elsewhere (notably South East Asia, the Unites States, Spain, Italy and Australia) are also incorporated.

Winner of both the 1994 `André Simon' and 1995 `Glenfiddich' awards, this acclaimed book will inspire anyone who delights in getting the best out of good ingredients and who enjoys sharing the ideas of a truly creative book.'


230 high quality, shiny pages sandwiched between an introduction, and a full index.
The contents list shows the chapters - the 40 `ingredients' chosen for this volume with their recipes, so this is an easy book to find what you need in a hurry!
An added bonus - `Chocolate' is included with six of the most delicious recipes:-

` I agree with the late Roald Dahl that the British chocolate bar is the best in the world.
There is nothing to beat the gorgeous sickliness of a Mars Bar, and, as a boy, I was seduced by the honeycomb centre of a Crunchie. (I'm sure I wasn't alone in trying to make a deep hole in the honeycomb with my tongue, before the chocolate collapsed around it.)
And I remember the effortlessness of eating a Milky Way or an Aero, and of being repeatedly surprised by the alarming speed with which one could consume a packet of Munchies, or one of those small, strangely shaped bars called Toffee Cup.......'

Chocolate Tart
Saint-Emillion au Chocolat
Milk Chocolate Malt Ice Cream
Chocolate Pithiviers
Chocolate Bavarois
Petit Pot au Chocolat

Each chapter opens with narrative re the `ingredient'.
The recipes open with a relevant comment or serving tip and are followed by a clear list of ingredients, and the method.

A taste of some of the other recipes within:-

Asparagus Soup
Cervelles au beurre noir
Roast Chicken
Deep-Fried Cod
Crab Tart
Crème Chantilly
Custard Sauce
Eggs Florentine
Creamed Endives
Fillet of Hake with Herb Crust
Roast Best End of Lamb with Aubergine & Basil Cream Sauce
Vichyssoise
Red Pepper Tart
Chips
Saffron Cream Dressing
Salmon in Pastry with Currants & Ginger
Omelette Arnold Bennett
Spinach Dumplings
Steak au Poivre
Creamed Tomatoes on Toast
Roast Shin of Veal

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Rating: - The best cookbook there is.
Some of the reviews below criticise this book for sounding 'strange', promoting the author's own preferences, and being too picky (and too french). The real benefits of this book are exactly the same - it's an invitation to cook beautiful, extraordinary food as well as possible, from a writer who clearly loves eating as much as he loves cooking.

I've been using this book for about five years now, and, with the possible exception of Gammon And Spinach, have yet to find a better one. Following the recipes to the letter will teach you a surprising amount about technique, and will make you a happier, fatter person. One reviewer complains that recipes ask for specific ingredients - New season's garlic, for instance. Well, if you can't buy it, what's the point in cooking the recipe with inferior ingredients? there are plently of others to try. A battery chicken will never taste like a poulet de bresse, and no amount of cookbooks will change that. If you put the effort in, you'll be repaid in style.

Oh, and the chapter on veal isn't inhumane, provided you buy meat from UK reared calves (rose veal). It's not crated or tortured, and is a lot more respectable than the battery pigs and caged chickens that go into your supermarket sandwich.