Book: Alice's Cook Book

I received a copy of "Alice's Cook Book" to review this week.  I was actually able to pick to review from a list of 2010 cookbooks and settled on this one as I already had it on my Amazon Wishlist.  I admit I'm not of the "never judge a book by it's cover" school of thought and I was initially won over by the rather whimsical cover however as always, I had a read through the Amazon reviews and as the majority were positive I thought I'd give it a try.

Alice Hart is a young woman  a "new young voice on food".  This is her first book aiming to encourage young people to cook original, modern food.  Alice is no novice though, she was once the youngest editor of the highly successful Waitrose Food Illustrated Magazine and along with a friend she met at Leiths created The Hart and Fuggle, one of the many new pop-up restaurants/cafes that are so popular right now.   Alice clearly knows her food and this book features some very inventive and original recipes.

First impressions of the book were good - after all, we've already established I liked the cover and I'd probably pick the book off the shelf based on cover alone (I'm fickle, yes).  In the flesh the book was a lot smaller than I'd imagined, certainly thinner and more compact than most other cookbooks I own.  There are not a lot of pictures in the book, this is generally somewhat of a turn-off for me but I understand that not everyone wants to see pages and pages of photos of perfectly set-out food.  The few pictures that the book did have however were very good quality.  

One of things I liked about the book was the introductions to each recipe. As an avid cookbook reader (yes, a reader), I do like to read about the history or inspiration behind a recipe so it's a nice touch that each recipe has an intro in the authors voice.  I also like that the book is littered with other helpful little touches, like how to mix up a garlic & herb oil and has lots of "quick ideas" as well as good menu plans and help with timings.

To be quite honest, I probably won't make the best use out of this book but it is a nice book nonetheless, perhaps just for someone with a far less fussier husband!  To me, a lot of it is special occasion food rather than every day dining but then the book doesn't really try to disguise this, the emphasis is on special events and entertaining.  It's what I would call "aspirational" in many senses however not necessarily practical. I'd like to think I'm going to go and catch a fish or two and take it back to the campsite but in reality gutting a fish in a camper van isn't really my idea of a holiday.  

With two small children I don't do a lot in the way of entertaining these days, unless they are 4 year olds and a bowl of Wotsits present but there are certainly a couple of nice recipes that I may roll out for Christmas or Easter celebrations.   Recipes that I'll probably have a go at include the crisp maple sugared bacon with oven hash browns & poached eggs, very garlicky roast chicken and the  cherry tart with almond pastry.

On the whole, it's a nice book but not one I would say is for the novice or very amateur cook.  However if you are more of a confident cook and a bit more on the adventurous side with  your food you might well enjoy this.

If you own this book, I'd love to hear what you think of it.

love & kisses
Mrs M x