Product Description

Roast Chicken and Other Stories provides an insight into Simon Hopkinson's unique style of unpretentious cooking with 160 of his favourite recipes. Simon Hopkinson's forty favourite ingredients include everyday basics as potatoes, chicken and cod as well as more exotic foods such as asparagus and truffles. The book is arranged alphabetically with a chapter on each food. Unable to hide his great love of food, Hopkinson writes about why he likes each particular ingredient, and gives sensible advice on quality, variety and good cooking principles together with the recipes. The book is aimed at home cooks and all the recipes can be prepared by anyone with basic cooking skills. From Grilled Augergine with Pesto to Roast Chicken and Homemade Ice Cream, Simon Hopkinson's food is always honest and inviting, designed to please rather than simply to impress.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4772 in Books
• Published on: 1999-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Simon Hopkinson's much-admired Roast Chicken and Other Stories now appears (unchanged) in Ebury Press's uniform paperback cookbook series, following its original publication in 1995 and a subsequent paperback career. The present edition is handsome, user-friendly and durable, with good paper and secure stitching. These things matter. The book itself is as much an incitement to cook as it ever was. The contents are a stroll through 40 of Simon Hopkinson's favourite ingredients, from anchovy and asparagus to lamb and leeks to tripe and veal, with a discursive introduction to each followed by a number of recipes. Those familiar with Hopkinson's writings will not be surprised that, despite his former reputation as a top restaurant chef (Hilaire and Bibendum in London), the recipes are robust, flavoursome and--if this is the right word-- homely. At any rate, they are all eminently cookable. Mostly they are drawn from the repertoires of British and classic French cooking, with dishes such as "Le Grand Aioli", "Brandade de Morue", "Fruit Fool", "Breast of Lamb Ste-Menehould" and "Omelette Arnold Bennett" giving perhaps an indication of Hopkinson's taste for simple, honest food. Spain and Italy, Australia and South-East Asia also put in an appearance, to vivid effect, with items such as "Gazpacho", "Risotto alla Milanese" and "Coriander and Coconut Soup". Simon Hopkinson's enthusiasm is infectious; his writing is warm and witty. Anyone who hasn't encountered this book in a previous incarnation has a treat in store. --Robin Davidson

Review
"...If you love to cook, this will become a sauce-splattered favourite - and it contains the recipes for the finest, simplest chocolate tart known to man.", Waitrose Food Illustrated .'The most useful cookbook of all time', Waitrose Food Illustrated .'Retro, yet somehow timeless, it is a delightful, engaging read', Telegraph Weekend .'A brilliant book: straightforward, readable and full of good things', Rachel Cooke, Observer .'Clear, unpretentious vision...Hopkinson is the best', Daily Telegraph .'Excellent', Spectator .'Brilliant, easy to use, always entertaining', Daily Mirror .'Simon Hopkinson is a genius...an instinctive gift for knowing what goes with what and what works', The Tablet .'A tasty read for wannabe wizards in the kitchen', Sun .'No kitchen should be without it', Easy Living .'A delightful, engaging read', Telegraph Weekend

William Sitwell - Editor of Waitrose Food Illustrated
'Simon Hopkinson has an amazing ability to write recipes for the home cook that are accessible, practical and exciting.'

Customer Reviews

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.

'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...... well....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 wonderful 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

From Aubergine to Wood Pigeon this is the best
Simon Hopkinson and Lyndsey Bareham cover a vast amount of ground in Roast Chicken and Other Stories. The book is organised by product. So take Lamb for example, there is a fascinating preamble and then recipes that originate from many parts of the globe. Each recipe has another interesting storey that tempts one into trying it out. References to friends, chefs and food writers adds to the magnificence of this book. Buy, read it, cook and eat!