Product Description

The diversity of vegetarian cooking never fails to inspire, particularly in the hands of culinary champion, Paul Gayler, Executive Chef at London's Lanesborough Hotel. From winter treats such as celeriac and salsify to summer's succulent little peas and crisp bulbs of fennel, here the seasonal harvest from all over the world is explored with passion. Renowned for his vegetarian cooking and his creativity with international flavours, Paul Gayler offers recipes that look stunning, taste amazing and really impress your guests. And with his guiding hand and helpful tips you will be cooking exotic dishes with ease, such as Seaweed Daikon Wraps, Naked Spinach Ravioli with Vegetable Arrabiata Sauce and Kerala Pumpkin Curry, before you know it.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #89570 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Review
'Packed with stylish recipes for vegetarian gourmets.' Philippa Davenport, Financial Times

BBC Good Food Magazine, February issue 05
"inspiring... well written and easy to follow"

Time Out, Jan 06
"It's the most thrilling vegetarian cookery book we've seen in the last five years"

Customer Reviews

Well worth the effort
This book contains the most delicious, exciting and inspiring vegetarian cooking I've seen in a long time and all the recipes I've made from it have turned out impressively.

These are not recipes you'll be cooking when you come home for a hard day at work (except for a few of the fantastic pasta dishes) but are excellent for a home-cooked meal with someone special or just a weekend treat. It's exciting to be able to cook restaurant standard food yourself, and although the recipes are not difficult, I would not give this to a new or nervous. You do not need any kind of cooking qualification, but this book will not teach you how to cook if you do not already know.

The book doesn't use many unobtainable ingredients, so long as you have a good wholefood shop and aren't reliant solely on a small supermarket. It is also well-written: clear recipes without all the autobiography so many chefs are fond of.

I'd happily recommend this book to any reasonably confident vegetarian cook who sometimes wants to pull out all the stops and see what marvels they can create

Don't try this at home
You may not have to be a vegetarian to enjoy the recipes in this book, but you'll have to be a chef. And live in a big city. And have money.

The recipes ask for Yuzu juice (a citrus fruit), verjuice (juice of unripe grapes), truffles, fresh porcini, banana shallots (?), cavalo nero (black cabbage, but you can use savoy cabbage instead), nuoc mam chay (Thai vegetarian fish sauce), Vietnamese mint. Even if I knew where to get any of this (Borough Market?), I would probably be very nervous while cooking, in case I ruin these rare and expensive ingredients.

I have doubts about some of the methods as well. Can you, for instance, see yourself slice 4 avocados into 20 very thin slices, then stuff and roll them up? How are they not going to break, go brown, end up with finger prints on them? The picture looks fantastic, but not like something I'd ever be able to make. Even attempting it would be asking for disappointment.

I'd love to eat the dishes from this book, but I'd rather have them put in front of me by somebody else. The pictures look gorgeous, the dishes sound tasty, but it's not for your average home cook.

Gourmet Vegetarian
This book is a nice change from the healthy veggie cookbooks that seem to pervade the marketplace. Not that these recipes aren't healthy - I'm sure they are - but they don't shrink away from using higher fat ingredients if the end resulting taste requires it.

The recipes are great and reasonably easy to follow and the ones that I have made have been really tasty too. Just the kind of thing to impress your friends with at a dinner party.