Product Description

From the day Tom Aikens burst on to the restaurant scene, he has barely been out of the limelight. Awarded two Michelin stars by the age of 26, he has consistently been tipped as one of the hottest and most talented chefs cooking today. Now comes this stylish and sophisticated book, with 200 mouth-watering recipes, graded according to difficulty. His starting point is everyday ingredients - he believes in buying fresh, seasonal produce, and gives guidance on how to choose the best and make the most of them. Organising the book by type of food - vegetable, meat, fish, fruit, bread, dairy - he creates a variety of imaginative, dazzling recipes, some very easy and achievable in minutes; others more sophisticated, ideal for special occasions or when you are feeling more adventurous. He shows how to take one basic ingredient and produce a host of different dishes. The humble carrot, for example, can be roasted with honey and cumin or pickled to form the basis of a delicious salad, or pureed with tarragon to supply a wonderful sauce for roast cod. Sole can be baked in minutes on a sizzling hot baking tray in the oven, or pan-fried and served with balsamic glazed vegetables and pea puree. From gorgeous grilled fennel with goat's cheese and black olive oil, buttered peas with spring onions to lamb shank with tomato confit and beans, there is something here for everyone who loves good food. Inspiration, talent and flashes of sheer genius shine off every page in this book, destined to become a firm favourite with keen cooks and food lovers everywhere.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16563 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Synopsis
From the day Tom Aikens burst on to the restaurant scene, he has barely been out of the limelight. Awarded two Michelin stars by the age of 26, he has consistently been tipped as one of the hottest and most talented chefs cooking today. Now comes this stylish and sophisticated book, with 200 mouth-watering recipes, graded according to difficulty. His starting point is everyday ingredients - he believes in buying fresh, seasonal produce, and gives guidance on how to choose the best and make the most of them. Organising the book by type of food - vegetable, meat, fish, fruit, bread, dairy - he creates a variety of imaginative, dazzling recipes, some very easy and achievable in minutes; others more sophisticated, ideal for special occasions or when you are feeling more adventurous. He shows how to take one basic ingredient and produce a host of different dishes. The humble carrot, for example, can be roasted with honey and cumin or pickled to form the basis of a delicious salad, or pureed with tarragon to supply a wonderful sauce for roast cod. Sole can be baked in minutes on a sizzling hot baking tray in the oven, or pan-fried and served with balsamic glazed vegetables and pea puree.

From gorgeous grilled fennel with goat's cheese and black olive oil, buttered peas with spring onions to lamb shank with tomato confit and beans, there is something here for everyone who loves good food. Inspiration, talent and flashes of sheer genius shine off every page in this book, destined to become a firm favourite with keen cooks and food lovers everywhere.

About the Author
Tom Aikens started working in London with Pierre Koffman at La Tante Claire. Two stints in France followed (with Joel Robuchon in Paris and Gerard Boyer in Reims) before he became Head Chef at Pied a Terre, London, in 1996 and the youngest ever recipient of two Michelin stars. Tom's dream was always to open his own restaurant and in 2003 he opened Tom Aikens in Chelsea, London. Since then he has won great critical acclaim and many prestigious accolades.

Customer Reviews

A book without equal
This cookbook manages to balance our expectations of a Michelin starred chef and the actual capability of most readers. I know that there are a lot of books out there by Michelin star chefs (normally debut books) which attempt to give an insight into the delicate nature of Michelin starred cooking. This book has the following pros/helpful aspects:

- Good mixture of complex and simple recipes;
- Catalogue of how to make 'basics'/store cupboard essentials, like stocks etc.
- Beautiful, colourful and ample illustration where you may need inspiration for how to present the recipes or food in general;
- Classification system of difficulty;
- Good mixture of slow recipes and what I would call on the hob cooking
- Balance of fish, meat, desserts (although there are a lot of desserts!) and other categories;
- Simply written instruction by someone who clearly understands his craft AND communicates well in writing.
- Offers alternatives to certain ingredients and where some are optional.
- Offers imaginative recipes for humble ingredients (carrot salads, asparagus mousse etc)

I think that a competent cook who is above par would relish the challenge in this book as well as a revisiting of simple recipes etc. I have eaten at Tom Aikens flagship restaurant and the book lived up to my expectations of one of the finest restaurants and chefs in the UK.

Wonderful book
I bought this book having eaten at both his restaurants several times. The recipes are graded in three categories, easy, mediam and challenging. The latter category requires a lot of fussing about with the food and some forethought, but the medium and easy recipes are well set out and easy for the domestic cook. There are notes on what can wrong on some of the recipes and how to avoid mistakes which is a useful addition. It provides a good range of different recipes, from bread and cakes to petite fours. Every dish that I have tried from this book has worked and received requests for a repeat cooking - this has to be the measure of a cook book!

A poor book from an excellent chef.
A disappointment.

This has the feeling of a heavily ghost-written book (although admittedly there is no collaborator mentioned in the acknowledgement), scattered with banal interpolations. See the page at the start of the seafood section going through fish. Has he got anything more insightful to say than that john dory tastes "sweet"? Clearly not as he repeats the same insight for turbot just down the page. See also the comment on prawns, crabs, lobster - his prawns come from madagascar - so what?

Having dined several times at TA in London the recipes are far less inspiring than the cuisine we know Tom is capable of. There are limited references to Tom's delightfully haphazard plating and approach to food. There is nary a mention of his signature cassonades. The recipes themselves simply do not inspire and are sometimes inconsistent - for example, how do you sear the skin-side of a darne of seabass??? (the skin goes all the way round a darne - there is no skin side!!!).

It's one redeeming feature is a good outline of the process for preparing Joel Robuchon's pomme puree.

If you want an example of a contemporary chefbook I can recommend David Everitt-Matthias "Essence"