Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #366103 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Merchant House is a small, Michelin-starred restaurant in the Welsh Marches town of Ludlow, operated by the gifted and creative chef Shaun Hill. It is somewhat unusual in that Hill, who made his name at the country house hotel Gidleigh Park, has turned his back on the standard restaurant kitchen with its brigade of assistants and cooks alone in what is to all intents and purposes a domestic kitchen. He also does his own shopping and washing-up. The food that he records in Cooking at The Merchant House is presumably pretty much as he cooks it, not requiring the usual scaling down by home economists, and not bolstered by substitutions for the complex sauces and stocks of the metropolitan chefs. And what food it is: manageable but inventive, robust yet elegant, earthy but approaching the sublime. Hill is inventive, but rightly appreciative of traditional flavours and combinations, which play a major part in his food. One dish that perhaps sums it up is the wonderful Lobster with Chickpea, Coriander and Olive Oil Sauce, in the which the sweet poached shellfish, shelled, is set off by the subtly spiced, dhal-like sauce. But Cooking at The Merchant House is full of such treasures: Pheasant and Chestnut Soup; Red Pepper Bavarois with Asparagus; Warm Celeriac Mousse with Mushroom Sauce; Roast Loin of Veal with Marsala; Rhubarb and Strawberry Gratin. Terrific stuff, and sauced with Hill's occasionally astringent observations on buying, converting and running a restaurant. --Robin Davidson

Synopsis
Finally, here is a chef cookbook that truly understands the needs and limitations of real people. Author Shaun Hill owns the Merchant House - a unique gourmet restaurant situated in his own home where he prepares all the food in his domestic kitchen. Despite having worked in some of the world's greatest hotel restaurants, Shaun wanted to get back to basics by cooking simple food on a small scale from top quality ingredients. In this book he shows just how exciting good home cooking can be by combining basic ingredients with a little imagination. Each chapter concentrates on individual food groups with all recipes well within the reach of the home cook and their kitchen. Village life and the practicalities of running the restaurant provide an evocative backdrop of rural England. Such is Shaun Hill's reputation that other top chefs plead to be allowed to come and work with him for free. At any time a new book by this Michelin-starred chef would generate great interest, but combined with his empathy with home cooks and their kitchens, Cooking at the Marchant House is a particularly exciting publishing event.

Customer Reviews

Good, relatively simple, correct and more
There are two aspects in this cooking book: the recipes and the story.
The recipes are good. Do not expect some extreme haute cuisine, but more recipes that live on good/fresh ingredients. The recipes are relatively simple to make in everybody's kitchen. They are correct ... even in cooking times and clear. Best of all, they taste good. I already tried quite a few of them and the result was always delicious. Tips'n'tricks are also there that can be used by the average "house chef".
The story is funny and nice. To read how the restaurant was set-up is nice and definitively not commercial (it is not a like a commercial of the place itself). In a way, Shaun has done what many people reading this review dream to do ... open a house-restaurant without loosing money.
In a nutshell, there are at least two reasons to buy it: nice to read and tasty to cook with.

If you buy only one cookbook this year, buy this one.
Shaun Hill's book Cooking at the Merchant House is much more than a cook book, it is a way of life many of us could envy. Cooking at the Merchant House is a story of Hill's struggle to achieve his dream. Every frustrated chef amongst us will be charmed and delighted by Hill's "cook's friendly" style. His recipes, many of which are served in his Michelin star restaurant,The Merchant House in Ludlow England, are easy for the home cook to prepare.

No haughty towers, or pretentious presentation, Hill talks about the balance of cooking, and using the finest of ingredients, cajoles us with the charm of cooking with simplicity. The best book I have read in a long time. Cooking at The Merchant House makes you want to run away to Ludlow to discover its medieval delights and the gastronomic treats as cooked by Shaun Hill.The best food I have ever eaten.

Humorous, practical and beautifully illustrated
Shaun Hill is the cook's chef. His recipes are practical, not too difficult to make and utterly delicious. I love the way he writes - funny and annecdotal. Each recipe is accompanied by a "points to watch" section which covers the danger areas where things are most likely to go wrong. One of the nicest books I've bought for ages.