Sunday 30 October 2011

CUISINE REVIEW: Jamie's Great Britain - Jamie Oliver

Release Date: 29/09/11

SYNOPSIS:

Celebrating Britain's very best food Jamie grew up in one of the first true British gastropubs , which his Mum and Dad still run today. For him, the heart and soul of real British cooking is food that puts a smile on your face. And that's what he wants to share in the new book: the essence of British food, done properly. Over the years, British food culture has embraced flavours and influences from all the people who came and made Great Britain their home. The food reflects an open-minded culture as well as the country's beauty. There are over 100 of Jamie's favourite recipes: some are indisputable classics, some are his versions of the classics, some should be classics but just haven't been made famous yet and others he's made up from the great bounty of British produce. Wherever you're from, if you love food this book will offer you a little taste of happiness.


REVIEW:

After a great many crusades to help the health of the nation, I was more than interested to see what Jamie would come up with for his Great Britain cook book. After all I’m more of a person who loves to learn about traditional cuisine that depends upon flavours and few ingredients that enhance the overall flavour of the meal’s star than faffing around hoping that GPS can locate the foods position on the plate.

Within this book is a whole host of delectable tastes and whilst a number of the recipes for the more gamey items for the nations larder went over my head I did find some old favourites within that I could try and then adapt to suit my own tastes.

Whilst it is nicely done and cleverly put together what I would have liked to have seen would have included recipes for key items and then coloured sundries that would work well in conjuction with them, after all everyone has different tastes and to have had an easy option such as Empire Roast Chicken paired with shredded brussel’s, killer green beans with a creamed spinach would make a lot of sense rather than leaving someone to wonder what would work well as a combo.

That said, it will have some recipes that will appeal to all who flick through but I really want a book that looks at taking readers on a journey to make the most of what they have, to give you choices that can be easily paired and demonstrates how much fun cooking can not only be but how rewarding it is when you’ve created the whole meal from scratch from stocking your larder with seasonal produce that gives you the most value for money.

2 comments:

Natalie Westgate said...

Does it have pictures of every recipe in there? My pet peeve with recipe books is when they give you a fabulous recipe but don't show you (nor tell you, most times!) what the finished item should look like lol.

Falcata Times said...

Hey Natalie,
Yep there's pictures in there so you can see what its meant to look like but I'd have liked better organisation to include great accompanyments with each choice.