Alice's Cookbook (New Voices in Food) [Illustrated] [Paperback]

I am a keen collector of cookbooks. My collection runs into the hundreds, and dates back nearly a century. However, I can say with some degree of confidence that I have never read in any of them that the use of a camper van is recommended by way of a cooking utensil. Never.
I used to own a camper van just like Alice, so I am on her wave length (or band width for the younger reader). When she refers to it as "the ultimate in mobile kitchens" she scores a culinary hole in one with me.
As a camper van girl hers is not the kitchen scattered with a dozen dirty bowls, a sink full of washing up and four burners and the oven firing flat out. A camper van kitchen is compact, utilitarian and compels the chef to cook in a minimalist way. If you saw the size of the sink inside them, you would understand - it is barely big enough to set a jelly in.
It stands to reason then that camper tucker is going to have a pretty easy ride to the table. Like picnics and play away barbecues, she prepares things in advance to cut out unnecessary fussing when out and about. Indeed she bravely attempts damper bread cooked on a stick over an open fire, and suggests dry mixing the ingredients into a plastic bag at home. Also cakes to be baked at home to bring along too. All such sensible advice.
Exotica such as grilled corn and sweet potato with lime dressing, rosemary farinata and Saigon salad rolls are effortlessly put together like ham and pickle sandwiches and a flask of tea. No prizes for working out which tastes better.
Alice does operate from inside her house and domestic kitchen too. She extols the delights of a traditional family Sunday lunch, offering pleasant twists on the usual fare and arranges the recipes here as elsewhere into orderly menus to provide a complete and complimentary meal.
Breakfast , lunch and parties all have their own chapters, and throughout the book she constantly offers sensible short cuts to avoid the last minute crush before the food arrives at table, leaving the cook to enjoy the meal along with others , be it family or friends, few or many.
So, if you want to make lamb cigars, boozy lollies or learn how to cover your tracks after a camp fire, Alice's Cook Book is the one to buy.

Alice's Cook Book is the ideal mix of easy accessible recipes, beautiful photography, non-coated paper. I carried it around in my bag for a few days and read it while commuting to work, and last weekend tried the brownies recipe, which Alice says is the best recipe ever. The person to whom I gave the tray of brownies after eating a few let me know they were the best brownies he's ever eaten, and offered four to his electrician as a bribe to get him to do some extra work in his home. ;-)

I think Quadrille's idea to do a New Voices in Food series is a great way to introduce new-ish talent to the market that isn't your typical TV presenter or superstar chef. I say new-ish because Alice has an established track record-- which is why her recipes are good and her writing style engaging.

Anyway, this is a great book, and I am going to be buying it as a gift for a few friends.

I have a huge collection of cook books with just a few old faithfuls that I return to time and time again. This is not likely to become one of them. Very few of the recipes can be made from items in the cupboard and indeed I think I would struggle to find some ingredients in the average high street (though I haven't tried yet). If you want to know how to make Pomegranate Jelly or Oatcakes with Gruyere then this is the book for you. I have found it over fussy and actually a little intimidating. There are however a few little gems inside, The Spiced Pear Relish is fantastic (and just in season) and the Best Brownies are to die for! I am also looking forward to trying the Chilli Jam. These are the saving graces and earn it the three stars, otherwise the Bruleed Sabayon or Pan Fried Gurnard would, I am afraid, leave me cold. I though I was quite knowledgable about food, maybe I'm not, maybe this book is for someone with a degree in recipe names who may realise they are normal recipes with fancy titles. Or not. I think I spent more time referring to the Glossary to work out what I was reading!