Bill's Basics [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

First published in September of 2010, popular self-taught Australian chef Bill Granger's beautifully presented cookbook `Bill's Basics' clearly had the `Average Joe' in mind when he began penning this recipe book. The principle that runs behind the entirety of the book is good, honest and simple food - cooked simply. No experience or any advanced understanding of cooking is required; the book is aimed at taking the user through all the stages to create a vast array of quite simplistic culinary delights.

The book begins with a short introduction by Granger, allowing a brief glimpse into how surprisingly personal the book is to him. This alone adds a genuinely nice touch to the following recipes, and allows you to truly believe that he cooks these dishes all of the time; unlike with other cookbooks, whereby you know that half of the recipes are for dishes that the writer/chef would probably never cook up for themselves in everyday life.

Each recipe includes brief notes on the dish, which are often personal to Granger, as well as snippets of the dish's history ("carrot cake reached our shores in the Seventies"), or honest insights into the recipes and his attitude to cooking ("Satay Skewers are one of my favourite street foods, but I can't always be bothered to thread the chicken onto skewers at home").

An entire chapter is dedicated to soup, with a good number of delectable yet healthy recipes included. There are also one or two unusual recipes, such as `Laksa' which is a rich and fragrant noodle soup that is (or so we're told) becoming the `Spag Bol' of Australia. Don't be fooled into thinking that because the book is entitled `Basics' that you will have seen it all before. With Bill's `simplified' take on cooking, a lot of the classic recipes are seemingly transformed into the glorification and utter enjoyment of the ingredients and the honesty of combining and cooking them.

Not only does the cookbook offer up interesting and so-very-slightly unusual dishes such as the likes of the aforementioned `Laksa', along with `Salt & Pepper Squid', `Roasted Butternut Squash, Lentil & Spice Pasties' and `Saffron Risotto With Lobster'; you also have recipes for the justifiably classic dishes such as `The Perfect Steak', `Fish Pie', `Vegetable Soup' and `Tomato Pasta Sauce'.

Each recipe includes a full colour photo alongside it, which brings together a beautifully presented and brilliantly inspiring book. The recipes are simple to locate, put into their own chapters based on the principal ingredient and/or style of dish (as well as an easy to use index). Each of the chapters is exactly 24 pages in length.

The chapters include:
Breakfast
Baking
Soup
Salads
Rice, pasta & bread
Chicken
Meat
Seafood
Vegetables
Desserts

All in all, this is a beautifully presented cookbook, which is ideal for everyday use, for absolutely anyone. Running for a total of 256 pages, this high quality and durable publication covers a vast array of dishes, with simplicity and the sheer enjoyment of cooking always in mind. Very highly recommended (and I don't say that often!).

Whilst billed as "basics", namely classic meals from around the world for everyday cooking, Bill's Granger's book often goes beyond that. I was quite pleased for example to see that his recipe for Bolognese sauce includes the "authentic" ingredients and processes which most books leave out (soffrito of onion, carrot & celery, pancetta, pork as well as beef mince, milk and white wine).

His interpretations of the recipes can add that little bit extra beyond the standard. Though I have been doing Indian cooking for many years, I have always struggled to produce a palak paneer which I could call satisfactory to my mind. But trying ideas from Bill's recipe here I've gone a long way towards remedying that.

To be fair there are probably not too many recipes in this book which I would go out of my way to cook, but this is a decent enough book for those less experienced at cooking who want to expand their repertoire and produce relatively simple meals but with that little bit more.

I have caught a few of Bill Granger's cooking shows on a number of occasions but he's never been a chef that I made a point of sitting down and watching. Because of that I was intrigued but not overly excited by the thought of this cookbook.

How wrong I was.

The book itself aims to take 100 classic recipes, simplify the techniques, minimise the fussy ingredients and generally give a cookbook full of good, tasty cooking that's suitable for everyone. There are things such as pancakes, muffins, cookies, madeleines, soups, carbonara, risotto, chicken satay, steak, fish pie, lasagne, soufflés, baked cheesecake and so much more besides.

I don't think I've ever read a TV chef cookbook that is so down to earth. There's no pretentiousness about Bill or his cooking and I genuinely think his will be a book that I will actually pick up and cook something rather than leaving it sitting on the shelf. I feel other TV chefs are constantly trying to make themselves more interesting by resorting to gimmicks and tricks so it's really refreshing to find someone who seems to cook for pleasure and wants to share that joy.

The sections in this cookbook are: breakfast; baking; soup; salads; rice, pasta & bread; chicken; meat; seafood; vegetables and desserts. Most recipes have pictures of the finished food and there are other pictures dotted about that make this a really interesting book to pick up and read.

Each recipe follows the same pattern - a small introduction from Bill, a list of ingredients and then an explanation of how to make it. There's enough space around each recipe to make it easy to read and to write your own notes if you're that way inclined.

You're not going to like every recipe in this book but there are quite a number that I've tried, am going to try and am going to revisit. It's a book that you're sure to find something to take your fancy and will inspire you to cook some more. I have to say it's the best cookbook by a TV chef that I've ever read and I feel it will take quite a lot to beat. 5 stars.