25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read it and feast!, 13 Sep 2005
By A Customer
This review is from: A Fair Feast: 70 Celebrity Recipes for a Fairer World (Paperback)
I was going to give this book as a present, but it had me so engrossed I decided to keep it and get another one to give away. This delicious book performs the almost impossible sounding feat of making your mouth water at the food ideas, as well as making your blood boil about the unfairness of world trade. I tend to read cookbooks for sheer enjoyment or ideas, rather than slavishly propping them up against the kettle and following the instructions to the letter, and this book is great whichever type of person you are. Great recipes, but even more food for thought, as the recipes encourage you to use Fairtrade products - really, there is more to tea, coffee and bananas in this game it seems. The author Vicky Bhogal, as well as her own recipe for cashew, prawn, brazil nut and lemon rice (I might actually make that, it sounds great, and really easy), has persuaded a whole range of celebs to contribute their favourite recipes for this book, as well as thoughts on poverty and making trade fair. I have to say, I never knew there were Fairtrade mangoes, avocadoes or lemons before reading this, but I will look for them now. The puddings section is best: ranging from Margaret Atwood's grannie's recipe for cookies, to Elton John's pineapple souffle (oh, I can just see him in his pinny). And any cookbook that dedicates a whole section to chocoholics (including a sumptuous Chocolate Orange Cake recipe by Nigella) is OK by me.
The whole book is littered with really interesting facts and quotes from people who grow bananas, cocoa, as well as some great photos. For all those Bridget Jones fans, you even get Colin Firth getting his shirt wet again in aid of fairer coffee prices!
This is a really feel good book. Read it and feast!
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Feast Indeed!, 9 Dec 2009
This review is from: A Fair Feast: 70 Celebrity Recipes for a Fairer World (Paperback)
I bought this book after coming across Vicky's recent genius book Flavour and I totally agree with the other reviews that A Fair Feast is just totally brilliant!!! It's such a stylish book with lovely photographs and really diverse and hunger-inducing recipes which cover savoury dishes as well and not just the sort of cakes / biscuits fare you would expect from a book raising money for Fairtrade - although the chocolate section has had me hooked!!!
I thought the information on Fairtrade written by Vicky was very well presented and her introduction pieces were moving as she seems to genuinely care so much about this cause. I also read in an article that she wasn't even earning any money of her own at the time she wrote the book but still wanted to make sure that everyone worked on this for free as she cared about it so much, wanted to do it properly and that 100% of the profits went to Fairtrade so she turned down a massive fee she was offered and instead moved back home to her parent's house to work on it singlehandedly for a year out of her bedroom there. How many people would do that? When I read that I just thought she is truly inspirational!!! The people at Fairtrade have been so lucky to have her do this for them and she has done something amazing by single-handedly making this book and raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for the cause. This book may be littered with celebrities, but she is by far the true star - Well done Vicky!!!!
Every one of her books is filled with integrity, true style and the kind of delicious recipes you find yourself craving!!! This belongs on everyone's shelf so we can play our small part in the wider cause.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Delicious, 25 Jan 2009
This review is from: A Fair Feast: 70 Celebrity Recipes for a Fairer World (Paperback)
Just had to write a short review recommending this book - mainly on the strength of the mouthwatering recipes - but you also because you get the added bonus of the feel-good factor.
I've tried a number of the recipes & all have been delicious - I can particularly recommend the smoked chiken & mango salad which is seeing its 5th airing this week!
Anyway, it did seem rather unjust that this fabulous little book so far has only had 1 review so thought I'd add to it hoping to inspire more people to buy it.
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