Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course [Hardcover]

When buying cookery books, I think you have to look past who is writing them and actually judge the recipes for themselves. Obviously a celebrity name sells books, and I have bought a few of Gordon Ramsay's books before. Recipes from a 3 Star Chef Limited Edition for example was way beyond my level of skill with each dish requiring probably several hours of preparation, while Gordon Ramsay's Fast Food: More Than 100 Delicious, Super-Fast, and Easy Recipes featured much simpler recipes and was therefore far more useful to me. This latest book, to accompany the TV series currently being shown on Channel 4 in September 2012 (watch clips online via the Channel 4 website), features recipes that are relatively simple to make and offers bits of very good general advice. Regardless of whether this book was written by Gordon Ramsay or anyone else, I would rate it very highly. If you're highly skilled in the kitchen, you might regard this book as a little too simplistic perhaps (although everyone can always learn new things no matter how experienced you are), but for most people they will be able to pick up a few useful techniques and recipes. Like most Gordon Ramsay books, it guides you on basic equipment and utensils that you will need, as well as giving instructions on making simple, fundamental things.

One of the best features of this book for me is that it covers such a wide variety of dishes. A lot of cookbooks focus on one particular type of food, be it fish, meat, pastry or whatever else, but there is a wide enough variety of recipes here to keep most people happy I would think. There are well over 100 recipes in a pretty thick book. A slight downside is that not all of the recipes have accompanying photographs, which could be a problem if you're looking for visual vindication of what you're cooking, but the instructions are straightforward and easy to follow so it's not a big problem. The vast majority of recipes do have photographs. A lot of the recipes contain instructions on how to use herbs/spices/chillis in the best way to produce the most flavour, which is a key theme through the book. Therefore if you're looking for ways to cook food full of flavour using relatively simple techniques that may not be obvious, this is the biggest strength of this book and the main reason that I would highly recommend it.

Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery Course accompanies the televison series currently being shown on Channel Four each teatime, yes the program is a rip-off of the wonderful Jamie's 30-Minute Meals, but that doesn't really matter in my opinion.

At the time of writing this review the show has only been on for one week (five epsiodes) but it has already grabbed my attention and I fully intend to see it through to the end!

I've actually had the book about a fortnight now, so had already started using it before the show first televised.

It's a lovely big book, 320 pages to be exact, and it is full of beautifully photographed food and the odd shot of Gordon, good if that sort of thing rocks your gravy boat!

The book starts with an introduction to the basics of a kitchen and has some useful information on how to get the best out of Knifes, Pans, a Blowtorch, Digital Scales, Food Processors, Free-Standing or Stick Blenders, Ice Cream Makers, Mandolines, Microplane Zesters, a Pestle and Mortar, a Potato Ricer, Probe Thermometers, Sieves, Vegetable Peelers and Whisks; there is even a well written descripton of how best to cut an onion.

We then move on to the recipes, 123 to be exact, and they are split into themed chapters:

1. Classics with a twist - 13 recipes

2. Fish - 12 recipes

3. Meat - 12 recipes

4. Spices - 14 recipes

5. Good Food for Less - 15 recipes

6. Cooking in Advance - 12 recipes

7. Cooking for Crowds - 13 recipes

8. Baking - 13 recipes

9. Basic Skills - 9 recipes

The instructions are clear, concise and easy to follow; most have a beautifully photographed example of the final result you're aiming for, but unfortunately not all recipes have this and its a disappointment, albeit a relatively minor one.

We have already been pretty busy making some of the dishes, so far we've had the beautiful Stuffed Roast Chicken (with chirizo and cannellini beans), the amazing Slow-cooked fiery lamb (melt in the mouth, but REALLY hot), and my personal favourites, the Chilli beef lettuce wraps (these are one of the best things I have eaten for ages!).

This weekend we're trying the Fish Pie, and if all goes well my fiance will be baking the Lemon polenta cake at some point later on next week!

This book is primarily aimed at the day to day cook in my opinion, its style and content are realistic and achievable, and most of the recipes should cause no problems for anyone with average skills in the kitchen.

At the same time though I would say that this book would be a good start for a beginner, and also has enough inside to offer inspiration to the more experienced cook.

Overall a really good book, the best I've seen from Gordon Ramsey to date in fact, it has loads of really appealing recipes that will provide something new for your table but won't necessarily break the bank in the process!

This book is wonderful!!! I have made so many of the recipes so far....I cooked the stuff chicken last night (way too much stuffing for the size of the chicken, but I just put it in an oven dish and cooked it alongside the chicken for 30 minutes - delicious), the sweetcorn with chipotle butter, the chilli dogs, the fiery lamb, chilli beef lettuce wraps (blew my head off; but soooo tasty) and the slow roasted pork belly with fennel......just to mention a few!!! They have all turned out wonderfully tasty, they are all easy to make and so far no weird ingredients that you can't find or cost a fortune.

I have tried many other chef cookbooks from Jamie Oliver to Gary Rhodes, via Silvena Rowe. I don't really like my Jamie Oliver book (his American one) and whilst Gary Rhodes has some great recipes a LOT of them are way too difficult for the average cook, require kitchen tools you simply don't have, techniques you don't know and ingredients you can't find!!

There are only 2 other chefs that I LOVE as much as Gordon and they both have great books too!!!! Ken Hom's Complete Chinese Cookbook makes cooking chinese food so simple; until I bought it I had tried various other Chinese cookbooks and every dish I made was a failure...not now!!! And Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible - a truly wonderful collection of recipes!!!

Tonight we are having Bollito Misto and tomorrow night we are having Chicken and Autumn Veg pies!!!!

We are eating like Kings since I bought this book........yummy!!!!