How I Cook [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Completely great, just like her other books, but for slightly different reasons. Gyngell is a restaurant chef and sometimes her dishes are slightly too complicated for (my) normal everyday cooking. Consequently I don't end up cooking from her other books as much as I'd like. This book aims to plug that gap, with sections on the ordinary day : breakfast, sunday lunch, outdoor food, afternoon tea, simple weekday dinners, late night suppers and special occasions.

Some readers get annoyed with recipe books that offer them yet another recipe for ratatouille / dauphinoise / scrambled egg / marmalade, saying "I already know how to make that, offer me something new". They think that means they have wasted their money. I am in the other camp, absolutely delighting when a great chef offers me their own take on a familiar recipe, so I can see how they interpret and make it their own.

If you are in the former group, this book might be best avoided, as it does definitely err on the side of simple dishes (though there are some DELICIOUS original things like Creme Caramel with Ximenez sherry, for example, that you still might not be able to live without). On the other hand, if you are like me you will delight in this book. Enjoy being reminded to cook shortbread, or how to make the best ever potato salad, corn on the cob, or bread and butter pudding. Gyngell is a great and creative chef and her tips alone are worth having, let alone the actual recipes.

If I have any criticisms at all its that I could have lived without the rather glib non-recipe bits which I suspect have been written to her publisher's orders to make it more supermarket friendly or something - "Cutlery and crockery need not be matching - sometimes they are more charming if they are not", etc.

Panzanella, steak and mashed potato, tomato salad, baked vacherin, citrus tart, cucumber sandwiches, meringues, roast chicken, christmas pud and bouillabaisse - tons of usable recipes. A book which will be splashed with food within weeks: high recommendation.

Skye Gyngell is the head chef at Petersham Nurseries restaurant. I confess, that until Amazon Vine offered me this book to review, I had never heard of her. Having tested some of her recipes in my amateur way however, I would be more than happy to try her food for real. There are some delicious ideas in the pages of this book.

The book is well presented with beautiful photography, clear text and most impressively, three book marks, so that if you are cooking several things at once you can keep tabs on them all as you go without having to turn the pages down. The recipes are broadly organised into meal categories, and a special occasions section at the end. Within each category Gyngell offers you meal ideas, with say, roast chicken with anchovy sauce alongside the vegetables and dessert she would serve with it. This gives the reader nice ideas, although it does make the book difficult to navigate if you are looking for a particular recipe. I tested the book extensively, and used the index at the back constantly.

The recipe instructions were for the most part fine, although there were a couple of moments mid recipe when I had to reread an instruction. In one cake recipe she uses the word cream as a verb, and it is not entirely clear. I had a moment's panic when I thought I had left a key ingredient out of the mixture, which was not terribly helpful.

The book is an odd mix of recipes. It claims to show how Gyngell cooks at home, which may explain why there are recipes for tomato salad (which I was amazed even needed a recipe) next to bouillabaise, and simple roasted fillet of beef next to how to prepare a lobster. It is not an ideal book for the amateur chef, nor for anyone curious to recreate Gyngell's restaurant fare. Having said that there are some lovely things in this book, and things I have not come across in other books. I am most keen to try the Italian Easter cake made with risotto rice and candied oranges for example.

Some of the ingredients will be out of the question for the average chef, like the drink which requires you to pick seventy or eighty peach leaves, and for which she rightly acknowledges you will need a peach tree. There are several ice cream recipes too, all of which look delicious, but which require you to have an ice cream maker. It is possible to make ice cream without one, I know, but the recipes do not address that, simply telling you to put the mixture in the ice cream maker.

I made the pound cake, the chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, the green beans with roasted tomatoes and olives, potatoes dauphinoise, caramelised carrots cooked in honey and butter, sauteed leeks, rice pudding and the pulled bread. The results were tasty, although with my temperamental oven, the cooking times were much different from advertised.

An interesting book.

I'll start by admitting I have never come across Skye Gyngell before, but now that i have read and tested out some of her recipes and ideas in 'How I Cook', I will most definetly be looking out for more of her work.

'How I Cook' is a beautifully illustrated (though not every recipe is pictured), intelligently written, and highly inspirational cook book, which goes beyond the ubiquitous formula of listing starters, mains and puds. Instead, Skye offers her own personal ideas for menus, for every occasion. Not didactic in any way - if any of the menu she describes might not suit your tastes, there are suggestions for alternatives.

Recipes range from the simple Parsnip Puree to the more complex Belly Pork. Clever hints and tips abound within recipes for delights such as Shortbread (I love the illustration showing how to cut up the mixture), and Cucumber sandwiches (de-skinning, de-seeding and salting the cucumber).

There is something in here for all occasions, all tastes and all abilities. Despite lacking a few photographs for some dishes, I had to give this delightful and delicious book 5*. Highly recommended.