Review
‘If you are anything like me…almost always hungry, almost always pressed for time, almost always in the market for a fresh idea and absolutely always put off by the daunting complexity of chefs’ recipes – Donna Hay is for you.’ R.W. Apple Jr, food critic, New York Times
‘Donna Hay is my inspiration.’ Jamie Oliver
‘Hay’s are those affordable, big, sexy paperbacks, oozing irresistible things…the photography is equally seductive.’ Independent
From the Author
Like a lot of people I know of my generation, I treasure the commonsense kind of basic cookery books that were given to us by our mothers and grandmothers, and I'll often use them for an inspirational starting point when I'm thinking of old things to cook in a new way. I also love to see a new dish with incredible staying power making its mark as a next-generation classic. And that's what the Modern Classics are a combination of – an update of the timeless classics and an establishment of some new ones.
What macaroni cheese was to me, risotto will be to the children of today when they become the adults doing the cooking in the future. But who wants to see as formative and influential meal as macaroni cheese fall off the everyday meal agenda? Certainly not me. That’s why recipes for a new-look macaroni cheese and a step-by-step guide to making risotto both feature in Modern Classic Book 1, along with delicious juxtapositions such as spaghetti and meatballs and pad thai, coleslaw and tabouli, pea and ham soup and laksa. They’re all there, as well as the basics you’ll need no matter whether you’re cooking in retro or future classics mode – how to make stock, cook rice, make pastry or a mash.
In updating the classics, I’ve taken into account the different ways we cook and eat food in modern life, and the new kinds of ingredients that are now readily available. My aim was to present commonsense cookery in a modern way, so that mothers, fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers would have something practical and inspiring to give the next generation of young adults as they leave home, and enjoy a cooking revival in the own kitchens. There’s a sweet version – Modern Classic Book 2 – on the way, too.
Here’s to a whole new generation of passionate cooks, and to a newly inspired current one!
Donna.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
