- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Macmillan; New edition edition (23 April 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0333725948
- ISBN-13: 978-0333725948
- Product Dimensions: 23.9 x 18.5 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 159,917 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Here they all are, fresh as paint, as if they'd never been away. Why did we let them go? Neglected, derided, dismissed as hopelessly naff, in what dismal Midlands eateries have they been waiting out the years of shame? No matter, they're back. Prawn Cocktail, Steak and Chips and Black Forest Gateau are the signature dishes of The Prawn Cocktail Years, a bravura collection of favourite restaurant dishes from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies--years when Britain was learning to eat out. How evocative the recipe titles are (the authors describe a Proustian moment when the memories came pouring out): Coquilles St-Jacques, Sole Veronique, Beef Stroganoff, Mixed Grill, Swedish Meatballs, Wiener Schnitzel, Chicken Maryland, Crepes Suzette, Peach Melba and Profiteroles. Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham remind us firmly that although these may not chime with present food fashions (or prejudices), they were loved in their time and should be again, because when well made they are very good dishes indeed. They need no apology or special pleading.
The time machine of The Prawn Cocktail Years visits a number of favourite establishments over the years: the Fifties Hotel Dining Room, the Gentleman's Club, the Continental Restaurant. It looks into the coffee-bar madness that was Expresso Bongo (unexpectedly, perhaps, offering Cornish Pasty and Sausage Rolls for refreshment here), the Sixties Bistro, the Tratt-Era and Chez Gourmet; and returns us to the present burning to throw out our sun-dried tomatoes and lemon-grass and get down to making a good Fish Pie and Brown Bread Ice-Cream. Readers of a certain age, as they say, will be thrilled to see these old friends again; younger readers may care to discover what we ate before cooking became the new rock 'n' roll. --Robin Davidson
Product Description
The fashion in food is constantly changing; one minute it's nouvelle cuisine, the next it's Cal-Ital. dishes like chicken Kiev and coq au vin have been slung out, but made with fresh ingredients theses dishes could grace the most discerning table. This cookbook revives the recipes we once loved and found exciting, whether it be staples of the great post-war hotels and gentlemen's clubs like sole Veronique or potted shrimps or the bistro dishes that helped the 60s swing like coq au vin and steak au poivre. Even Black Forest gateau is here: a moist cake made with bitter chocolate, topped with Kirsch-drenched morello cherries and creme fraiche.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
183 of 189 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is the only cookery book I have worn out through repeated use (the first edition). I looked for a replacement a while ago and a second hand one was going for £50 - that's how unwilling people who own this book are to part with it!
Every recipe merits it's own 10 page rave - from the unashamedly posh Savoy Hotel's Omlette Arnold Bennet, the Tournedos Rossini with it's foie gras and black truffle fit for royalty, the Victorian breakfast kedgeree right out of the last days days of the Raj, Jam Roly Poly 'Dead man's leg' pudding beloved of public schoolboys (and lords) everywhere, real cornwall cornish paasty, and the rather eccentric sounding brown bread ice cream.
The real icing on the cake (pardon the pun) though is the writers' style - this is a book to read even when you are nowhere near the kitchen, even when you're eating a big mac. Each recipe has as its introduction a brief but fascinating history of where it originated, how it became 'British', and how it won its place in the canon of culinary history.
The recipes are listed by the establishments that made them famous - The fifties hotel dining room, the Gentleman's club, the Italianate 'Espresso Bongo' coffee bars the cropped up in Soho in the 60's and many others - giving you the choice to dine like a lord, a cornish miner, or a mod or rocker.
This is the cookbook of Britain - if you're not a native Brit it's time to treat your tastebuds in a way you never thought possible coming from these isles. If you are a Brit - it's time for a journey through your culinary birthright.
Every recipe merits it's own 10 page rave - from the unashamedly posh Savoy Hotel's Omlette Arnold Bennet, the Tournedos Rossini with it's foie gras and black truffle fit for royalty, the Victorian breakfast kedgeree right out of the last days days of the Raj, Jam Roly Poly 'Dead man's leg' pudding beloved of public schoolboys (and lords) everywhere, real cornwall cornish paasty, and the rather eccentric sounding brown bread ice cream.
The real icing on the cake (pardon the pun) though is the writers' style - this is a book to read even when you are nowhere near the kitchen, even when you're eating a big mac. Each recipe has as its introduction a brief but fascinating history of where it originated, how it became 'British', and how it won its place in the canon of culinary history.
The recipes are listed by the establishments that made them famous - The fifties hotel dining room, the Gentleman's club, the Italianate 'Espresso Bongo' coffee bars the cropped up in Soho in the 60's and many others - giving you the choice to dine like a lord, a cornish miner, or a mod or rocker.
This is the cookbook of Britain - if you're not a native Brit it's time to treat your tastebuds in a way you never thought possible coming from these isles. If you are a Brit - it's time for a journey through your culinary birthright.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I cannot really improve on what other reviewers have said. I ordered this for myself last year and enjoyed the idea of it so much that I immediately ordered one for my parents. We had huge fun, the three of us, cooking out of it over Christmas 2008. For my money it would have been worth the asking price for five or six of my favourite recipes. How could duck a l'orange ever have fallen out of favour?
Some of the recipes have long lists of ingredients in order to ensure authenticity and precise flavours, which might be an issue for some people (I am single so I would only cook many of the recipes out of this book for friends or family gatherings).
Most of the recipes, although by no means all of them, are accompanied by photographs, which I find invaluable for getting an idea of how something that I am preparing is supposed to look when it is cooked.
Some of the recipes have long lists of ingredients in order to ensure authenticity and precise flavours, which might be an issue for some people (I am single so I would only cook many of the recipes out of this book for friends or family gatherings).
Most of the recipes, although by no means all of them, are accompanied by photographs, which I find invaluable for getting an idea of how something that I am preparing is supposed to look when it is cooked.
28 of 31 people found the following review helpful
The signature dishes of the 50s, 60s and 70s - Prawn Cocktail, Steak and Chips & Black Forest Gateau ....
28 Feb 2007
Format:Hardcover
.....back on the menu, in deserved style!
Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham have written several individual books between them, but this one has that.....well.....je ne sais quoi!
It just beckons one to open the seductive looking black cover and reveal the collection of favourite restaurant dishes from the 50s, 60s and 70s, revisited with nostalgia and a fair bit of pride.
For me the book arrived at a time when I was desperately seeking, dare I say a new 'shop-bought', 'Marie Rose Sauce', as my favourite had been given an up-to-date 'tweak' with red peppercorns! Yuck!
As I sampled the vast array available, most were too lemony, too mayonnaisey or simply too bland.......so the answer....well.... good old DIY!
And with the help of the 'Prawn Cocktail Years', it is actually incredibly easy to achieve just the right balance for your own sauce.
The mouth-watering 'Prawn Cocktail' photograph on page 15, and in the images above, is enticement enough to encourage the purchase of this marvellous book, which opens up to a wealth of forgotten or 'not culinary correct' recipes.
272 shiny high quality pages, split over 8 chapters:
The Great British Meal Out
The 50s Hotel Dining Room
The Gentleman's Club
The Continental Restaurant
Expresso Bongo
The 60s Bistro
The Tart-era
Chez Gourmet
with introductions for the September 2006 edition as well as the original in February 1997, plus a recipe index and a general index.
Each chapter opens with text, often humorous, as does the narrative within the recipes, e.g.:
'Black Forest Gateau'
Along with rather sad oranges in caramel, wilting profiteroles, gaudy sherry trifle and too-much-apple-in-it fruit salad, 'B.F.G.' remains the bully of the sweet trolley.
It's always there isn't it, in the most prominent position, shoved in your face almost.
And will Madam be having cream with that?
Yes, of course she will, we all do, poured from that silver-plated jug and drowning the already creamy black wedge into submission............'
Recipes are well laid out with a clear list of ingredients and method, and include:
Steak Garni and Chips
Scampi with Tartare Sauce
Chicken Maryland
Tournedos Rossini
Peach Melba
Toad-in-the-hole
Spotted Dick and Custard
Jam Roly-Poly
Chicken Kiev
Rhum Baba
Cornish Pasty
Treacle Tart
Steak au Poivre
Lobster Bisque
Quiche Lorraine
Beef Stroganoff
Duck a l'Orange
Sirloin steak with Red Wine Sauce
Syllabub
Sumptuous full colour photography throughout, sometimes double page spreads - not of every recipe but one can forgive that for a book of this calibre .....and the book stays open at the required place, which isn't achieved by all publications!
Quite simply, this book has become my new 'Number One', with five star+ status - and it takes an awful lot to do that!
Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham have written several individual books between them, but this one has that.....well.....je ne sais quoi!
It just beckons one to open the seductive looking black cover and reveal the collection of favourite restaurant dishes from the 50s, 60s and 70s, revisited with nostalgia and a fair bit of pride.
For me the book arrived at a time when I was desperately seeking, dare I say a new 'shop-bought', 'Marie Rose Sauce', as my favourite had been given an up-to-date 'tweak' with red peppercorns! Yuck!
As I sampled the vast array available, most were too lemony, too mayonnaisey or simply too bland.......so the answer....well.... good old DIY!
And with the help of the 'Prawn Cocktail Years', it is actually incredibly easy to achieve just the right balance for your own sauce.
The mouth-watering 'Prawn Cocktail' photograph on page 15, and in the images above, is enticement enough to encourage the purchase of this marvellous book, which opens up to a wealth of forgotten or 'not culinary correct' recipes.
272 shiny high quality pages, split over 8 chapters:
The Great British Meal Out
The 50s Hotel Dining Room
The Gentleman's Club
The Continental Restaurant
Expresso Bongo
The 60s Bistro
The Tart-era
Chez Gourmet
with introductions for the September 2006 edition as well as the original in February 1997, plus a recipe index and a general index.
Each chapter opens with text, often humorous, as does the narrative within the recipes, e.g.:
'Black Forest Gateau'
Along with rather sad oranges in caramel, wilting profiteroles, gaudy sherry trifle and too-much-apple-in-it fruit salad, 'B.F.G.' remains the bully of the sweet trolley.
It's always there isn't it, in the most prominent position, shoved in your face almost.
And will Madam be having cream with that?
Yes, of course she will, we all do, poured from that silver-plated jug and drowning the already creamy black wedge into submission............'
Recipes are well laid out with a clear list of ingredients and method, and include:
Steak Garni and Chips
Scampi with Tartare Sauce
Chicken Maryland
Tournedos Rossini
Peach Melba
Toad-in-the-hole
Spotted Dick and Custard
Jam Roly-Poly
Chicken Kiev
Rhum Baba
Cornish Pasty
Treacle Tart
Steak au Poivre
Lobster Bisque
Quiche Lorraine
Beef Stroganoff
Duck a l'Orange
Sirloin steak with Red Wine Sauce
Syllabub
Sumptuous full colour photography throughout, sometimes double page spreads - not of every recipe but one can forgive that for a book of this calibre .....and the book stays open at the required place, which isn't achieved by all publications!
Quite simply, this book has become my new 'Number One', with five star+ status - and it takes an awful lot to do that!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
If you are a child of the 60s this book has our food memories in one...
I have read many reviews and this one has a good selection, Thank You Alice and Toodle Pip who say pretty much all, as do the other 5 star reviewers. Read more
Published 7 months ago by lis247
Chips
It's a pity such a well touted book has errors.
As an example on page 11 the recipe for "chips" instructs one to half fill a chip pan and heat the oil to 375F/190C cook chips... Read more
As an example on page 11 the recipe for "chips" instructs one to half fill a chip pan and heat the oil to 375F/190C cook chips... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Taprobane
Excellent recipes
I don't know how I managed without this. An excellent cook I met at work recommended it to me as being one of his favourites. I ordered few copies for mum and sister. Read more
Published on 20 Sep 2009 by love reading
Nostalgia
How fashionable it is now to laugh at England' first, timid attempts at opening its doors to world cuisine. Read more
Published on 12 July 2009 by U. A. Higham
the prawn cocktail years
Nostalgic trip through the culinary delights of the early sixties and beyond, reminding us of times before the explosion of tastes and recipes now available to all.
Published on 23 Mar 2009 by Mr. Richard Walker
The Master...
Simon at his best, going back to basics and showing us all that 80's dishes were popular for a reason. A Must have for any amateur cook!!
Published on 1 Feb 2009 by Mr. G. De Wet
Not just nostalgia
This book is such fun. Forget modern frills, this is a modern take on 50's, 60's and 70's dishes, all are doable by the home cook and all bring sighs of satisfaction from guests... Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2009 by M. H. Russell
The Greatest Cookery Book Ever?
Quite possibly in my view. I have an elderly dog-eared copy of this. It's covered in food stains because the recipes are so good, and it's so well written that you can read it for... Read more
Published on 15 Nov 2006 by S. Harrison
A wonderful read, which provides great recipes
A lovely book full of stories and nostalgia. The recipes cover a lost era of British food which are well worth recalling. Excellent writing. Thoroughly recommended.
Published on 9 Oct 2001 by kilnpotts@bigfoot.com
Classic recipes given a delicious new spin
A wonderful reinterpretation of classic dishes which have fallen out of favour, this book gives you the ultimate - and delicious - recipe not just for prawn cocktail, but for coq... Read more
Published on 5 Nov 1998
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