Real Family Food [Paperback]

His own ancedotial advice is excellent too and makes you realise that you can really try but even then kids won't see you as the best as he found when his own told him his burgers weren't as good as McDonalds!!! I have only just got this book and can't recommend it highly enough as you just want to dive in and try everything out - can highly recommend the pork loin and apple sauce recipe, although you might need to adjust the quantities a little if you are just a family of four!!!

Antony Worrall Thompson communicates this message - he has an excellent book on the GI diet, and here he looks at family meals as the core of a happy, healthy family. In 'Real Family Food' he makes the valid point that food is not just something to be quickly shovelled down throats, but a focus for family bonding and an opportunity to communicate with one another, play with one another, and respect one another.

He begins by setting out his house rules - meal times are respected as an opportunity to be together and talk about the day. This is not so much a manifesto as a discussion topic in its own right. If you're trying to wean your children off fast foods and fizzy drinks, this is something you can use as a starting point to forge an understanding of the quality and value of food, and to establish a pattern of talking together as a family, agreeing on values, and create an environment where you can talk about things, not just shout up and down the stairs or grunt at one another in front of the television.

Moralising? Perhaps. But it's not one which AWT tries to ram down your throat. He simply suggests that if you're worried about your children's diet - whatever their age - you need to consider both adventure and communication. Don't just insist they eat their vegetables, find a way to get them to understand and value vegetables, carbohydrates, proteins, or whatever, and find a regular venue where you can be together as a family to talk.

Significantly, the book opens with a confession that his two oldest children prefer fast food to his own cooking! Nevertheless, he argues that you should encourage your children to enjoy adventure, to play, to use their imagination, have fun, and try new experiences. It will enhance their self-confidence and self-respect.

AWT can pontificate a bit on his television programmes, but he delivers his message with a considered, cerebral passion and practical awareness. He clearly sees food as something to be understood as well as enjoyed. He combines nutritional awareness with an appreciation of the social role of food.

In this volume he offers a stimulating range of recipes - breakfasts, lunch, packed lunches, evening meals, snacks, and special occasions. There are vegetarian options and ones for carnivores. He doesn't present a rigid list - if it's Tuesday it must be Welsh rarebit with tomatoes and spinach. Rather, he offers options, a menu for exploration, a sense that cooking is not about following a blueprint - it's an adventure, an exploration of what works, what people like, what can be produced within budget and within time.

These are recipes you can allow your children to investigate, to choose, and to participate in the shopping, preparation, and cooking - maybe washing up is a drudge too far. Don't let your kids - or your partner - feel that it's boring or a chore. Food is an adventure, and should be celebrated as such.

Tastes are clearly a lot more sophisticated than they were in my childhood - AWT offers a range of traditional, ethnic, and esoteric dishes and ingredients. Push the boundaries. It can seem boringly middle class, at times, but adapt his recipes and his ideas to your local produce, markets, and pocket.

The book skimps a bit on photography - only a minority of the dishes are illustrated. That, of course, is in keeping with the message. This is not a glossy cookbook to grace your coffee table: it's a robust hardback you can leave open on the kitchen table. It's a book to work with and from. The recipes aren't earth-shattering - they are, in the main, practical, attainable dishes which offer a sound nutritional balance and a sense of adventure.

Use the book as a toy, as a vehicle for play and discussion and experimentation, as a launchpad to explore further. Share it. Share it with your family and friends. Exchange recipes and ideas. Don't relegate it to the bookshelf. Good cookbooks get smudged, creased, and stained - if they don't, you're not using them, and they're not worth the money. A good investment, this one, one well worth talking about at meal times ... where you can maybe use the celebrity of the author as a means of getting people interested.