The River Cottage Year [Hardcover]

For an ever-growing army of admirers, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall can do no wrong. The River Cottage Year seems sure to follow the commercial and critical success of his previous book, The River Cottage Cookbook, which was something of a publishing phenomenon, selling by the bucket-load and winning every major cookery book award.

The format of this new book is intriguingly different: this time we are given (in chronological order) the author's insights and observations on life and food as the seasons and months go past, interweaving cookery with the cycles of the natural year. These sections aren't all the book has to offer: the new volume is crammed with 100 original seasonal recipes, all beautifully detailed. Of course, we may look at the results of these mouthwatering delights in the new Channel 4 series that accompanies this book and lament how we're not quite in the same cookery league. But Fearnley-Whittingstall has a gift not possessed by some of his rivals: we are always made to feel that the delights offered here are within our grasp, provided we follow the helpful advice we are given.

The food is a mixture of the ambitious and the achievable, and looking through The River Cottage Year is a blissful experience, whether your intention is simply to dream about dishes or to actually get down to the nitty-gritty of making them. The illustrations are as tempting as anything in the text, and the book will unquestionably raise the author's profile still higher.

--Barry Forshaw

'A tonic for jaded cooks and an utter delight for lovers of real English food' (Daily Telegraph )

'Some lip-smackingly delicious recipes . . . guaranteed to bring out the country girl
or boy in you' (Heat )

'Ripe and magnificent . . . a good and beautiful book' (Guardian )

An enjoyable book, with some quite lusciously creative photography

A corker, full of excellent seasonal stuff and a powerful argument to just cook what's seasonally available

'A tonic for jaded cooks and an utter delight for lovers of real English food'

'Some lip-smackingly delicious recipes . . . guaranteed to bring out the country girl
or boy in you'

'Ripe and magnificent . . . a good and beautiful book'

In this new book, the follow-up to his bestselling River Cottage Cookbook, Hugh writes about the year on his Dorset smallholding. He recalls, month by month, the highs and lows of past years, and anticipates the 12 months ahead - what'll be in season when, and when'll be the best months to crack on with such tasks as chick rearing and sheep shearing, haymaking and hedge laying.



But, for all its outdoorsy information, the real focus of THE RIVER COTTAGE YEAR is indoors - at Hugh's kitchen table. With over 100 brand new recipes, this is above all a cookery book and for once a genuinely seasonal one, celebrating local seasonal produce at its very best - chestnuts in January, artichokes in March, rhubarb in April, asparagus in May, strawberries in June, blackcurrants in July, tomatoes in August, plums in September, apples in October, pumpkins in November and parsnips in December...



Full of his hard-earned smallholder's wisdom, seasoned with his infectious good humour, THE RIVER COTTAGE YEAR is Hugh's rallying cry for us to reclaim the seasons.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has become widely known as a broadcaster for his uncompromising commitment to real food and honest home cooking. His three series for Channel 4 - most recently River Cottage Forever - have earned Hugh a huge popular following. His most recent book, THE RIVER COTTAGE COOKBOOK, scooped the top food writing awards in 2002, winning the Glenfiddich Trophy, the André Simon Food Book of the Year and the Guild of Food Writers' Michael Smith Award. Hugh lives in Dorset with Marie and their son Oscar.