- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Collins; illustrated edition edition (2 Jun 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007252617
- ISBN-13: 978-0007252619
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.5 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 279,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Garden News
"... Paul writes with good humour, brutal honesty and happens to be a Michelin-starred chef. Cue 85 seriously good recipes ... a compelling read."
Review
"… Paul writes with good humour, brutal honesty and happens to be a Michelin-starred chef. Cue 85 seriously good recipes …a compelling read." Garden News
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I bought this book as I am a keen cook who is on the waiting list for an allotment. I thought it would be interesting to see how this book bought those two aspects together. I knew little about Paul Merrett but have seen him on a couple of food magazine type programmes.
As a diary/account of how to (or is that not to?) start an allotment I found it generally amusing and interesting. However, not as good as Allotted Time: Two Blokes, One Shed, No Idea, a book which Merrett mentions. There isn't enough real detail to help you avoid the pitfalls that Merrett himself makes, but maybe thats the whole idea of having an allotment and learning from your own mistakes. The story, which covers just over a year, flows well and held my attention enough to get through it in only a couple of sittings.
The recipes, which take up just under 150 pages, cover the usual suspect veg you would find on an allotment and range in complexity from 'root vegetable mash' (can this really be classed as a 'recipe'?) to 'slow-roast shoulder of lamb' (whose allotment ingredients consist only of garlic & rosemary). The section on preserves and sauces seems decent and I feel this is the section I would use the most.
Overall this is a really well presented book, with lovely pictures throughout both sections of the book. The recipes seems well written and easy to follow. I did enjoy this book, and found myself laughing out loud at certain points however, there are better accounts of allotment life out there and there are more useful recipes too. Saying that this is a book which brings the two together quite nicely, and gives you more information about the allotment side of things than Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life
As a diary/account of how to (or is that not to?) start an allotment I found it generally amusing and interesting. However, not as good as Allotted Time: Two Blokes, One Shed, No Idea, a book which Merrett mentions. There isn't enough real detail to help you avoid the pitfalls that Merrett himself makes, but maybe thats the whole idea of having an allotment and learning from your own mistakes. The story, which covers just over a year, flows well and held my attention enough to get through it in only a couple of sittings.
The recipes, which take up just under 150 pages, cover the usual suspect veg you would find on an allotment and range in complexity from 'root vegetable mash' (can this really be classed as a 'recipe'?) to 'slow-roast shoulder of lamb' (whose allotment ingredients consist only of garlic & rosemary). The section on preserves and sauces seems decent and I feel this is the section I would use the most.
Overall this is a really well presented book, with lovely pictures throughout both sections of the book. The recipes seems well written and easy to follow. I did enjoy this book, and found myself laughing out loud at certain points however, there are better accounts of allotment life out there and there are more useful recipes too. Saying that this is a book which brings the two together quite nicely, and gives you more information about the allotment side of things than Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I bought this book in anticipation of acquiring my own allotment,which I now have and can certainly relate to alot of the trials and tribulations that go with owning an allotment, particularly Pauls bribary tactics to get his family to dig-in and help.
I found the book both amusing and entertaining,im sure its meant to be taken in a light hearted fashion,and the plus is you get a good laugh and some good recipes thrown in too!!!(oops,can I use the exclamations!!)
I made the crumble and the meringue cake and they where delicious.
I have read it twice now and still find it funny
I found the book both amusing and entertaining,im sure its meant to be taken in a light hearted fashion,and the plus is you get a good laugh and some good recipes thrown in too!!!(oops,can I use the exclamations!!)
I made the crumble and the meringue cake and they where delicious.
I have read it twice now and still find it funny
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I wanted to like this book. It's extremely beautiful, printed on lovely paper with lovely photos. Paul Merrett seems like a cheerful enough guy and he has quotes on the cover from Gary Rhodes and Novelli. And he is from Ealing, supports Brentford, so for me it's a local local food book!
But something stopped me. I just found the book to be a bit all over the place. Merrett constantly tells us he's only going to eat home-grown food, then ends up in Tescos; he talks about wanting to be green then admits to having a patio heater, he gets an allotment and only manages to grow one thing by the first spring, he wants to persuade his children to eat more veg but behaves like a typically anal chef, not letting anyone eat bananas (which don't have too bad a carbon footprint as I understand), only just about tolerating his kids' playing and pulling up a whole row of baby spinach Because It Wasn't Straight Enough....
I think the brief of the book should have been clearer - is he doing it to eat fresher tastier food, or to be more sustainable, or to get his kids to eat more veg, or to save the world? It's confusing that sometimes it seems to be about all of the above, though Merrett doesn't totally seem to understand how any of it might be achieved.And he keeps referring to his editors and what they want from him, which is a bit too meta for me, in a cookbook.
The second half of the book is entirely recipes, but not many of them seem expressly designed to use stuff from the allotment - for example, fish pie? Or roast lamb?
And there is a sea bass recipe. Sorry, but that's just so oooooo unenvironmentally friendly! Despite the little section at the beginning of "fish" where he talks about line-fishing etc. And Merrett doesn't even bother with the really crucial allotmenteer question: what to do with all that marrow? He just says real chefs don't cook marrow.
I wouldn't have minded at all if this book had just been a chef's allotment book - why not just take the saving the world out of it, and have a caring, unhypocritical book about trying to grow more local ingredients?
However, you will get good, good recipes for:
Lamb stew with allotment vegetables.
courgette pickle
tomato and chilli jam
red onion jam
mint sauce
roasted plums
and many others.
it is a beautiful book, and perhaps I should applaud Merrett's honesty about his sense of confusion! It certainly didn't make me like him less, as I found the whole book charming and I would definitely check out future publications by him. I just think: don't try and please everybody next time...
But something stopped me. I just found the book to be a bit all over the place. Merrett constantly tells us he's only going to eat home-grown food, then ends up in Tescos; he talks about wanting to be green then admits to having a patio heater, he gets an allotment and only manages to grow one thing by the first spring, he wants to persuade his children to eat more veg but behaves like a typically anal chef, not letting anyone eat bananas (which don't have too bad a carbon footprint as I understand), only just about tolerating his kids' playing and pulling up a whole row of baby spinach Because It Wasn't Straight Enough....
I think the brief of the book should have been clearer - is he doing it to eat fresher tastier food, or to be more sustainable, or to get his kids to eat more veg, or to save the world? It's confusing that sometimes it seems to be about all of the above, though Merrett doesn't totally seem to understand how any of it might be achieved.And he keeps referring to his editors and what they want from him, which is a bit too meta for me, in a cookbook.
The second half of the book is entirely recipes, but not many of them seem expressly designed to use stuff from the allotment - for example, fish pie? Or roast lamb?
And there is a sea bass recipe. Sorry, but that's just so oooooo unenvironmentally friendly! Despite the little section at the beginning of "fish" where he talks about line-fishing etc. And Merrett doesn't even bother with the really crucial allotmenteer question: what to do with all that marrow? He just says real chefs don't cook marrow.
I wouldn't have minded at all if this book had just been a chef's allotment book - why not just take the saving the world out of it, and have a caring, unhypocritical book about trying to grow more local ingredients?
However, you will get good, good recipes for:
Lamb stew with allotment vegetables.
courgette pickle
tomato and chilli jam
red onion jam
mint sauce
roasted plums
and many others.
it is a beautiful book, and perhaps I should applaud Merrett's honesty about his sense of confusion! It certainly didn't make me like him less, as I found the whole book charming and I would definitely check out future publications by him. I just think: don't try and please everybody next time...
Most Recent Customer Reviews
None of us are perfect!
After reading the other reviews on this book I thought it was still worth adding my thoughts. In common with one of the other readers I did find the number of (unnecessary)... Read more
Published on 7 April 2009 by Pompom
I wanted to like this but...
...it's a bit of a letdown. Too many exclamation marks (really? yes!), too many mentions of his Michelin stars, and a general feeling of something that has been produced to order... Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2009 by CB Haines
Inspiring and funny
We're at the same stage that Paul was in at the beginning of the book - an allotment that is wild and overgrown - so we bought the book to be inspired. Read more
Published on 31 Aug 2008 by shill157
Ripping Yarn
The book recreates the bemusement, hard work and ultimately triumphant feeling of those starting out on an allotment career. Read more
Published on 14 Aug 2008 by John Bradley
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