How I Cook: An Inspiring Collection of Recipes, Revealing the Secrets of Skye's Home Cooking

Outstanding

This has been a very good year for inspirational, intelligent female cookery writing, and now that Quadrille has published "How I cook" by Skye Gyngell, I do not know how things could get any better. Look up her name on Google and there is very little you will find about Skye Gyngell. Despite being tall, blonde, and attractive, the celebrity, fame and marketing Twitter circus, thankfully, have not lured her in. She is far too busy making the Petersham Nurseries Cafe in Richmond the very best lunch venue in South London, as well as writing for "The Independent on Sunday" and a number of other prestigious cookery magazines. Her previous two works are "A Year in my Kitchen", published to great acclaim four years ago, and named "Cookery Book of the Year" by the Guild of Food Writers, and "My Favourite Ingredients" published in 2008. All her three books are founded on the same creeds: good, simple, seasonal, local ingredients, treated with respect, harmony and care.I could not recommend this book more, as a gift for a loved one or for your own pleasure. For sure, Jason Lowe's talents as photographer, has created the most beautifully photographed cookery book of the year. You will not find more elegant tablecloths, porcelain, glassware vases and flowers. Of course working as Head Chef at one of the country's most stylish plant havens can only be considered a bountiful blessing: fresh, jewel-coloured roses, sweet peas and dalias arranged casually around plates of dewy, kitchen garden picked fruit and vegetables. It is from this rich larder that Skye's recipes are developed and her talent has flourished. This book is all about the food she produces at home, for family and friends, and it is divided into different Menus for different occasions, from "Sunday Lunch", to "Alfresco Eating", "Late Night Supper" and "Time to Spare". Slow cooked belly of pork, with a gratin of white beans, sauteed leeks and a fig tart. Bagna cauda, gnudi with sage butter and roasted persimmon. Her references are mainly Mediterranean, but with accents from homely British and spicy Middle Eastern cookery, as well as a hefty pinch of artistic presentation. I defy anyone to buy this glorious little gem, A5 sized, 110 recipe book and not fall in love with her cooking, its joy, simplicity and beauty.In this frenetic and competitive world, the author encourages you all along to relax and enjoy, and her sincerity carries you through the pages:"When you are planning a menu, consider colour and texture, and choose one dish that dazzles. However competent you are, there is no need to prove it course after course. Do not insist to yourself that all must be perfect, for this is a sure way to spoil the spirit of the occasion. Entertaining isn't about proving you are the world's best cook..... Good entertaining comes from imbuing an occasion with your own personal style. Cook and eat with gusto ...and joy!".

This is the first of Skye Gyngell's books that I have come across (she has also published  My Favourite Ingredients  and  A Year in my Kitchen  ) and it is a very appealing work.The recipes are organised into themes, such as `Alfresco eating' and `Late Night Supper' that evidently reflect Gyngell's lifestyle but give the whole book a nice sense of personality. Each recipe comes with an informative background paragraph and most have an accompanying photo. It's nice to see recipes set out as menus as well, saving you the trouble of constructing a three-course meal for example.The recipes themselves are seasonal, well explained and require only a few unusual ingredients. Some of the results are quite unusual, however, such as roasted persimmons and caramelised blood oranges.On the downside the book has been produced using matte paper which, although making the text very readable, results in a lower quality feel. The photos have been printed with (presumably deliberate) flecking of some reflective material. I'm sure this is a considered move, but it results in the photos seeming a bit lifeless and washed out compared to the glossy prints in many modern recipe books. I am sure is what the publishers wanted to avoid but it's not to my taste. My Favourite Ingredients A Year in my Kitchen

The book quality is A+, spanking new, great for the price. Sure they lost money on it, but the book itself is a waste and nothing in it you would want to eat and a disorganized mess, picture are blurry and not great. So other than it feeling good in your hand, I would pass. I bough it after discovering her Instagram and thought the recipes in this might be like the ones in shown in her account, all of which look like things our foodie household would like to make. There was like 1 thing thought I might like to try. The rest are barely recipes at all. It horribly organizes and a mix mash rather than have salads, in a section, deserts in a section. The picture dull, truly a dud of a book. So unless you are just looking for a coffee table book, I would spend my money more prudently. None of that is the sellers fault. Rate them an A+. Best book dealer experience I have had on Amazon. It arrived safely packed, was sent immediately, beautiful condition and lovely and new as promised. I am a bit confused regarding how to review and hope this dose not effect their rating, if so I can change it. It is not their fault she wrote a yawn of a cookbook. they did nothing wrong and should be given an excellent review.

Completely great, just like her other books, but for slightly different reasons. Gyngell is a restaurant chef and sometimes her dishes are slightly too complicated for (my) normal everyday cooking. Consequently I don't end up cooking from her other books as much as I'd like. This book aims to plug that gap, with sections on the ordinary day : breakfast, sunday lunch, outdoor food, afternoon tea, simple weekday dinners, late night suppers and special occasions.Some readers get annoyed with recipe books that offer them yet another recipe for ratatouille / dauphinoise / scrambled egg / marmalade, saying "I already know how to make that, offer me something new". They think that means they have wasted their money. I am in the other camp, absolutely delighting when a great chef offers me their own take on a familiar recipe, so I can see how they interpret and make it their own.If you are in the former group, this book might be best avoided, as it does definitely err on the side of simple dishes (though there are some DELICIOUS original things like Creme Caramel with Ximenez sherry, for example, that you still might not be able to live without). On the other hand, if you are like me you will delight in this book. Enjoy being reminded to cook shortbread, or how to make the best ever potato salad, corn on the cob, or bread and butter pudding. Gyngell is a great and creative chef and her tips alone are worth having, let alone the actual recipes.If I have any criticisms at all its that I could have lived without the rather glib non-recipe bits which I suspect have been written to her publisher's orders to make it more supermarket friendly or something - "Cutlery and crockery need not be matching - sometimes they are more charming if they are not", etc.Panzanella, steak and mashed potato, tomato salad, baked vacherin, citrus tart, cucumber sandwiches, meringues, roast chicken, christmas pud and bouillabaisse - tons of usable recipes. A book which will be splashed with food within weeks: high recommendation.