Heston Blumenthal

>Ok, first up, I have to say that the font used for Heston Blumenthal's ruminations on food and eating in Is This a Cookbook? is extremely annoying. I don't know what it is, maybe Informal Roman, but it's a version of Italic which as we all know is tiresome to read if there's a lot of it. So, if your eyesight is not great, you are not the designer's demographic...



Rightio, that's got that out of the way...

Heston Blumenthal is well-known to viewers of Masterchef where he is venerated like a show more god and subject to fangirl/boy ecstasy whenever he makes a grand entrance. Whether this is because these apparently everyday contestants have actually eaten in his astronomically-priced restaurant, or because they aspire to his molecular gastronomy (or just the fame), I do not know. However, I find him entertaining, because unlike Marco Pierre-White and his pompous posturing, though Heston is A Serious Chef in his restaurants, he does not take himself too seriously on the show. I enjoyed the challenge when I attempted one of his recipes from Historic Heston (2014, see my review), but I do not take him seriously as a guide in the domestic kitchen. I'm an experienced cook and I like to be adventurous with recipes, but I'm not a chef and I don't aspire to be.

Is This a Cookbook? brings Heston back down to earth. A bit. Opening his book at random I find his 'Gut-Friendly Beetroot Soup' involves nearly a whole page of ingredients and two pages of instructions for the pickled beetroot, the stock, the beetroot barley, the pan-roasted root vegetables, the kefir horseradish and the garnish. Plus there's nearly a page (in the annoying Italics) about digestion and the microbiome, and next to each page of the actual recipe, there's another page of tips and explanations (in the annoying Italics.) So, including the full colour page photo of the soup, this one recipe takes six pages. 'Exhilarating Geen Gazpacho' soup takes four. So does the 'Kimcheese Toastie' and the 'Bacon Buttie' preceded by five pages about sandwiches (yes, Italics for all of it) and photos of Heston eating 'A Mindful Sandwich'. You do the maths, not counting the index there are 340 pages, give or take 23 pages of the yada-yada at the beginning of the book, so there's not a lot of recipes...

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2022/11/19/is-this-a-cookbook-by-heston-blumenthal/ show less

A good combination of in-depth recipes and explanatory exposition (via a series of essays). Also fills in some of the useful biographical gaps on Mr Blumenthal's life (such as exactly how self-taught is he).

This is a great companion to the TV series. I do like reading about his creations. Although, it is not a replacement to the TV series. Nothing beats seeing the series. Viewing the creative process and the creations. The awful things that he finds in old cookbooks for the general public and the wondrous things he creates for his guests. The full range of responses from both the general public and his lucky guests are priceless to watch and unfortunately not an aspect of the companion book. If show more he had included some of his guests reactions I would have given this book a 5 rating. show less

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