Simon Wright (1)

This is a delectable cookbook showcasing chef, Simon Wright's menu from the past ten years since he took over The French Cafe restaurant, it also celebrates the 'final' renovation and expansion of the restaurant. The informative introduction covers Wright's early career in his native England; his first experiences as a dishwasher; working alongside Gordon Ramsay at Harvey's under chef, Marco Pierre White; leaving the UK to travel; and The French Cafe story. Wright's utter dedication to food shines through in this intro.
The photography is superb, the dishes photographed against a white background. Throughout the book are full page black and white photos of the busy kitchen during service. The restaurant is owned by Wright and his wife, Creghan who runs front of house. The restaurant's philosophy: each day we strive to be better.

Wright has used recipes from the restaurant and adapted many to the home kitchen but they will still be beyond the average home cook's ability. At the back of the book is an helpful glossary and an Essentials section which gives the recipes for restaurant basics such as stocks, vegetable purees, sauces and syrups. Everything at the restaurant is made from scratch including the icecreams and breads. They even make their own chocolates.
At random:
Appetisers: Bluff oysters with pink grapefruit dressing;avocado, mango and coriander salsa, poached crayfish and crisp bread
Soups: Mushroom cappuccino with truffle foam; pumpkin soup, maple foam and hazelnuts, with pumpkin seed biscotti; sweetcorn and basil soup with prawn skewer
First course: Seared scallops, tomato fennel ragout, fennel seed pastry and champagne sauce; twice-baked goat's cheese souffle, asparagus and smoked salmon sauce
Mains: Crab-crusted fish, ginger sauce and coriander lentils; organic chicken and crayfish pot-au-feu with truffle mayonnaise
Desserts: Caramel-roasted peaches, champagne sabayon, raspberries and vanilla icecream; coconut tapioca pudding, pineapple, mango and papaya salad in vanilla syrup.

I'm inspired to make a reservation.… (plus d'informations)

Writer and part time restauranteer Simon Wright presents short biographies of four of Britain's best chefs, Gordon Ramsey, Heston Blumenthal, Shaun Hill and Marcus Wareing.

If you fancy plunging into the deeply competetive, manic, driven world of Michelin starred restaurant cheffery, this isn't such a bad place to learn just what is required of the few souls who are single minded enough to create food worthy of the guide's star ratings.

From Ramsey's frankly frightening tales of working with Leeds born nutter/inspired genius Marco Pierre White, and the violent outbursts that frequently occurred when Marco thought a mistake had been made, to Marcus Wareing's stories of sleeping on the kitchen tables in order not to be late for work the next day this is a pretty good insight into the world of fine cuisine on the other side of the kitchen door.

This is the industry without limits, where 'normal' 40 hour working weeks are scoffed at by the hardened pros who regularly put in twice (and more than) that in the kithen each week, where the weak and slow are rapidly kicked into touch and where you will put up with dreadful amounts of verbal abuse because you know that the head chef is destined for great things and you want to learn from the very best.

Despite the hothouse atmosphere of many kitchens, loyalty to a head chef can be absolute, as the poor owners of Aubergine found when Gordon Ramsey departed after an argument and the entire kitchen brigade went with him, prefering to chance their luck on Ramsey's rising star rather than waiting for the owners to find a decent replacement.

The only thing missing from the biographies is a bit more detail on their lives outside cooking, I don't believe for a moment that any of them were quite as single minded as they are portrayed here, after all, they all found time to meet girls and get married at some point. My advice then would be read this, then read Anthony Bourdain's excellent Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain apparently has much more sex with waitresses than the great Brit chefs.… (plus d'informations)