Shinboners

Since getting his Big Fat Duck book, I've been reading his articles online. But reading a bunch of printouts doesn't have quite the same feel as reading the same words in the form of a book.

Do! Do! Do! Buy! Buy! Buy! You won't regret owning the original hardback version of the book. It has become the perfect way for me to end the day....sitting on the bed and just reading the Big Fat Duck. Just based on the humour, curiosity, and whimsy that Blumenthal has with his writing, I'm planning on splashing out on his other three cookbooks.

I don't know of any Pakistani cookbooks, but the following link shows the recipes from the Pakistan episode of "Food Safari". http://www.sbs.com.au/food/show/food-safar...sine/#Pakistani

There are a few other books by Mikanowski in a similar vein - Potato, Vegetables By 40 Great French Chefs, Tomato, and Uncooked. I'm a fan of Michel Roux's book, "Eggs".

Having read through the first section of the Fat Duck cookbook, and now starting on the recipes, the reviews on the Guardian are now looking to be even more out of kilter. It just seems to me that the reviewers got the book, couldn't comprehend the scope of it, and so decided to criticise it for its extravagance. I found Blumenthal's story of how he ended up where he is now to be very interesting since he didn't follow the traditional path of serving an apprenticeship. You get a good idea of his thinking and how he gets inspired. Onto the recipes, and whilst they are near on impossible for the home cook to replicate, just reading how he developed those dishes and the amount of work needed to assemble them is inspiring. Blumenthal himself writes that he doesn't expect homecooks to be able to copy his recipes, but that he hopes that it gives people inspiration and that they will use parts of his recipes for their own cooking. I'm sure that the science part of the book will not only be as interesting as the other parts, but that it will be written in a way that is accessible to everyone.

It's a shame that you didn't go to the US a couple of months ago when the Australian dollar was almost a parity with the US dollar. Still, at the current exchange rate, it's still cheaper to buy a lot of US/UK cookbooks from Amazon than locally.

It's easy enough to track down on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk Just do a search for "At The Crillon And At Home: Recipes by Jean-Francois Piege" by Jean-Francois Piege. The price is £21.00 on Amazon.co.uk

For the Donna Hay fans, she's got a new cookbook out: It's called "No Time To Cook", and the RRP is $AUD 40.00 If you love to eat delicious, simple food, but have no time to cook, Donna Hay's sumptuous new book is the answer to your prayers. Time poor and tired from a busy day – but don't want take away? No problem, look at the yummy options of Assembled Dinners. Nothing much in the pantry, no time to do a proper shop? Take heart from the simple combinations in Donna' Fast Flavours chapter which needs a few ingredients, a grill pan or a barbecue, and a few minutes to let intense flavours unfold Hate the thought of washing up pans and pots? The One Pot chapter lets you prepare gastronomic delights in one pan and One Dish serves up flavour combinations for dinner in a single dish. No good at planning for later? Turn to Donna's chapter on Freezing with flair, something she's re–discovering as working mum. There's all this plus cheat's notes, hints on styling which still let you make simple special, plenty of short cuts and of course the mouth–watering photography you expect from the world's leading cookbook writer.

I've changed my mind on "Pork And Sons". From going from a view that it's about pork and it looks good, so I'll enjoy the book, but I've since found that I rarely look at the book. As others have said, there are other better books about pork, and it is very hard to get absorbed with "Pork And Sons" (the lack of depth sees to that). He's got a new book out. It's called "Ripailles", and again, the book itself looks great. The layout is very interesting, there is a quirky personality to the book, but when you get to the recipes, there's nothing there that isn't done better in countless other French cookbooks.

I counted 148 cookbooks in my collection. And there's another five or six on order that I should receive in the next month or so.

Interlude, the restaurant that kicked off the discussion behind this topic, will be closing its doors at the end of this week. http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainmen...4351110149.html Pause for thought Fans of Interlude's relatively uncompromising approach to modern, molecularly inspired gastronomy will need to move fast. The Fitzroy restaurant, launched four years ago by chef Robin Wickens, shuts its doors on Saturday night, for good. Business has not been up to scratch; the financial downturn has hastened the decision. The closure also marks the end of plans to relocate the restaurant, largely owned by Hong Kong-based company Apples and Pears, and its dining concept to the CBD. A new restaurant under construction in Bank Place, Melbourne, will not be named Interlude and the degustation-focused, rarefied cuisine of Wickens will not be on the menu. In fact Wickens, who is still employed by Apples and Pears, was circumspect about the role he would play in the new business when speaking to Espresso, and would not confirm he was to be its head chef. Gavin Van Staden, of Apples and Pears, said Interlude "as a concept" has always been a struggle at its current location. "Interlude at best was always going to just break even. It costs a lot of money to produce food and service and at that level, a 40-seater just barely made the grade. "A decision was therefore made to concentrate our efforts into coming up with a concept that we can confidently put into Bank Place that both suits Robin's creativity and satisfies the market. We are much closer to that concept now."

I'm another one who got an e-mail from Amazon.com saying that the book would be delayed. That would be fine, except that today, I was visiting one of my favourite bookshops (Readings here in Melbourne, Australia), and they had a copy of "Under Pressure" for sale! I had a look through the book, and I think everyone will love it. I took a note of the chapter headings, and they are as follow: Foreward by Gousself (spelling? sorry, I can't read my own writing ) Intro by McGee Precision of Execution Why Sous Vide? The Chefs The Fundamentals -What sous vide can achive -3 basic principles -4 basic techniques -Safety -In our kitchen -In the home kitchen Vegetables and Fruits Poultry and Meat Variety Meats Cheese and Desserts Basics Index For those who are in Australia, Thomas Keller will be at the next Melbourne Food And Wine Festival ( www.melbournefoodandwine.com.au ). He'll be in good company too as the likes of Heston Blumenthal, Rene Redzepi, Iñaki Aizpitarte, Alain Alders, Philip Howard, Jean-Paul Jeunet, and Dieter Müller amongst many others are also making the trip down.

I got the very same three books on Friday. I bet plenty of other people did too. I've started reading my way through the Alinea and El Bulli books. I'm just in awe of what they do, and I'm quite enjoying reading their views on the creative process. The Fat Duck book will wait - it's a monster and I'm sort of scared to start reading it. btw, Ferran Adria is in Melbourne, Australia right now and he's just held a masterclass. In the El Bulli book, he mentions how the appearance of one of his dishes was inspired by the Australian outback. And I've read somewhere that Heston Blumenthal will be visiting Melbourne next year for the Food and Wine festival.

From an Australian perspective, I'd recommend books by the likes of Bill Granger, Donna Hay, and the Marie Claire collections for beginners. They're all well written recipes and you don't need any ingredients that you need to spend time tracking down. The dishes are quick to prepare and they work. Picking a cookbook really comes down to understanding your own abilities and knowing what level the cookbook writer is aiming for. You would not hand a copy of Gordon Ramsay's "Three Star Chef" to a non-cook and expect them to execute the recipe properly. And you have to understand people's time constraints and what they want out of cooking. As with the Jamie Oliver episode of kamikaze cooks, there's no point in doing his recipe if you want a quick meal (after all, you can easily whip up a bolognese sauce in half an hour and use dried pasta). But if you're someone who enjoys the process of making your own pasta and doing a really slowly cooked sauce to go with it, and you're happy to spend an afternoon doing it, then there is value in Oliver's recipe. Incidentally, my missus has just gotten into baking, and she finds the Nigella Lawson book, "How To Eat" to have been a fantastic starting point in learning baking skills.

I ordered my copy of the new Neil Perry book from Amazon.co.uk, and they were charging GBP15.00. I've now seen the book itself, and it looks to be a fabulous book. But it'd be interesting to know what the RRP would be for an edition without the presentation box. The cheapest local Australian price I've seen it is $85 at Target. btw, Books for Cooks has the Alinea book in stock, and at $65.00, it's a bargain at that price.

Neil Perry's new cookbook is out. IT's called "Balance and Harmony", it covers Asian cooking, and the RRP is $120. Readings has it on special at $100. I didn't get to look inside it as it's in a box and shrink wrapped.

Those articles from the Guardian miss the point on why people would buy the book. Firstly, you'd have professional chefs who do want to study and apply the techniques used at the Fat Duck. Then you have the food nerds like us who won't cook from it, but want to find out how they do what they do. Comparing the Fat Duck and Jamie Oliver cookbooks is a bit flippant as both books serve different purposes.

I use Bill Granger's recipe for pancakes. Off memory, it's..... 250g flour tablespoon baking powder 3 tablespoons castor sugar pinch of salt 750mil milk 2 eggs - beaten 80g melted butter Mix together flour, baking power, castor sugar, and salt. Add in milk, eggs, and butter, and mix well. Heat pan with butter, and ladle in 80ml of the batter, and cook as you usually would. This mix makes about 16 small pancakes. The recipe works well as it is, but we've found that if you make the batter the night before and leave it in the fridge overnnight, what you get is a much lighter and fluffier pancake. Even if you're not prepared to do it the night before, leaving the mixture to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour will also have a similar result (not as good as overnight, but it's still noticeable).

I didn't count the palate cleanser as a course. I know we had the right amount of courses, but for the life of me, I can't remember the one I've forgotten.

Thanks for that tip nickrey! I've placed an order, so we'll see what happens. Anyway, I saw the new Christine Manfield cookbook. It's called "Fire" and it covers her travels around the world. The book is about 600 pages long, it comes in a big red box, and flicking through it, it looks to be as good (stuff that, BETTER) than her many other books. The thing has a RRP of $100, but you can get it for $80 at Readings and $70 at Borders. I'll be getting a copy soon.

To the best of my memory, we had the following: Rock lobster dumpling in dashi broth, with a paper thin slice of dehydrated apple and a tiny salad of herbs. The flavours shone brightly and the lobster had a great texture. A salad with duck cooked rare, foie gras, raw tuna, some pickled vegetables and salad leaves. The foie gras was the highlight - not too strongly flavoured, but with such a smooth texture. There was a paper thin slice of cep on the bottom of the salad - very nice. Kingfish with a miso glaze, and a pea puree. The kingfish was ever so slightly rare in the middle, but again, a lovely texture and clean, clear flavours. Seared venison that was coated with...something. Not sure what it was. Nice and caramalised in the middle, but sweet and rare in the middle. For the course where you had a choice, I had milk fed veal with a milk foam and vegetables. The veal had a milky flavour, and the texture was so smooth - firm, but it broke apart on the fork. The missus had a rack of lamb, and this was superb. Nicely charred on the outside, rare in the middle, and it was probably the best lamb that we've tasted. Palate cleanser. A mint marshmallow, some coffee cream, and a couple of other things (a powder and a foam) - tasted great, but it didn't really cleanse my palate. Dessert. Chocolate icecream, banana ice cream, caramalised passionfruit puree, and a chocolate biscuit. Sounds simple, but all the flavours were vibrant. Petit fours were a choux pastry ball filled with creme, nougart, a pistachio meringue, raspberry Turkish delight, and a chocolate truffle. Hmmmm.....I get the feeling that I've missed out on one course as I don't think the palate cleanser really counts as a course.

I went to Jacques Reymond last night, and we had a superb time. The service was excellent, and the food was brilliantly well executed. Reymond's food doesn't have the same "surprise" factor that places like Three.One.Two, Vue de Monde, and Interlude have.....to my mind, these places like to fiddle around with the textures and expectations of food so the diner gets a "wow! I didn't expect that" response......but it's all about the purity of the flavour of the ingredients. We had the 7 course degustation, and everything came out at a nice and relaxed pace. The only thing that didn't make sense was the palate cleanser. It tasted fantastic, but it didn't really cleanse my palate. But anyway, we had an outstanding night and we'll hopefully be back sooner rather than later.

The Est Est Est cookbook sold for $185.

Three and a half years later, a copy of the Est Est Est comes up for sale on eBay. There's about 8 hours to go in the auction, but the highest bid is now $90! The way it's going, it'll go for over $150. I've seen second hand copies of the book on sale on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, and all are available for well over $300.

Another dinner at Libertine (to celebrate your's truly's birthday), and we went for the degustation option. I'll list the courses we had, but again, I'm sitting on the other side of the fence to Julian Teoh and lamington. The dinner was wonderful, the atmosphere was great, the service was very good, and all in all, we had a superb time. The menu was: French onion soup with gruyere souffle Grilled languoustines with truffle butter and waldorf salad Roasted quail with mushroom ragout and soft polenta Seared tuna with roasted chestnuts, sage spaetzle, and cep jus Grass fed eye fillet with horseradish cream and crispy sweetbreads Chocolate souffle We're planning to return there for a Christmas dinner. Libertine does a suckling pig banquet, and a few of us decided last night to get something organised. If anyone is interested in joining us, send me a PM.