The Fat Duck CookBook

[Shinboners]

Most of the Family Food book is available verbatim on the Guardian, Times & BBC sites under HB's name.

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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.

[Shinboners]

Did! Did! Did!

Bought! Bought! Bought! 

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Like I said, you won't regret it.

Personally, I've never regretted buying the hardback version of a cookbook after seeing the paperback that often gets released a year or two down the track.

[ajnicholls]

The Fat Duck cookbook is one of the most beautiful books I've ever own. My own obsession with cooking, fine dining and restaurants began with reading Heston's articles in the Guardian.

The book can't be compared to anything Heston's done before. It dwarfs almost anything else comparable, and although it doesn't have the number of dishes of el Bulli or Alinea, the presentation is sublime. The detail in how to execute the dishes is, should you feel the inclination, enough to make them attemptable. If you have a chemist and 42 friends to act as sous chefs.

I love the book and Amazon's price at £60, whilst dear, is exceptional value when you actually see the book. It's beautiful!

Adam

[adey73]

"My own obsession with cooking, fine dining and restaurants began with reading Heston's articles in the Guardian."

yeah, exactly, me too.

[Renn]

If I had to consider the new fall offerings all together, I might say that the Big Fat Duck Cookbook takes the most holistic and in-depth approach.

Alinea goes to great depths to talk about the restaurant, the motivation behind the cuisine and explains how they execute that cuisine. Under Pressure, takes a very specific slice of what they're doing at TK's places and it showcases myriad elaborations, meanwhile sprinkling hints of many other techniques in use without additional explanation. One Day at El Bulli places the greatest effort into describing the creative process, and the physical components of that focused process.

But with just my quick browse of Heston's Book....the depth of it is just blowing me away. I've never seen a book with such in-depth commentary on the thinking behind a dish, nor have I seen such a wealth of discussion on so many topics pertinent to the dining experience. He certainly dedicates the most space to understanding how a diner perceives a dish...and he even manages to temper in-depth technical discussion with very artfully created pages throughout the whole book.

I don't mean to be dismissive or even the least bit judgmental about the other new books to come out this season as we're all fortunate that these chefs even share their thoughts...but at this point in time, I think this book will be the one that keeps me up at night.

Edited November 15, 2008 by Renn (log)

[phan1]

Most of the Family Food book is available verbatim on the Guardian, Times & BBC sites under HB's name.

Has his Christmas Special program that was on in the UK last Christmas made it to air elsewhere yet, as that is definitely worth a watch?

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YES! It was an AWSOME episode. The best culinary thing I've ever seen on TV! I don't know how to get your hands on it, but try try try!

[nchang]

the fat duck book has to be one of the most beautiful books ive ever bought. the illustrations, paintings and photos are absolutely amazing.

having just been to the fat duck, its incredible how true to the fat duck experience the book is. i really feel that it goes to the heart of Heston Blumenthals thinking.

i highly recommend it as a cookbook/art book/biography of a business/ ...etc.

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I'm glad to hear that the Big Fat Duck cookbook is a great buy. I was thinking twice about it, when I went into our local Barnes and Noble, it was rather steep ($250). Just located it on Amazon and about to order a copy now!

[nickrey]

I received the book for Christmas and can't put it down.

One thing that stands out is that Heston is a very good writer: his love of books shines through as much as his passion (obsession) with food.

[adey73]

The magic bearded fella with the free stuff delivered it to me too.

Wow, it is immense.

Am glad I waited.

[Tri2Cook]

As welcome as crack-rock on Christmas morn!

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The magic bearded fella with the free stuff delivered it to me too.

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So you have 2 copies now? Nice! It was hinted that I'd be finding it christmas a.m. as well... I didn't. Dammit.

[adey73]

Alas a present to me from me, badly wrapped; my ancestors must have missed the opposing thumbs boat a few millenia ago.

Tri- you must get a copy, you must, don't wait for the paperback copy out next year.

There's that chocolate delice recipe in there that you made a while back, that you sent to me.

And a lot tantalising in sight & technique.

[CalumC]

Bastarding thing seems to be sold out everywhere! Harumph.

[CalumC]

God bless the student loan, I found a copy today, decided to go for it. Looks an absolute monster.

[spanielking]

Already looking hard to get hold of, I am heading down to London in March, might look to pick a copy up. Anyone know of any good bookstores in central london that might have it in?? Are they planning to reprint at all?? Should have been quicker off the mark, doh!! (It is £100 though!!!!!!!!) Thanks

[OliverB]

I just got my copy last week, it's a stunning book! A monster for sure, check the size and measure your bookshelf before you order, it won't fit on a regular shelf! I've not had time to really dive into it, but what I read so far is very well written, the photos are fantastic and the artwork is great - though probably not everybody's cup of tea. Dave McKean has been one of my favorite artists for many many years and he's one of the main reasons I got this book. I'm not sure I'd have spent this much had it not been for the added benefit of a true art book.

A truly wonderful high quality book, a rarity today. I got mine from Amazon saving almost $100, not bad!

Well on it's way to become one of my favorite cook books!

Oliver

[mr_lucas]

I just ordered the big fat duck book today should be here Monday, i can hardly wait!!

[adey73]

hb has said that there will be a paperback out this year.

[OliverB]

hb has said that there will be a paperback out this year.

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but it won't be as pretty, no slip case, no silver gilded pages, most likely no colorful bookmark strings

Of course, still very worth getting and I think it's great that they consider putting a less expensive version of the book out so that more people can own it.

[A.Iley]

hb has said that there will be a paperback out this year.

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I'ts available for pre-order at amazon.co.uk for GBP 24,50.

When I was looking at it I found it said hardback. But the book out now is called the big fat duck cookbook, the one to be released in october is called the fat duck cookbook.

So I went over to the publisher site.

It gives the exact same descriptions for both books, same amount of pages, both hardback. But the new one has shrunk a little 272x232mm vs. 340x290mm and I guess it won't have the slipcover.

[Tri2Cook]

Edit: Never mind, I found the information. Not out until October. Not sure I want to wait that long even to save $100.

The fact that I didn't get this one as a christmas gift like I thought I was and then soon after saw the info about another less hefty (in size and price) edition to come has me still waiting. I'm still seeing The Fat Duck Cookbook (smaller size and minus the word "Big" in the title) being advertised for preorder in several places. I've put off ordering the coffee table version in the hopes that the smaller version will have the same content in regards to food and science. I don't care if some of the photography and the fancy slipcover is missing, I want this one to work from not look at. Has anybody found any encouraging information about it's release? I'm wondering if they're holding out a bit to allow the shops some time to move the big ones first.

Edited June 3, 2009 by Tri2Cook (log)

[sheepish]

So what have people cooked from this already? I'm thinking the cauliflower and chocolate risotto, and the sweeties with edible wrappers look very do-able.

Most other stuff, hmmm. What I need is someone to start "The Fat Duck at Home", like the lady with the French Laundry and Alinea at home blogs. TFL I've always got on with. Alinea looked a bit too faffy for small plates to me, but now I've seen someone do it I think, yeah, OK, I won't sleep for a couple of days but I can do that.

[FoodMan]

I am waiting for my copy of the new "reduced in size and price" copy (same exact content of the $200 one though), in October. I guess I was one of the few who did not know about this copy until Amazon "recommended" it recently. Definitly glad that Blumenthal decided to publish this and make it more accessible.

BTW, another Alinea cook the book blog is Martin Lindsay's, click here for it. It is fantastic and by far the best of such blogs there is IMHO. The amount of effort he goes through to accurately duplicate the recipes is both fun to read and very educational for those of us who attempt some recipes.

[Jan Stoel]

I've cooked the cauliflower risotto and it's more work than you think. I'm going to cook a lot more stuff and possibly write about it.

I've got a question however about the chocolate jellies. They are a mix of deionised water, trimolene, cacao, salt, gellan F and sodium citrate (BTW, I've used Citas and Gellan from Texturas as sodium citrate and gellan F, is that okay?). I put all the stuff in a Thermomix, boiled it while mixing and let it cool down. The thing is the texture is not really pleasant, it's not smooth, it's sort of (off course very soft) crumbly. Has anyone eaten the stuff at the Fat Duck and knows how the texture should be.

I also tried it with only deionised water, gellan F and cacao, but the texture was almost identical.

[OliverB]

The cheaper version is now in stock at amazon for 31.50 (list is 50). It appears to be a hardcover and I might just have to buy one, as the idea of getting anything on the big big fat duck cookbook is horrible! 31.50 certainly seems a fair price to avoid ruining this masterpiece with some spilled sauce...

It's in stock and qualifies for free shipping :-)

Edit to add: they also still have the real thing for 157.50 or so, in case you want to splurge.

I just ordered the "small" one, as I saw that Momofuku is now also in stock. Some good reading coming my way! Wish I had a 2nd head...

Edited October 27, 2009 by OliverB (log)

[OliverB]

it arrived yesterday, also a great edition. Same content, a lot smaller than the first one. A bit smaller than the FL book, but a bit thicker. One page marker band. If you wanted this book but not the high price, get it now. Were this the only edition ever published I'd be very happy with it.

I'm still excited to have the real Big Fat Duck book, as I collect art books. And to me that one is more art than cook book. Well, one of my favorite artists for a long time, Dave McKean did all the artwork :-)

Be warned though, this book is full of very ambitious recipes, similar to Alinea. And a big chunk of it is the history of the Big Fat Duck. I probably won't be cooking too many things from this book, but the inspiration alone is worth the price of admission.

I wish Heston's TV show In Search of Perfection were accessible to me, the clips on youtube look very promising. And that's geared to the ambitious home cook. Anybody know if it can be found on DVD? Food Channel should show that, instead of that drivel they show nowadays.

You might be able to find this in bookstores soon if you want to take a look at it first. As far as I know this is the first book to combine the history if a restaurant and the recipes with custom artwork that's more than just a couple pages of illustrations. A classic IMO.