The London Cookbook by Aleksandra Crapanzano

[blue_dolphin]

I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has this book and what you think of it.

The full title is The London Cookbook: Recipes from the Restaurants, Cafes, and Hole-in-the-Wall Gems of a Modern City.  I've seen mentions of the book on various lists of new cookbooks but it didn't pique my interest until I read the recent post on David Leibovitz's blog that includes a recipe from the book for Apple Calvados Cake with a nice intro by the author.  

I'm not sure I want to cook from The London Cookbook, but I think I'd love to read it.   Sadly, my library doesn't have it.  

Has anyone else taken a look at it?

[liuzhou]

I don't have it either, but would love to read it too. To my surprise, it is available on China's main online shopping portal, so as soon as this two week holiday is over (9 days to go), I'll order it.

[suzilightning]

On ‎2‎/‎2‎/‎2017 at 2:39 AM, blue_dolphin said:

I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has this book and what you think of it.

The full title is The London Cookbook: Recipes from the Restaurants, Cafes, and Hole-in-the-Wall Gems of a Modern City.  I've seen mentions of the book on various lists of new cookbooks but it didn't pique my interest until I read the recent post on David Leibovitz's blog that includes a recipe from the book for Apple Calvados Cake with a nice intro by the author.  

I'm not sure I want to cook from The London Cookbook, but I think I'd love to read it.   Sadly, my library doesn't have it.  

Has anyone else taken a look at it?

 

Does your library borrow books from other libraries - what we call Interlibrary Loan?  If so ask them to see if they can borrow a copy for you..........

[blue_dolphin]

9 minutes ago, suzilightning said:

 

Does your library borrow books from other libraries - what we call Interlibrary Loan?  If so ask them to see if they can borrow a copy for you..........

 

My local library does handle ILL requests but told me that most libraries won't loan a book that's so new (this was just published in October) and they recommended I submit a purchase recommendation instead so I did that.  

In the meantime, I could break down and buy it.  I guilted my brother into giving me an Amazon gift card for Christmas and I haven't used it yet.....

 

[FrogPrincesse]

On ‎2‎/‎1‎/‎2017 at 11:39 PM, blue_dolphin said:

 I've seen mentions of the book on various lists of new cookbooks but it didn't pique my interest until I read the recent post on David Leibovitz's blog that includes a recipe from the book for Apple Calvados Cake with a nice intro by the author.  

 

I thought it was curious that a calvados cake was picked as a sample recipe from a London cookbook...!  Don't get me wrong, I love Calvados, but why not use English cider brandy?  The cake looks good though, like most things from St. John/ Fergus Henderson.

 

 

[blue_dolphin]

19 minutes ago, FrogPrincesse said:

I thought it was curious that a calvados cake was picked as a sample recipe from a London cookbook...!  Don't get me wrong, I love Calvados, but why not use English cider brandy?  The cake looks good though, like most things from St. John/ Fergus Henderson.

 

 

 

You're right, certainly not a classic British ingredient!  

But after reading  Aleksandra Crapanzano's thoughts about the book in this Food52 article, it's clear that the London restaurants from which she drew the recipes wouldn't all be considered examples of classic British cookery either:

Quote

...In London, these last twenty years, there have been a handful—Terrance Conran (Bibendum), Fergus Henderson (St. John), Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray (The River Cafe) and, most recently, Yotam Ottolenghi (Ottolenghi), who not only raised the bar to radical new heights, but who also trained and mentored an entire generation of cooks: Jamie Oliver (Fifteen), Sam Clark (Moro), Anna Hansen (Modern Pantry) among them. And they too are mentoring a new generation; Jacob Kenedy (Bocca di Lupo) and Tim Siadatan (Trullo) spring to mind....

 

A browse through the list of recipes in the book confirms that. 

[Anna N]

 I am so on the fence about this one.   I, too, have a gift certificate so it's not a question of affordability. Perhaps it is a misplaced possessiveness for shepherds' pie. 

When I saw the recipe for Rogan Josh Shepherd's Pie my eyes rolled most of 180°.  And yet...  I suspect it has much that I have never considered before and I could learn a great deal from it. The author, I believe,  won a James Beard MFK Fisher award for writing although not for this book.   I will likely cave sooner rather than later.   I have no willpower.

[liuzhou]

14 hours ago, FrogPrincesse said:

I thought it was curious that a calvados cake was picked as a sample recipe from a London cookbook...!  Don't get me wrong, I love Calvados, but why not use English cider brandy?

 

The book isn't intended to be about traditional English food, It's full title is "The London Cookbook: Recipes from the Restaurants, Cafes, and Hole-in-the-Wall Gems of a Modern City".

 

Given that London is home to a wide range of restaurants from scores of countries*, ethnicities and cultures, I'd rather expect this sort of thing.

 

* A few years ago I compiled a list of countries with restaurants in London. There were over 60.

 

14 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

But after reading  Aleksandra Crapanzano's thoughts about the book in this Food52 article,

 

Thanks for the link.

Edited February 4, 2017 by liuzhou (log)

[FrogPrincesse]

3 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

The book isn't intended to be about traditional English food, It's full title is "The London Cookbook: Recipes from the Restaurants, Cafes, and Hole-in-the-Wall Gems of a Modern City".

 

Given that London is home to a wide range of restaurants from scores of countries*, ethnicities and cultures, I'd rather expect to this sort of thing.

Well I understand that. I go to London regularly and am familiar with a lot of the restaurants that are featured in the book. I like the trend where they feature interesting local ingredients, maybe forgotten ones, and give them their own modern twist. I like dishes that have a sense of place, either through ingredients or techniques. For example I was especially impressed when I went to a restaurant that served an English sparkling wine that was as good as Champagne and that I had never heard of...

And I love St. John and have been there many times. Never had the calvados cake though.  More typical British things like their lemon posset...

 

I think that this book looks very interesting actually, because the British food scene is booming right now. I am tempted to get it or at least to look at it. It is strange that Nuno Mendes (Viajante, Chiltern Firehouse) doesn't seem represented though. I would have thought that he would have gotten at least a couple of recipes in there.

[liuzhou]

2 minutes ago, FrogPrincesse said:

For example I was especially impressed when I went to a restaurant that served an English sparkling wine that was as good as Champagne and that I had never heard of...

 

England has some great sparkling wines. I write for a Chinese wine trade magazine and recently covered English sparklers. Both I and the publishers were surprised by the feedback suggesting how interested people seemed to be.

Do you remember which wine it was? Nyetimber?

[FrogPrincesse]

Just now, liuzhou said:

 

Do you remember which wine it was? Nyetimber?

That is the one.

Good stuff! But I've never seen it outside of England.
 

[liuzhou]

Just now, FrogPrincesse said:

That is the one.

Good stuff! But I've never seen it outside of England.
 

 

I think it's still made in relatively small quantities. The bottle I sampled was carefully and lovingly carried all the way from England to China by a Chinese friend / colleague as a gift.

[blue_dolphin]

17 hours ago, Anna N said:

I will likely cave sooner rather than later.   I have no willpower.

I think I beat you to it.  Just ordered.  

 

17 hours ago, Anna N said:

When I saw the recipe for Rogan Josh Shepherd's Pie my eyes rolled most of 180°.

It may ease your eyes to know that the Rogan Josh Shepherd's Pie recipe and the other 4 cited in that Food52 list are recipes that did not make it into the book.  

Not that there mightn't be something equally eye-rolling in there 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

I think I beat you to it.  Just ordered.  

 

It may ease your eyes to know that the Rogan Josh Shepherd's Pie recipe and the other 4 cited in that Food52 list are recipes that did not make it into the book.  

Not that there mightn't be something equally eye-rolling in there 

 You did indeed beat me. And I did not realize that those recipes were not in the book. I must have been asleep at the Kindle. 

[blue_dolphin]

I've had this book for a few days now and thought I would share a few comments.  Not a true review.  I haven't read though everything but I've enjoyed what I have read thus far.   I haven't cooked anything from it yet either.  Restaurant or "chef" cookbooks aren't really my thing so I didn't necessarily expect that I would cook from it but I'm pleasantly surprised that there are quite a few recipes that I intend to try.  

 

We didn't get off on the right foot, this book and I.  Having happily selected it for some bedtime reading, I was thwarted by the rather small font and the choice to print half of the intro pages in black on red which forced me to alternate between reading a pleasurable page and struggling to hold the book in a way that avoided glare but was still close enough for me to read the small print.  I made it through the ~ 10 page intro but was more annoyed than intrigued.  I'm nearsighted and rarely have issues with small print but I will need to find a magnifying glass if I decide to attempt any of the recipes that call for fractional measures as I really can't make them out at all, even in bright daylight.

 

For round 2, I decided to change tactics and start at the back of the book and check out the cocktails chapter.  Maybe mix one up to enjoy.  I was disappointed to find that the first 5 and overall, half of the cocktails are vodka drinks. I guess that's what people like.  To be fair, the Super Bloody Mary from Andina contains at least 16 other ingredients beside the vodka (preferably oak smoked) so it's not uninteresting but nothing I could whip up quickly - not sure where to procure the birch sap for the Birch Sap Old Fashioned either. Unlike the other recipes, most of the cocktails lack much in the way of header notes which makes the chapter seem a bit of an afterthought.

 

On to round 3.  The book is organized more or less conventionally into sections for starters or "light fare," soups, starches (pasta, rice & grains), veg (more like vegetarian entrées than vegetable sides), fish, fowl, meat, 2 dessert chapters and a short cocktails chapter bringing up the rear. A number of the chefs/restaurant owners have already published their own cookbooks that include the same recipes and others appear in online newspaper columns and the like.  That's not an issue for me, but if you are a collector of London restaurant cookbooks, you might be disappointed by the repetition.

 

There isn't any intro text to the chapters but each recipe includes nicely written header notes.  There's no particular pattern - some are lengthy, others short and they focus randomly on the restaurant, its neighborhood, the owner, the chef, an individual ingredient or one of the author's related memories.  There are nice photos of some, but not all dishes and photos of various restaurant kitchens, interiors and neighborhoods.  Measurements are in the conventional US cups and spoons.  The author says she has indicated weights where it's important but there aren't many examples of that.  Most but not all of the recipes serve 2-4 people so they are home-kitchen friendly.  Most ingredients are accessible.  Some could be specified more clearly.  For example:  "1 or 2 red chilies"  OK.  I can take a guess.  The header notes say it's a "fiery winter soup" so it's probably a hot chile and the recipe says to dice it so it must be fresh but I'd like to know what's used in the original dish or, barring that, what was used in testing the recipe.  A couple of recipes call for fresh Spanish chorizo which is removed from the casings and crumbled.  That's not something I've seen before but there isn't any suggestion for sourcing or substitution.  On the other hand, there's a very nice set of notes on possible substitutions for the 5 different cheeses used in the fondue recipe. 

 

I imagine it is quite a challenge to assemble recipes from so many sources, test them all and put them into a fairly consistent format.  Very minor quibbles here but a bit more attention to detail might have been helpful.  For example, there is a recipe for pasta with chicken livers from Giorgio Locatelli at Locanda Locatelli in which we are told that success depends on following the instructions precisely.  After making and straining a butter sauce, we are told to set it aside someplace warm yet it is never specifically called for again. The next sentence tells us to warm oil "in a sauté pan over ."  Over what?  I can connect the dots but if I'm told to follow instructions precisely, then please give me precise instructions.  Header notes in a dessert recipe refer to a lemon curd recipe on page 197.  It's actually on page 254.  Very minor, but it makes me wonder if other errors have slipped through.  The author says the recipes are meant to be cooked with confidence and pleasure but those little errors will nibble at my confidence until I've tried a few recipes successfully.  I will report back.

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

I was thwarted by the rather small font and the choice to print half of the intro pages in black on red

 

I'm so glad you mentioned this before I ordered it.

I get infuriated by books and websites which use ridiculously illegible colour combinations or tiny fonts like that. Just yesterday. I was trying to read an online menu from a restaurant of which I'd just read a review and which sounded like a place I might like to eat when I visit England in the summer. The restaurant, or its web "consultants", has decided that a very light grey text on a white background is the best choice. Idiots.

My eyes aren't particularly bad compared to others, but they ain't what they were and the lack of contrast must trouble many peoples' vision.

I won't be troubling the restaurant in question. Still thinking about the book, but I'd like to see it before parting with my hard-earned.

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, blue_dolphin said:

it makes me wonder if other errors have slipped through.

 

I don't think I've ever read a cook book that didn't contain a few errors.

[Anna N]

@blue_dolphin

 Thanks for this brief look at the book. I think the Kindle version would overcome issues with layout and font size which would definitely deter me if I were thinking of a hardcopy.   I don't know. It's just not calling out to me.  I think it will have to relinquish its spot on my wish list for books that appeal a lot more.  Even a very, very generous gift certificate can only be stretched so far.

[chromedome]

On 09/02/2017 at 5:23 AM, liuzhou said:

The restaurant, or its web "consultants", has decided that a very light grey text on a white background is the best choice. Idiots.

My eyes aren't particularly bad compared to others, but they ain't what they were and the lack of contrast must trouble many peoples' vision.

 

I encountered this just yesterday, with Alinea's new (and not completely functional) website. 

 

Not, alas, because I'll be dining there. 

 

(Edited to clarify: The actual text on the site is perfectly legible black-on-white, but the menus on the main screen are in white on pale grey. Somewhat less than ideal, to my mind.)

Edited February 10, 2017 by chromedome
clarification (log)

[blue_dolphin]

I would like to clarify my comments about the font and text backgrounds for this book.  The issue with the black text on a red background is confined to the introduction section and is used on half or 5 of the 10 text pages in that section.  The rest of the book is all black on white and while on the small side, is generally readable.  I stand by my comment about the fractions needing some scrutiny.  

I'm not sure if including my fingertip here helps provide any scale or not but here you go:

 

And here is that pictured recipe as made by me:

 

It's not summer but it is a lovely sunny day with temps in the mid-70s and it was a quick and easy recipe to try.  Honestly, in these parts, arugula tends to bolt when it gets hot so I'd probably be more likely to use it to add a little sunshine whenever the arugula looks good. This one is from the River Café and appears in one or more of their cookbooks.  Here's a version from a blogger that seems pretty close to the book. 

I used Trader Joe's lemon pepper pappardelle and it was a good choice.  I wasn't sure about a creamy-lemon/lemony-cream sauce but the peppery arugula and pasta offer a good contrast.  I enjoyed it and will make it again.  No cooking, aside from the pasta - just mix everything in a bowl while the pasta cooks and then toss it all together.  I think it would be great with some sautéed scallops or shrimp but it's nice as is.

 

[liuzhou]

Thanks for the clarification on the fonts and colours, but I still think I'll give it a miss. Non-weight and imperial measurements drive me nuts!

 

I did buy an American edition of Fuchsia Dunlop's "Land of Fish and Rice" and am happy that it has both American measurements and those the rest of the world uses.

 

 

Edited February 14, 2017 by liuzhou
typo (log)

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, liuzhou said:

Thanks for the clarification on the fonts and colours, but I still think I'll give it a miss. Non-weight and imperial measurements drive me nuts!

 

I did buy an American edition of Fuchsia Dunlop's "Land of Fish and Rice" and am happy that it has both American measurements and those the rest of the world uses.

 

 

 

 I was equally disappointed to see the volume measurements. In my mind it was a British book but of course it isn't! Duh. 

[liuzhou]

36 minutes ago, Anna N said:

In my mind it was a British book

 

Exactly! Me too. Double duh!

I was perplexed by the measurements then by 'arugula'. I know what arugula is, but not many people in London would - we call it rocket or roquette (when we are trying to be posh).

Ah well, maybe someone will translate it into proper English!