Author: Fast Ed Halmagyi
ISBN: 978-0-7322-9378-9
RRP: $39.95
Fast Ed’s new cookbook is so much more than your average cookbook. It is a beautiful and timeless addition to any booklovers collection and it will fit in so many different places.
There is the novella interspersed with the recipes which tells the tale of Henri Petit-Pois and his food clock. A gorgeous clock in the style of a miniature grandfather clock which has discs instead of hands and these disks tell the time of food according to the seasons.
The food photography for this volume is mouth watering and timeless, it has a very old world and country feel to it. The complete formatting of the volume speaks of an earlier time, a simpler time. The pages are printed to look more like vellum with imperfections and the stains of a book well loved. The illustrations contained on the novella pages are the simplistic charcoal drawings of an earlier time. All of these elements combine to create a Fast Ed cookbook which is far greater than the sum of its parts. It is timeless, tasty and follows the path of the seasons to bring mouth watering dishes to your table all year round.
I have only attempted one recipe from this volume to date and that was the Rhubarb Pudding which I found to be delicious. There is quite a long list of other recipes that I fully intend to try.
The 150 recipes contained in this volume are seasonal and set out seasonally so it is simple for you to choose an entire complementary menu for your time of year. I think this is a brilliant idea because there’s nothing worse than flicking through a cookbook and setting up a menu only to discover that many of the fruit and vegetables required in one or more of the dishes are out of season.
Fast Ed has set out a book that you can pick your season and choose an entree, main and dessert from the same section knowing that all your ingredients should be relatively easy to source. That’s another benefit of Fast Ed’s cookbooks, his recipes contain simple ingredients that you can find most places, you won’t be left searching high and low to find that one last ingredient to make a dish.
Learner, novice or experienced in the kitchen presents no hurdle when you are cooking dishes found in a Fast Ed cookbook because his recipes are big on flavour and small on long, confusing instructions.
There is a reason Fast Ed is Australia’s favourite celebrity chef and his recipes are served in millions of households across the country every week. Ed has a simple mission keep the time to a minimum, and the flavour turned up to 11!
This book is a fabulous addition to every library, be it books or cookbooks, and it is sure to be appreciated as much for its artistry as its recipes.
Oh and the recipes, they make my mouth water just thinking about them. Caramelised Turnips with Rosemary, Gardener’s Ratatouille, Coffee Granita, Peach & Croissant Pudding, Flame-Grilled Porterhouse Steak with herb-roasted tomatoes, cherry pie, steamed mandarin pudding with burnt honey sauce. The list could go on and on.
The Food Clock will revolutionise your kitchen and broaden the scope of your meal choices, gone will be the days of cooking the same few dishes over and over for time and convenience.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!