Tamasin Day-Lewis

Pass me the Peche de Vigne, darling!

Author Tamasin Day-Lewis, UK celebrity chef and food writer for the Daily Telegraph, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Food Illustrated, has put together a nice looking and detailed book from which the back of the book blurb quotes "To feed a family for a song and still encompass all that is great is down to Tamasin's amazing passion, with an eye to the purse strings." This lead me to believe it would be a more simple "how to spread your meals further and save money" type of book.

In some ways it is just that, but not in the true sense since many of the ingredients are not what the average household w
ould have in their pantry. She does encourage the reader to be creative, but most resourceful cooks when being prudent in the kitchen will not forage in the fridge, field and larder in search of things like Monkfish, Wild Salmon, Squid, expensive cheeses, vanilla pods, peche de vigne, and a variety of Port or wine, as suggested. Well, not in my house anyway!

The book also claims to have advice on things like keeping the store cupboard well stocked, and how to make the most of seasonal gluts, but for a cookbook missing a contents page this was not easily found. For these reasons I'm giving this book three stars (Amazon).

Overall: As a general cookbook it works. It is creative and I do like her suggestion for roast chicken with sausage, sage and prune stuffing, and what to do with the carcass. I have even tried a few of the recipes in the Happy Food and The Saturday Bake sections, with some success! However, for a book that at first appears to be written for
those on a budget it's not quite as satisfying as her delectable (expensive) puddings and lays heavy on me.… (mehr)