River Cottage Family Cookbook by British television sensation and home cooking champion Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall (along with co-author Fizz Carr and many of their family members) is a book to bring the entire family into the kitchen to prepare their meals, get their hands sticky, knead some dough, do some stirring and become engaged in the process of preparing their meals.
Never pretentious or slick, Hugh’s writing is imbued with a sense of humour, wit and authenticity. Clearly he is a man how knows food and how to best prepare it yet is never condescending to those who don’t – whether toddler or Grandma. Hugh asserts that to develop a lifetime of good eating and cooking one is never too young to get involved in the kitchen. And, if you are attempting to give a new cook tools for a lifetime then it is important to give them the ‘whys’ as well as the ‘hows’ of cooking and techniques. He goes out of the way to make his recipes clearly understood from a perspective of both science and cooking and his instructions are as clear as can be. When he reminds us to ‘put the oven gloves on’ directly in the instructions for baking raisin bread then you know he has given much thought to his youngest, less experienced cooks.
More than just a collection of fabulous family recipes, River Cottage Family Cookbook also gives us stores and anecdotes on a variety of our favorite foods, for example in his fruit section he entertains us with tales of scurvy, educates us with the importance of buying locally and organically and gives us a little history lesson on the first cultivated fruits and when is a fruit not a fruit. The source of our food and sustainability are important issues to Hugh and he truly enlightens us with stories on the history and science of food.
This is not food made playful and interesting to entice kids to eat their vegetables, this is real food made interesting to children because it is engaging to prepare and delicious to eat. So rather than cutting sandwiches into funny faces young cooks will be undressing a crab, making their own sausages, melting chocolate for real hot chocolate, building an outdoor barbecue for whole mackerels and even making their own salt.
Truly a book for inquiring minds and healthy appetites, every family should have a copy of this book!
BUY IT HERE at super discount »
Posted by Food Junkie on September 12, 2007Categories - Families & Kid's
