Roast Chicken and Other Stories

Simon Hopkinson is a venerable English chef and newspaper columnist who enjoys pushing for simple, home-y food. This cookbook, originally published in London in 1994, is a small but useful collection of Hopkinson's favorite recipes, along with personal stories and asides to accompany each one. My husband is a retired chef and his most basic meals are my favorites. Not that I don't love the rolled and stuffed game hens or the complex patés, but nothing compares to his beef lentil soup and his roast chicken with garlic buttermilk mashed potatoes. In Roast Chicken and Other Stories we find a celebration of simple home cooking. There's plenty of butter, cream, and other "no-no's" to be found, but very little processed pre-cooked and microwaved food. This book celebrates fresh food, be it potatoes, chicken, or calves brains. It is simply organized around Hopkinson's favorite ingredients, and while many of them are not appetizing to an American taste (i.e., kidneys, tripe, sweetbreads) there is enough that is universal enough to suit us all. Hopkinson writes in a very conversational style with many cooking tips in the prose and not in the recipes, so it is important that you read the entire book and then bookmark the recipes you like. For example, he tells us that boiling is better than steaming for vegetables to maintain color and texture (just don't overdo it) and that canned Italian tomatoes will work better in most stews and sauces than fresh Western tomatoes. My favorite recipes? The Eggs Florentine, the Chocolate Tart, and the ubiquitous Roast Chicken. But again, don't just buy Roast Chicken and Other Stories for the recipes - but for the prose. Witty, warm, and interesting tales will make you feel like you are in the kitchen with a good friend who also happens to be great cook, and who doesn't like that?

Again and again we learn and learn again that simplicity in life, especially in cooking, is the key to success. The author has studied cooking to the point of expertise that allows him to do things and, more importantly, to say things simply and convincingly. When politicians gain this level of authority they become legendary: think Churchill. Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, Hopkinson takes good, clean fresh ingredients and makes hearty dishes which he believes are vital to the good life. He avoids all chef snobbery, all foodie elitism. Instead, we have the wholesome attitude of the farm, the cookery philosophy of America's Alice Waters. There is no avoidance of the fat and buttery; this is no dieter's bible. The artificial is avoided in favor of authenticity. Hopkinson seem to believe that what is wholesome and fresh is good for you, and rejects all the short cuts and alternate ingredients which have made cooks everywhere confuse substitutes for the real thing. The author is able to convey great warmth, that special brand of English decency and refreshing unpretentiousness. The author loves food, animals, vegetables, customs, tradition, the drama known as life. What is especially surprising and refreshing is his celebration of ethnic cuisines as diverse as the obligatory French and the exotic Mexican. He has expertise in both. This is the food channel between hard covers.

I happened to stumble on a description of this book somewhere and read it was recently reprinted and was rated the most popular cook book in England. I can see why it's so popular. A pleasure to read, not just for the recipes, which are a mixture of western European classics, English 'comfort foods' and a few more contemporary recipes from the 70's era. It's the stories in this book that make it so endearing. This book is an obvious labor of love. I like that the author chose to share his favorite foods with us. In my opinion the best part of this cook book is the stories he tells about each recipe, how he discovered it and his experiences in the pleasures of enjoying a well made meal. This is not a book meant to impress, it's a sharing of the joys of cooking and eating from the author's heart. A few of his recipes will seem very foreign to the American palate and some of his cooking directions may take a bit of getting used to for the less experienced American cook. In some cases he gives very clear directions and in other cases he assumes you know what you're doing and the directions are more sparse. Still, don't be intimidated by my description here. This is worth having in your kitchen. All in all, a pure delight.

This award winning book is wonderful. It is full of stories about food, with short fanfares for some of their favorite cookery writers, restauranteurs, and chefs. But best of all are the recipes; every one that I have tried has been scrumptious, and I look forward to trying more. The book is arranged as chapters with titles such as: 'Anchovies', 'Garlic','Saffron', 'Chicken', 'Scallops','Endive', 'Chocolate', ..... Each chapter starts with a description or story about the subject followed by 3 or 4 recipes.Simon Hopkinson writes a weekly food column in the UK newspaper, The Independant, and has worked as a chef in both the UK and France. His column is always fun to read, just like this book...... and you get the idea that Simon Hopkinson knows what it is like buying food at the local supermarket with the rest of us mortals! The recipes are accessible and 'doable' and the results are dishes that are classy and very satisfying. If you like Alice Waters' Chez Panisse Cookery books, or Elizabeth David's Cookery Books, you'll probably like this book too. You may also want to look out for their book called 'The Prawn Cocktail Years', which is also very good.