Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Edited by Ardyn Bernoth, Simon & Schuster, $39.99.
Life is infinitely delicious because where there is good food … there is happiness.
Italian operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti summed up such sentiments so accurately: “One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.”
Get set for a festival of flavours with this impressive compilation as more than 100 classic recipes are given a fresh, extra delicious twist by eight of Australia’s best-loved chefs. Created for home cooks, these are inspirational, easy lunches and dinners, along with plenty of delicious dishes to impress family and friends. Even the vivid photography is enticing!
If you’ve only ever had boiled cauliflower, then it’s time for a change. Try Adam Liaw’s Spicy fried cauliflower. Neil Perry points out scraping and drying the skin is a great way to achieve perfect crispness on fish as outlined in Crisp-skin blue-eye with roast tomato sauce. Katrina Meynink adds toasted seeds and pomegranate to her sweet potato, carrot and cumin soup.
It’s easy to visualise the meaning of George Bernard Shaw’s quote about there being “no love sincerer than the love of food”. As Good Food’s national editor Ardyn Bernoth says: “… We need this cookbook to inspire us to take some of our best-loved dishes, shake them, reshape them and make them new again”.
For Ardyn, the poster child of all classic dishes is lasagne and you can’t go past Neil Perry’s recipe. “There are three secrets to the deliciousness of this dish. The meat base is a combination of pork and veal mince. It calls for the silkiest, milkiest buffalo mozzarella. And into the rich sauce goes a brightening lug of balsamic vinegar”.
“How about a vegetarian take on another Aussie classic, the schnitty. In Jill Dupleix’s hands, the pub fixture becomes a golden eggplant schnitzel with leek pickles and labna: Who needs meat when you can schnitzel-ise eggplant so it’s soft and almost creamy inside its crisp crumb coating?”
The mood is good with this delectable assortment to tickle the palate. Even the descriptions are tempting. Oh, and Helen Goh’s Irish coffee cake has Bailey’s Irish Cream in the filling.
“People who love to eat are always the best people.” How right you are Julia Child.
Bon Appétit!
