Is This A Cookbook?: Adventures in the Kitchen

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Ok, first up, I have to say that the font used for Heston Blumenthal’s ruminations on food and eating in Is This a Cookbook? It'd make an unexpected and great gift for curious, science-minded cooks, or pro chefs who like to get a little weird. Heston's instructions are precise and easy to follow, with lots of helpful tips, and each chapter is introduced with an explanation of Heston's approach.

Blumenthal’s restless exploration of technique and ingredients are the basis for his fame, arising from his Michelin 3-star restaurant The Fat Duck in the UK, and further explored in other restaurants. Van culinaire programma’s op televisie kan ik echt genieten, zoals het Australische ‘My kitchen rules’. This element creates a fun and approachable vibe around cooking, versus the strict and stressful nature of some recipe collections.His success has been borne out of his pure obsession, endless invention and a childish curiosity into how things work - whether it's how smell affects taste, what different flavours mean to us on a biological level, or how temperature is distributed in the centre of a souffle. I have all of his previous books, I love to look at them but have cooked very few recipes because of the specialist ingredients, equipment and time required. De chef is gekend voor zijn moleculaire gerechten waarbij hij vloeibare stikstof gebruikt om deze te bereiden.

Recipes like Banana and Bacon Cookies or the Bacon and Egg Ice-Cream will make you question yourself what is actually possible to achieve with the ingredients that you are used to using every day. We can talk about taste receptors and the like but, in the end, there’s nothing objective about food and flavour. He doesn’t suggest a substitute for Maris Piper potatoes which are popular in the UK but not available here — but I’m guessing that Dutch Cream, Desiree, Coliban or Sebago spuds would be ok, and I do actually have a jar of goose fat to roast them in, and some thyme growing in the garden. Heston Blumenthal is well-known to viewers of Masterchef where he is venerated like a god and subject to fangirl/boy ecstasy whenever he makes a grand entrance.I've only read through it once so far so will give it a more thorough read - I like the idea of Rice Krispies ice cream so that's one I'll definitely try. A beautiful thing to behold, full of varied recipes which seem easy to manage, gorgeous illustrations and sumptuous photography. But it is also an excellent cookbook - the question posed by Heston of 'is this a cookbook' is one with no answer, a rather clever way to reinvent (if not draw from the past) a way of writing that has personal resonance to all of us! The first time we tasted the Lemon Tart Recipe in this book changed forever the idea of what a lemon tart is for us. In 2004 he won the coveted three Michelin stars in near-record time for his restaurant The Fat Duck, which has twice been voted the Best Restaurant in the World by an international panel of 500 experts.