David Ridley

I have two copies of this book bought buy generous friends and families. It looks great but the recipes are rubbish. If you live in small town Hungary it is practically impossible to buy the ingredients. The recipes are very carbohydrate based and, yes, over the years I have tried several hoping for a better result. There is very unimaginative use of spices. The instructions are often inaccurate. For example, for the onion soup I had to turn the temperature down without being told to light the flame in the first place. This would be a disaster for a beginner cook. I am an enthusiastic amateur cook and have made many other onion soup recipes and this was the worst by far, no herbs, at all. I am not a vegan but generally cook vegan and the sooner vegan cook books stop thinking that just because they are vegan it is OK and start thinking about the taste the better. Others have their opinions which is fine. However, the recipes take an enormous amount of work for a fairly basic result which could be obtained with half the effort. This is not the cook book if you have a job, a dog, studies, etc. You simply wouldn't have the time.