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Books : Food & Drink : Food Writers : Gary Rhodes
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Author: Gary Rhodes
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Cookery Year Spring Into Summer (the first of two volumes) is built upon the notion, which may be new to some readers, that foods tend to be seasonal and, by and large, are at their best in that season. Rhubarb, flounder, lamb and asparagus in spring; beetroot, broad beans and soft fruit in summer. Rhodes is first and foremost a restaurant chef, which, as he says, means that he is accustomed to an unlimited supply of fresh food from around the world all through the year: returning to the real world seems to have been a bit of a revelation.It must also be his professional background that inclines him to present his recipes as complete servings--main dish and accompaniments. Grilled beef comes with baby turnips, marinated mushrooms and a beetroot dressing. Soaked lemon semolina wedge (a cake) with warm blueberries. Baked cheese puffs with fresh beetroot sauce. This is generous, but at the same time oddly limiting: it's hard to imagine many cooks taking these recipes into their repertoires and playing freely with them.
One hesitantly comes to the conclusion that Gary Rhodes inhabits a dimension not altogether congruent with the one occupied by the rest of us. There is, on the one hand, the fluent strangeness of his prose, in which verbs slip effortlessly from transitive to intransitive (main dish A "eats well" with garnish B, we keep being told). And the recipes themselves, on the other, invariably well-constructed and thought-provoking as they are, seem often to have arrived fully-formed from some mysterious other universe free of gastronomic tradition and history. What general principles can a cook extract from Roast Gurnard with Beetroot, White Bean and Orange Salad or Braised Beef Brisket with Tarragon Carrots and Cauliflower Champ?
Readers will be able to judge for themselves how liberating these combinations are. At any rate, it's a relief to find Rhodes largely eschewing his baffling enthusiasm for school dinners (no Gypsy Tart recipes here). --Robin Davidson
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Do you ever find yourself still chopping vegetables when your dinner guests arrive? Do you sometimes get home hungry for something delicious and home-made but without the time or inclination to slave away at the cooker for an hour? Do you occasionally wan
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With Autumn into Winter Gary Rhodes continues and concludes his cookery cycle with another very generous selection of seasonal recipes. There is a section for each season dealing with vegetables, fish, meat and fruit and puddings where seasonal ingredients are carefully tracked as they approach their best, peak and decline. Rhodes' well-known fondness for traditional British foods means that in many ways he is at his best in the colder part of the year--with root vegetables, brassicas, game and the more comforting kinds of pudding.There are some arresting combinations here, as you might expect from this source: Sautéed Cep Mushrooms and Cox's Apples on Walnut Toasts, Parsnip Fritters with Blue Cheese Walnut Whip, or Rabbit and Pork Pot with Rhubarb and Mustard Soured Cream, for example. Rhodes also does interesting things with fruit in combination with meat or seafood, such as Roast Duck with Braised Onions and Buttered Pears, or Scallops with Puréed Shallots and Black-Peppered Tangerines, some of which may raise a traditionalist eyebrow or two.
Rhodes is above all a restaurant chef (two Michelin-starred establishments in London)--a fact that makes itself strongly apparent. There is a proprietorial air hanging about the recipes: they are his, they represent his own individual take on (and, implicitly, improvement of) tradition, which may not be to all tastes for several reasons. Tradition, of course, must be renewed to keep it alive, but Rhodes' endless tinkering can seem relentless. Moreover, the recipes are presented prescriptively, as though he were teaching them to his kitchen brigade. Essentially restaurant dishes in concept (though not in execution), in most cases the main element is served complete with garnish and there's not much room for individual inspiration. Nor is there anything here that you might rustle up for a quick supper. There's something take-it-or-leave-it about this--and he isn't especially generous in suggesting alternatives if you don't fancy, for example, the Savoury Fig Tarts that accompany Roast Loin of Venison, or the Sharp Rhubarb Sticks to go with Seared Peppered Tuna Fish--though there's no reason why you shouldn't. But one cannot fault Rhodes' skill and confidence, and can only applaud him for attempting to lead British cooks into territory at once so familiar and so adventurous. --Robin Davidson
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What has the spiky-haired one in store for us this time? Gary Rhodes at the Table is, he says, "a compilation of courses and recipes, which will hopefully encourage more of us to be drawn back to this great, social eating place". Back, one assumes, from the TV dinner and the take-away eaten on the hoof. Admirable motive; and a very generous selection of recipes, over 140 divided between Appetizers, Soups, Fish, Mains (with Vegetable annex), Desserts and Savouries. Even the dust-jacket bodes well, showing Rhodes actually sitting at a table. Essentially the purpose of the book is encourage the re-introduction of a la carte dining, where the individual courses--from one or two to as many as six--complement each other and form a harmonious whole. As this might suggest, this is restaurant food for the home, portioned, plated and self-consciously presented; and requiring on the whole a fair amount of work.As complete courses in themselves, most of the dishes carry a garnish: the "Chicken Liver Pate" appetiser comes with "Bramley Apple Jelly"; "Steamed and Roasted Salt Cod" arrives with "Baby Fennel and Lemon-garlic Potatoes" (there is a lot of fennel in this book: fennel, someone said recently, is the new beetroot); "Roast Loin of Lamb" sits on "Leek Greens" and is accompanied by a "Lamb-kidney Sausage"; while the "Frozen White Chocolate Mousse" is sandwiched between "Honey Wafers", topped with "Port-wine Figs" and encircled by trails of "Spicy Red-wine Sauce". Formidable and attractive stuff, more challenging than the plainer British roots cooking of Rhodes' previous productions and perhaps more representative of his own restaurant style. The strange not-quite-English kitchen argot is as recognisable as ever, and the production and photography are of the highest standard, although the frothy sauces partially enveloping many dishes do rather look as though the Blob has arrived from outer space. --Robin Davidson
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Gary Rhodes may be most famous for his spiky hair and cheeky grin to a television camera, but it his devotion to British food, and British puddings in particular, that has seen him awarded Michelin stars at three different restaurants. Sweet Dreams--the author of Rhodes Around Britain and patron of City Rhode restaurant does love his puns--is a collection of traditional and modern puddings which are do-able as well as being utterly gorgeous. His accounts of old favourites like treacle tart, spotted dick and bread and butter pudding all respect the classical simplicity of these dishes yet manage to give them a modern presentational twist. He has resurrected some old puddings like gypsy tart--"one of the few school dinners I ever looked forward to," he says. "When I eventually got hold of the recipe I couldn't believe how easy it was,"--and of course invented a few new ones. Along with a helpful guide to all the basic preparations and techniques--pastry, creams, biscuits, chocolate and of course sugar-- Sweet Dreams is all you need to know about the sticky, the fruity and the yummy. --Nick Wroe
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What has the spiky-haired one in store for us this time? Gary Rhodes at the Table is, he says, "a compilation of courses and recipes, which will hopefully encourage more of us to be drawn back to this great, social eating place". Back, one assumes, from the TV dinner and the take-away eaten on the hoof. Admirable motive; and a very generous selection of recipes, over 140 divided between Appetizers, Soups, Fish, Mains (with Vegetable annex), Desserts and Savouries. Even the dust-jacket bodes well, showing Rhodes actually sitting at a table. Essentially the purpose of the book is encourage the re-introduction of a la carte dining, where the individual courses--from one or two to as many as six--complement each other and form a harmonious whole. As this might suggest, this is restaurant food for the home, portioned, plated and self-consciously presented; and requiring on the whole a fair amount of work.As complete courses in themselves, most of the dishes carry a garnish: the "Chicken Liver Pate" appetiser comes with "Bramley Apple Jelly"; "Steamed and Roasted Salt Cod" arrives with "Baby Fennel and Lemon-garlic Potatoes" (there is a lot of fennel in this book: fennel, someone said recently, is the new beetroot); "Roast Loin of Lamb" sits on "Leek Greens" and is accompanied by a "Lamb-kidney Sausage"; while the "Frozen White Chocolate Mousse" is sandwiched between "Honey Wafers", topped with "Port-wine Figs" and encircled by trails of "Spicy Red-wine Sauce". Formidable and attractive stuff, more challenging than the plainer British roots cooking of Rhodes' previous productions and perhaps more representative of his own restaurant style. The strange not-quite-English kitchen argot is as recognisable as ever, and the production and photography are of the highest standard, although the frothy sauces partially enveloping many dishes do rather look as though the Blob has arrived from outer space. --Robin Davidson
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