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Real Flavours
Real Flavours by Glynn Christian is a book that you will need if you are new to cooking and a book that you will want if you are an old hand to all things culinary, and it’s not even a recipe book! It’s more like an encyclopaedia of all things delicious.
This is a hefty tome in stylish sepia, black and white. It is, as it says, THE handbook of gourmet and deli ingredients. Why should you either want or need such a volume? you may ask. Well it’s a kitchen aid. It’s packed with information about every product that might cross your path in a grocers shop. Real Flavours is what you need if you want to know how to cheat at cooking....um, where have I heard that before?
There is a wealth of wonderful items lining the shelves of delis all over the world. Products that have taken hundreds of years to perfect. Ingredients that will make your catering life easier....but you need to know what they are and how to use them. Real Flavours tells you in the most accessible way.
There is nothing missing. Everything has a mention, everything from Sugar to Sushi, from Fruit to Fish, from Grain to Game. Let’s take an example. You want to know about sausage? We’ll have a look. Start with Fresh Sausages. Glynn tells us about their production, their varieties, what to use them for and how to use them. But then he continues with.....Sausages With Casings, and gives 17 examples with descriptions and histories....Without Casings, more examples. Next it’s Smoked Dried Sausages, Scalded Sausages, Cooked Sausages, all with lots of different types listed and described. Multiply that by each product and you can see why the book is considered to be perhaps the most comprehensive of its type.
Real Flavours is not only informative but it’s thoroughly readable. You will start by just dipping into it and finish by reading it from cover to cover. Even the introduction is a worthwhile read and you can’t say that about too many books.
Although this isn’t a recipe book, it does have a good number of them, like Simple Spiced Salt Beef - sounds delicious. There are both Green and Red Thai Curry Pastes which will be excellent, as Glynn must know as much as any Westerner about the cuisine of that lovely part of the world (Glynn has presented several TV series on the cuisine of Thailand).
It will be your most “thumbed” food-related book and the one you refer to time and time again. It’s full of humour, knowledge and passion for the subject. Glynn Christian has written a classic food book which deserves to be recognised as such.
Real Flavours
Author: Glynn Christian
Published by: Grub Street
Price: £15.99
ISBN 1-904943-20-9
