Customer Reviews

The Best of Robert Carrier: 250 Favorite Recipes from Around the World

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This is a wonderful cookbook, for preparation of classic cuisine, in a modern way. The directions are clear and easy to follow. There are no surprises during preparation; he makes every step clear. Although this book is not for the beginning cook, it is approachable and a terrific book to progress to if you have moderate cooking experience. And, your dinner guests will be very very happy.

I used to work with a Bank Manager who went on to become a Chef. I asked her what would be a good recipe book for a Christmas present and, without hesitation, she recommended this.

Asking around about Robert Carrier (I was only 23 when he died), I heard that his recipes were like Alfa Romeo's; either worked perfectly or they were a disaster.

As I am lucky to have a mother who is an excellent cook (what mother isn't?), I gave this as a present to her and she has used it regularly ever since.

Though my sense of taste is poor, all the food that has been cooked from this book has been distinctive and had some interesting flavors to it. The texture of the food is also interesting and I've found the recipe's rarely fail to impress.

Added to this, the book is one of those exceedingly handy volumes that is indexed into different main ingredients (e.g. 'Lamb', 'Pork' and 'Poultry & Game'), but also with sections on 'Starters & Light Luncheons', 'Salads' and 'Sweets & Puddings'. As you can imagine, this comes in useful when looking for something to make with fridge remainders!

As a bonus this is a 'Best of' book, consisting of 250 of his best recipes (gathered over many years) which definitely comes across in the food. All of the recipe's I've tried from the book have a strong French charactor to them & Robert Carrier's personality comes across very strongly in the wording of the book (e.g. at the beginning of each section and on the occasional recipe he comments on).

And with regard to the Alfa Romeo tendencies, I am reliably informed that the recipe's can be varied a great deal without the balance of flavours being ruined.

The one drawback is that there are no photographs. There are line drawings of Pots, Fish, etc, but pictures would have been nice, to make the book perfect.

So, if you're looking to get an excellent cookery book, this comes recommended from myself and my mother as being a cut above the rest and I can see why my former colleague was so confident in her recommendation of it.

If only I could find her again and get a second recommendation...