Customer Reviews

Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Full of great tips, tricks, fantastic recipes and some entertaining anecdotes!

I've tried four recipes to date and they have ALL been wonderful success's - especially the butter chicken!

The price was great too!

After watching Ramsay's abrasive TV shows, where he cruelly confronts chefs and owners, I was pleased, then surprised, then amazed that his short journey to India was worthwhile as cooking instruction, as a travelogue, and even as a spiritual journey. I went to find my local Indian market, and started the very difficult task of shopping where the food is labeled in several languages. (It was worse even, than trying to buy at the Chinese market.) I had a higher proportion of failures than in any other cuisine, and Ramsay's book didn't help. He is a high-end cook, and he tends to "telegraph", omitting details he apparently feels should be obvious. I'm a beginning cook, and not all that much is obvious to me! Neither is it helpful, Ramsay, simply to tell readers to buy everything local and fresh. I can't buy any of the fish mentioned local or fresh or frozen.

So, overall, if you have a lot of shelf space, already know something about Indian cooking, and enjoyed the TV series, go ahead, buy the book, and enjoy a few extra moments with Ramsay's experience.

(Ingredients. Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of Indian ingredients, transliterated. It has been withdrawn (whatever that means), but the person who removed it still has a copy stored, if you click the history. It's extremely useful, and I couldn't easily find anything else equivalent on the Internet.)

I grew up eatting all sorts of curries and have had a love affair with spices and curry ever since. As a training chef this book has given me a deeper understanding of spice combinations and the methods to manipulate spices to maximise flavour. I found Gordons personal and professional account of India very uplifting. I never considered the influences of topography, climate and history as a major influencer on local food. This knowledge has given me a new way to view what is avaliable in my local area and makes me think twice about how food is prepared, cooked and presented based on these influences.

Gordons take on Indian food is very exciting with the use of mangoe powder, gram flour, a variety of dals and jaggery to the use of rosewater in Dum ba biriyani.

Another great book! Looking forward to reading Gordon's SouthEast Asia!

Nick Blake,
27-QLD.AU

If you've ever been privileged to see his show "Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape" where he travels to India in search of true Indian cuisine you'll love this book because it takes what he learned there and gives us the recipes he learned there. And if you didn't get to see his show, the book is worth it just for the Indian recipes inside. Fantastic book!

When I purchased this book, I was hoping that Ramsay would de-mistify some of the Indian cuisine that I had grown fond of. The book did not disappoint.There is an ingredients glossary at the start of the book. Most of the recipes are titled with English so that you can understand at a glance what the recipes are, with the exception of the more well-known dishes. And with most of those, Ramsay also gives an Indian name so that you can begin to learn the names of these dishes. The book is interspersed with colourful photos of Ramsay's culinary trip to India. There are full page photos of most of the dishes. With some recipes, Ramsay tweaks the recipe. I don't know how far off the original traditional recipes are, but knowing ethnic cooking, you must realize that each region, indeed, each cook uses slightly different recipes anyway. I rate this book a buy.

I bought the book based on another reviewer's comments of full color photos throughout. I just flipped through the entire book, and on the kindle at least (iPad) there is not a single photo. I can't comment on the recipes yet, but the lack of any photography whatsoever makes it unlikely that I'll actually use this book.