Customer Reviews

Sydney Food

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

bil's food is fantastic and fresh in this cook book. The photography is as delicious as his recipes. The recipies are easy to follow and certainly spectacular to eat. it's great to be able to replicate the dishes i ate at his cafe with such ease and without having to go to gourmet stores to buy the ingredients or spend a fortune on them. This book is beautiful on your coffee table or just to look through even if you dont cook, but trust me the ricotta pancakes with honeycomb butter, maple syrup and bananas are sublime.

I own "bills," which seems to be the North American version of this book, and have spent some time with "Sydney Food," as well. I've mostly made breakfast foods -- scrambled eggs, coconut bread and the like -- and everything I've made has been tremendous. Granger's style is simple, without a lot of unnecessary adornment, but he finds ways to push the envelope. His scrambled eggs, for example, have an almost unseemly amount of cream, but the results are rich, pillowy and fresh. I had breakfast at bills, the restaurant, once and was struck by the lack of frilliness. Everything looked delicious and was well-presented, but wasn't eye-popping. The revelation came with each first bite. (I don't want to say how many dishes my friends and I ordered.) It was like eating the Platonic ideal of each of these familiar, homey dishes. With "Sydney Food," you'll be able to have the same experience -- no matter how far you are from Australia.

I just love this cookbook! It's recipes are easy to follow and the end results are always as good as they look in the accompanying photographs! In my opinion (for what it's worth)'Sydney Food' is better than anything that Jamie Oliver or Nigella Lawson has to offer!

Bill Granger is my favo(u)rite chef. He uses very few ingredients, but the results are phenominal. Even the most novice cook can make these recipies work and most can be prepared very quickly. The cookbook satisfies some of my rules for a good cookbook:
1. entire recipie on one page
2. photo of finished dish (and what photos they are)

Even if you only try one or two recipies it is totally worth it - I might need to order another soon as mine shows the battle scars of heavy use.

Get this cookbook and if you ever get the chance go to BIll's in Sydney (especially for breakfast) as it is one of the best and most unpretnetious places you can eat.

I have a worn out copy of this book in my kitchen. I use and abuse it as much as I can. Thus far, everything I have made is totally yummo. The food is fresh and healthy, just the way we Aussies love it. Bill Granger is famous for his great breakfasts, but I actually believe he is the king of desserts! The book has lovely pictures of the finished recipes which I always enjoy - at least you have some idea of what the food should look like when your done. Goodo Bill....your best book ever.

My wife is Aussie and each time we head down under to visit family we stop at Bill's restaurant. Each time we eat breakfast I order the same thing, Ricotta hot cakes with honeycomb butter, bacon and a piece of banana bread. Every time we finish, I swear I cannot eat another bit of food. This led me to invest my hard earned cash into remaking Bill's famous breakfast foods in Chicago.

I'm not too familiar with his lunch and dinner but I bought this book for a friend and they have enjoyed the other items. They are also very picky eaters, so I was shocked to hear they enjoyed a few dinner items.

Bill's cookbook easily converts to USA measurements, not to worry.

Bill Granger's "Sydney Food" contains recipes featured at Bill Granger's Sydney, Australia restaurants. Granger's belief that taste is more important than appearance is refreshingly healthy; he stresses freshness and flavour, not looks. His recipes have been thoroughly tested and his instructions are easy for the home cook to follow. Virtually every recipe is both nutritious and good-tasting.

That said, this book might not be of much use to the average North American home cook. Many of the recipes call for ingredients such as fresh shrimp which aren't easily available to most North Americans at a reasonable price. I don't say that this is a bad thing; Granger wrote his book for the Australian market and the cookbook features recipes he cooks in his restaurants, so obviously the recipes are going to call for Australian ingredients. However, the North American cook should realize this before buying "Sydney Food" and not expect that every recipe will be easily accessible.

I enjoyed reading this cookbook even though I'm not able to prepare half the recipes included. I'd like to see what Granger would do, though, if he were restricted only to ingredients easily available in North America.