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Reviews

WINNER of the Gourmand Food Book Award - Best Book in the World for Professionals 2003 (link)

Antony Worrall Thompson

"..it's a book that will be well used in kitchens all around the country."

The Times

"This is a really, really useful book, then. Every home should have one."

Mail on Sunday

"The year's diploma course at Leiths School of Food and Wine put on the page: useful, practical and up-to-date."

The Daily Telegraph Weekend

"If you think you know how to cook, you should definitely buy this book."

Observer Food Monthly

".. - a Mrs Beaton for 2003. A terrific wedding present and a fantastic read."

Waitrose Food Illustrated

"Whether you're an accomplished chef or a complete novice, this book should form the backbone of your culinary library.

Arranged alphabetically, it is easy to dip into when needing to solve a cookery problem or when wanting to learn how to cook a new recipe.

Leiths Techniques Bible contains all the information taught in the year long diploma course at the renowned Leiths School of Food and Wine in London. Tackling techniques from basic knife skills, fish and meat cooking through to chocolate work and patisserie, it is a book every cook can learn from.

A Definitive Book!, January 23, 2004
 

As a chef, I have found this to be simply the most useful book I own - it is always the first one I reach for! It gives you a very thorough grounding in the fundamentals - e.g. stocks, sauces, bread, pasta, baking - which you can then build upon. For a chef who is still learning the basics, I have found it to be an excellent alternative to cookery courses, which I simply couldn't afford! Compared to £20K for a cookery course, this book starts to look like extremely good value!

It covers subjects such as making bread, pasta and sauces in more depth than any other book I have seen, and it tells you what to watch out for, as well as what has gone wrong when the recipe does not turn out as expected. The book contains hundreds of valuable recipes but they are (very sensibly) for each fundamental technique (bread recipes, stock recipes etc.) rather than recipes for 'main courses' like most books.

The book is certainly not only for professional chefs - it is of just as much value to home chefs as it demystifies so many subjects and gives you so many fundamental 'building block' recipes.

Despite being vegetarian, I have found that most of the book is still relevant and seems to provide well for vegetarian alternatives - I was pleased to find a recipe for 'brown vegetable stock' for making gravies etc!

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