Editorial Review of Essence: Recipes from Le Champignon Sauvage
Customer Reviews of Essence: Recipes from Le Champignon Sauvage
Customer Rating: Review Summary: Fantastic book from a fantastic restaurant Review: This isn't a cookbook for the faint-hearted. It is a genuine restaurant book that gives you the precise recipes for some of David's most famous dishes.
The instructions are clear and, much more importantly, they work. David's use of seasonal, British produce and wild ingredients makes for one of the most interesting and pleasing books around. I can't recommend this book and everything I have ever made from it has blown people away. Customer Rating: Review Summary: Strange ingredients Review: Let me start by saying I am a great fan of David and Helen and some of the best meals of my life have been eaten at Le Champignon Sauvage. I am also a reasonably accomplished cook. But having rushed to buy this book I must say I am disappointed because of the large number of unusual and hard to get ingredients, making most of the recipes out of the range of people who do not have access to his excellent sources. The photography is excellent and some of the techniques are educational but as a practical book for the aspirational cook it's a bit of a dud. Ferran Adria is easier. Customer Rating: Review Summary: Simply Superb Review: If you want to recreate Michelin star food for dinner parties this is the book for you. The recipes are actually the ones used at 'Le Champignon Sauvage' Michelin 2 star restaurant in Cheltenham. Though they all comprise several components and take a while to prepare the instructions are clear and precise including how to assemble the finished dishes. The forward interestingly is written by Gordon Ramsay but this book is far superior in recipe quality to any of his watered down offerings.
David Everitt-Matthias deserves every success with this bible.
Simply Superb! Customer Rating: Review Summary: Excellent Review: Even As a professional chef i have rarely been interested in chef written books as i have been in Essence. Superbly written, great Photos and excellent Recipes. yes they are quite complicated but they are written in such detail and simplicity i have to congratulate David Everitt-Mathias. I have long wanted to go Champignon sauvage and this book has intensified this. Well done to all concerned with Essence as its one of the very best Thankyou Customer Rating: Review Summary: A step above the average Review: Bought the book on reviews alone and wasn't disappointed.
The recipes definitely aren't your average, but then neither is the depth of writing or the methodologies.
I've not cooked many of the dishes in their entirety but many of the elements are so polished that they are infinitely useful in other dishes.
Not for the lazy chef or the fainthearted but brilliant non the less