Secret Ingredients

Rating:
Summary: Must have!
Review: I am a professional chef. This is one of the four 'desert island' cookbooks for my crew and I (Along with Escoffier, Larousse and Joy of Cooking). Throw out most of your cookbook collection: Roberts teaches you to pay attention to flavors, textures, combinations, etc. Once you get it, you can do your own recipes. Enlightening and liberating. Sad that it is out of print

Rating:
Summary: Must have!
Review: I am a professional chef. This is one of the four 'desert island' cookbooks for my crew and I (Along with Escoffier, Larousse and Joy of Cooking). Throw out most of your cookbook collection: Roberts teaches you to pay attention to flavors, textures, combinations, etc. Once you get it, you can do your own recipes. Enlightening and liberating. Sad that it is out of print

Rating:
Summary: The best cookbook I own.
Review: Michael Roberts's Secret Ingredients is my favourite cookbook. My copy is worn and food-stained, the subject of almost 10 years of well-rewarded study. All the recipes are interesting, a few (Shoulder of Lamb with Port,Jalapeno and Stilton comes to mind) are among the best dishes I've ever eaten. More useful still, the advice about how to think about and blend flavours taught me how to make up recipes like this for myself. I kept buying more copies to give as presents - five copies besides my own - until the book went out of print. Now I'm trawling Amazon's out-of-print archive in search of more.