Being one who enjoys exploring the culinary delights of the cooking world, recipe books are an integral part of my bookshelf. The newest addition of which is Rachel Khoo's Kitchen Notebook. A very welcome addition this book, as the title suggests, is a compilation of illustration, photography and recipes from Khoo's trips around the world; straight out of her own notebook. If her name is familiar to you this may be because she hosted a cooking show named Little Paris Kitchen, in which she showcased her cookery skill and flair for French cuisine. Khoo has 5 recipe books in both French an English, and this is my first of hers.
First of all it is an incredibly beautiful book. Filled to the brim with hand written notes, personal photos and watercolour illustrations, the book has an incredibly homely feel. It certainly is like delving through the jotted notes of a passionate foodie (albeit a very well produced one). The collage layout, painted ideograms and in depth instructions slotted in with 'paperclips' result in a happy and familiar look. Also being one of the crazies that enjoys a good book smell, this smells wonderful! Though that isn't strictly a review point...
Enough about the design though, what about what is inside? Well, I enjoy the exercise of bookmarking pages I want to return to in recipe books, and as you can see that was a fairly fruitless exercise in this case. Nearly every page has a tag! The first section is logically starters, Khoo suggests a starter should tantalise your taste buds and prepare you for the delights that await during the rest of the meal. Examples from this section include wonders such as: cream of tomato soup with crunchy lemon chickpeas, roasted cauliflower and caraway salad, and baked goats cheese cigars. The second section is for mains which includes: potato crumpets with maple mustard gammon, peeping mushroom pasta (which looks like something straight out of Alice in Wonderland), and sticky chicken with Malaysian salad. Next up is the sweet section, which is by far the best in my sweet toothed opinion. My favourites from this part include: edible forest floor (more Wonderland-esque beauty), plum jelly with elderflower chantilly, and berry tartlets with cream cheese frosting. The final section is Homemade Treats, a section to encourage you to make not buy. Some favourites are: chocolate bark, savoury gems, and various different types of grissini. Though if none of those treats sound like your bag there are over 100 recipes, so I fear it would be hard not to find something you liked! There is also a few pages at the back which are essential equipment bits and pieces, cooks notes & ingredients and some blank note pages for you to jot anything you like down (though the thought of writing in a book makes me feel rather uneasy...)
Lastly the format of the recipes. Each recipe has a detailed title, followed by how many it serves, prep time, resting time (if any), cook time (if any), and cooling time (if any) which is incredibly handy information. Next is a small description of the dish with the recipe underneath. In a small column are the ingredients listed in grams, and any specific equipment needed. The recipes are then written in paragraph order though without numbers, which is the one downfall as I much prefer numbered recipes to keep track of where I am. Occasionally there are also cooks tips at the bottom of the page in italics, just to help along making the cooking experience and results extra easy and delicious. The best thing about this book however I have left until last. Approximately 99% of the recipes have full page pictures of the dish next to them. This makes me incredibly happy as I always like to know what exactly what I am making is meant to look like. The pictures are large, clear and impossible to miss, making the book beautiful and easily followable.
Conclusively I cannot wait to delve in properly and make a good lot of these thing. At the incredibly reasonable price of £13.60 on amazon it is affordable, full of in depth treats and lovely to look at. This is certainly a 5 star cook book which has encouraged me to find more of Khoo's recipe books. If I only they were all at delightful as this one! The trick now is not to cover it in icing sugar explosions and sloshed melted butter.
Happy cooking!
Cheerio x
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