The Really Helpful Cookbook by Ruth Watson

It is a brave person who calls their first work, the Really Helpful Cookbook. What happens if it is not a success? You lose your name overnight. There is no need for Ruth Watson to have such worries. She has delivered the goods but looking at her CV, it is not surprising.

Ruth started her career at Robert Carrier's Suffolk restaurant, Hintlesham Hall, before launching one of the first gastro-pubs, the Fox and Goose Inn at Fressingfield in 1990. More recently, she has just bought with her husband, a hotel in Orford, Suffolk. At the same time, she has managed to fulfil a writing career and is currently Food Editor of Weekend, the Daily Mail's supplement. She is a Glenfiddich Award Winner for Magazine Cookery Writer of the Year (1997 and 2000).

Ruth's writing is very similar to Nigel Slater's but she has a more up front style. Her writing lacks the seductiveness of Nigel's but her recipes certainly have clout and you will have a laugh too. With over 150 recipes, this is a book to be enjoyed both in and out of the kitchen. The book has been divided into winter and summer recipes with an introduction covering all the things we should know before being let loose with a carving knife.

All the recipes have flair. There is no pussy footing around with presentation, just excellent food served sensibly. We like scallops with sauce vierge and crisp pancetta. Sauce vierge is more like a dressing than a sauce with none of the scary elements of curdling; It just isn't possible. Chopped shallot and garlic are marinaded in vinegar. Before serving, olive oil is whisked in and then diced tomatoes and basil. So simple, but what a taste. If you are looking for pasta, try pappardelle with squash and sage pesto. Pavlova with cherry compote and sloe gin syllabub is the mother of all puddings. And there are 147 more recipes waiting to be tried.

Ruth mentions her favourite cookbooks too, most are heavily Grub Street biased but so what, they are doing a terrific job republishing out of print titles. It is good to see some old favourites, especially ones already earmarked by the GWG Food Team as classics. The Silver Palate earns a place as does Margaret Costa's Four Seasons. Catalan Cuisine by Colman Andrews is highly regarded. Arabella Boxer's The New First Slice Your Cookbook seems to be her all time winner.

Jane Grigson's Fish was her bible at the beginning of her married life, when ‘Rick Stein and Keith Floyd were then mere tadpoles in the bouillabaisse of cookery writers.' She certainly knows how to coin her phrases and will be remembered for these as well as her drooling recipes. This is a good cookbook and one not to be missed.

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Publication Details:
288 pages. Photography by William Lingwood. £20
ISBN 0091877989
2000

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