This weeks book was by Appetites by Anthony Bourdain. I first found Anthony through his book Kitchen Confidential – a truly fantastic read about life in professional kitchens. That book led me to global knives, to eat at his brasserie – les Halles in New York and to go in pursuit of a table at the legendary French laundry. Sadly like many of the brightest we lost him too soon when he took his own life.

This book is a belter with great family recipes. The Bolognese is the first one I’d read that introduces milk into the sauce. The chapter on desert is hilarious if extremely brief.
We started with Roast Leg of Lamb with Flageolets, Roasted Cauliflower with Sesame and Ratatouille. All three recipes were excellent. The lamb stuffed with anchovies and herbs. The cauliflower was wonderful though a touch salty – it could be the difference between using table salt vs what the Americans call kosher salt. His opinion on ratatouille is entirely in line with my wife. She can’t stand it when all the vegetables merge into one homogeneous stew. Not this ratatouille!! Each veg is cooked separately and then combined making a delicious take on the classic.

Next up was The Grill Bitch’s Bar Nuts – nuts roasted with sugar, cayenne, cinnamon and egg white. They are moorish to say the least.

My daughter had asked for Mac and Chese so we tried Anthony’s. It’s brilliant. Four or five different cheeses into what is a surprisingly clean tasting Mac and cheese. The recipe of the week through was Garbanzos with Cherry Tomatoes. Garbanzos are Spanish chickpeas. This is a wonderful side dish of the pulse with sweet tomatoes and herbs. One we will do again. Anthony’s book is brilliant – just like him.