My Review:
Supper for a Song: Creative Comfort Food for the Resourceful Cook by 
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Pass me the Peche de Vigne, darling!
^^ Author Tamasin Day-Lewis, UK celebrity chef and food writer for the Daily Telegraph, Vanity Fair, Vogue and Food Illustrated, has put together a nice looking and detailed book from which the back of the book blurb quotes “To feed a family for a song and still encompass all that is great is down to Tamasin’s amazing passion, with an eye to the purse strings.” This lead me to believe it would be a more simple “how to spread your meals further and save money” type of book.
^^ In some ways it is just that, but not in the true sense since many of the ingredients are not what the average household would have in their pantry. She does encourage the reader to be creative, but most resourceful cooks when being prudent in the kitchen will not forage in the fridge, field and larder in search of things like Monkfish, Wild Salmon, Squid, expensive cheeses, vanilla pods, peche de vigne, and a variety of Port or wine, as suggested. Well, not in my house anyway!
^^ The book also claims to have advice on things like keeping the store cupboard well stocked, and how to make the most of seasonal gluts, but for a cookbook missing a contents page this was not easily found. For these reasons I’m giving this book three stars (Amazon).
Overall: As a general cookbook it works. It is creative and I do like her suggestion for roast chicken with sausage, sage and prune stuffing, and what to do with the carcass. I have even tried a few of the recipes in the Happy Food and The Saturday Bake sections, with some success! However, for a book that at first appears to be written for those on a budget it’s not quite as satisfying as her delectable (expensive) puddings and lays heavy on me.
Buy Now Links: Amazon UK . After all, it’s a cook book with nice recipes, but not for those on a budget, which this was targeted at. I think had this been marketed differently, it would have done much better.
View all my reviews on Goodreads.
Sounds like this cookbook missed its mark… too bad. Obviously ‘frugal’ means something different for Tamasin. 😄
Fun Fact: I LOVE to cook and try new dishes and cooking techniques… and have tons of cookbooks, but you know what I don’t have? A cookbook which contains a recipe for squid. Not one. It’s a dealbreaker for me. Squid recipe=no buy for me! 😧😏😄
Exactly – not frugal.
The cover looks yummy! I love cookbooks– all kinds, though, I too, will not try squid. LOL But I do love try new recipes and ingredients so I should look into this one, if nothing else, for the variety. By the way, I got the 1001 books to read before you die because of your review! : )
That’s fantastic news! I do hope you are enjoying it! Do drop by and leave any links to your reviews, if you want 🙂
Will do! : )
Aw darn, sorry this one was only a two star for you. I’ve been recently looking at more cookbooks! One of my best friends got my fiancé and I a wonderful one. But I have yet to try any recipes from it! I need to hurry up and do that!
Yes, you do! They say a way to a man’s heart is through is food lol