Roast Chicken and Other Stories

Roast Chicken and Other Stories
Simon Hopkinson
Hyperion
ISBN: 978-1-4013-0862-9
Non-Fiction, Cookbook
Reviewed by Dr. Tami Brady

I found Roast Chicken and Other Stories a little different from the other cookbooks that I’ve used. The thing I like most about this book is the conversational tone throughout the book. Even while working through the recipes, I felt like I was having a nice conversation with the author. He’d tell me about the places he’d travelled, why he’d added this recipe to the book, or about an interesting experience. I think that perhaps this friendly, down to earth tone made me a little more willing to try recipes that I might not necessarily try otherwise. In all cases, I was thankful that I had made the effort because the dishes were absolutely delicious and quite easy to prepare once I had gathered all of the ingredients.
Although I liked the conversational tone, I don’t think it completely matched the recipes in this book. The recipes are divided into sections, each one representing a different food from anchovy and chicken through kidneys and potatoes to squab and veal. From the title, I had expected a cookbook filled with down-home recipes that contained roast chicken and all of the fixings. I think the tone of this book would have matched that theme well. However, many of the recipes in this book included main ingredients that I wouldn’t normally buy let alone know how to serve. Most of the dishes that I will cook again will likely be for special occasions rather than daily meals.