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The River Cottage Year
by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Amazon Review
For an ever-growing army of admirers, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall can do no wrong. The River Cottage Year seems sure to follow the commercial and critical success of his previous book, The River Cottage Cookbook, which was something of a publishing phenomenon, selling by the bucket-load and winning every major cookery book award.

The format of this new book is intriguingly different: this time we are given (in chronological order) the author's insights and observations on life and food as the seasons and months go past, interweaving cookery with the cycles of the natural year. These sections aren't all the book has to offer: the new volume is crammed with 100 original seasonal recipes, all beautifully detailed. Of course, we may look at the results of these mouthwatering delights in the new Channel 4 series that accompanies this book and lament how we're not quite in the same cookery league. But Fearnley-Whittingstall has a gift not possessed by some of his rivals: we are always made to feel that the delights offered here are within our grasp, provided we follow the helpful advice we are given.

The food is a mixture of the ambitious and the achievable, and looking through The River Cottage Year is a blissful experience, whether your intention is simply to dream about dishes or to actually get down to the nitty-gritty of making them. The illustrations are as tempting as anything in the text, and the book will unquestionably raise the author's profile still higher.

Barry Forshaw

Daily Telegraph
A tonic for jaded cooks and an utter delight for lovers of real English food

Getting back in touch with the seasons (13 September 2005)
Reviewer: J. Brand "jbrand" (UK)

If you were to judge this simply on the recipes then this is much the same as many of hugh's other books, lots of recipes but a fair chunk of text given over to the lifestyle and, lets be honest, that's where Hugh's books are pitched in the market they are selling a vision of a lifestyle and not a manual on how to run your kitchen. In fact based simply on the recipes I'd say that this is probably not the best of his books but it wins on one major point. By dividing it into months it answers that question that so many of us may have wondered - what is in season now? It is, after all, too easy to stand in the local supermarket and be so isolated from the natural world that you have no idea that this is the time of year when if you see aspargus on the shelves then its probably been air freighted half way around the planet.

Buy this, read the recipes by month and go to the grocers and markets rather than supermarkets. Its one simple step to feeling better about consumption.

Idyllic Reading (19 July 2005)
Reviewer: "tracydgreen" - See all my reviews

I received this book for my birthday and was not dissappointed. I do receive a weekly delivery of organic seasonal local veg and found the book to walk hand in hand with this ideal. I am vegetarian and the book is filled with suitable recipes although I must admit when it comes to poaching season, I wont be able to find many recipes to use. I have made many of the recipes so far and each has been easy and a delight on the pallet. I have also found myself spurred on my Hughs enthusiasm for making up recipes and had the courage/confidence to make up a few recipes of my own that were brilliant.

If you love his series and believe in what he stands for then you will love reading this book. It is full of dreamy pictures of his life in Dorset and there are recipes a plenty.

A Pleasing Seasonal Guide (8 July 2004)
Reviewer: A. Weston "Adrian Weston" (Brighton, UK)

Ideal for those with a veg-box or an urge to shop locally - the perfect antidote to out-of-season supermarket shrink-wrapped goods. The saintly Hugh has created another clarion cry to think before we buy, cook and eat.

The recipes are as yummy as ever.

From the Downshifting Guru a very entertaining read! (11 May 2004)
Reviewer: Tracey Smith

This month, my imagination has been captured, bound and gagged by "The River Cottage Year"; a book I have had a great deal of trouble putting down.

As the title suggests, it walks you through 12 months with Mr Fearnley-Whittingstall, better known perhaps as the shaggy-haired master of all food, free and frugal.

Watched on Channel 4 by devoted following of downshifters, thrifty and experimental cooks, HFW has inspired the nation with his waste nothing style of cooking.

7" by 9 1/2", it gives you a full 1 1/4" of good quality paper, a fabulous smattering of images from his kitchen and a delightful collection of seasonal recipes.

With around 9 recipes for each month and a super preamble to each month preceding them, he writes with a style that makes you think he is an old friend sat at your kitchen table, chatting away, whilst enjoying a large bacon sandwich.

Relaxed, pleasing to the eye and easy to read, each recipe is almost a story and a thorough pleasure to follow, or just flick through with a nice cup of tea.

The pictures by Simon Wheeler leave you entertained and salivating. He seems to have captured Hugh, his kitchen, family, garden and usual surroundings like a professional fly-on-the-wall and even though there are not pictures to accompany every dish, somehow just it doesn't matter.

One of my favourite images is the one underneath the dust jacket, which invites you to open the book to full spread to enjoy something steamy and mouthwatering being pulled from the oven, by a white shirted Fearnley-Whittingstall.

What was that meal I am left wondering?

This is not a traditional style recipe book, it is two steps better in my opinion. It opens eyes to new possibilities and gives frugal food positive sex appeal!

By highlighting the importance of seasonality and where food really comes from, he is challenging the way people view the delights on their plates - to great and positive effect!

With recipes like "Lightly salted relatives of cod in beer batter" to "Flatbread stack with roasted peppers and borlotti beans" right down to good old "Mushroom soup" and "Blackberry, apple and almond cobbler", you cannot fail to find something that makes you want to rush out into your garden to see what you can throw in the pot.

The book and all the food splashes on my favourite pages, sits pretty in a handy place in my kitchen.

If you want to see food in a new light, put it on yours too!

If you want to order a copy of the book - click here (USA)
If you want to order a copy of the book - click here (UK)

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