Parlour Cafe Cookbook - Review
In the world of food there are really two ways to get noticed outside of your own kitchen. You can present a television show in which you berate then console simpletons for whatever culinary infractions they may have committed, or you can write a recipe book. Gillian Veal of Dundee's Parlour Café has plumped for the second, less sweary option.
The first title from Dundee's Kitchen Press, the Parlour Café Cookbook does what it says on the cover, presenting a collection of recipes from the café's not-quite-Vegetarian menu. The book is broken down into the various meals of the day, and there are influences from around the world in the dishes. In short, there's plenty to be getting on with.
The most pleasing thing about the Parlour Café Cookbook is how, well, book-like it is. The level of detail in individual recipes is great, with techniques and quantities explained properly. It feels strange to compliment a recipe book for using measurements rather than 'bits' or 'splashes', but this simplicity gives the impression that this book is designed to be used, as well as giving you the confidence to actually use it. Introductory paragraphs and insights into café life make this an interesting read in its own right, and the book pleasingly refuses to show off its recipes with enormous photos of smug, self-satisfied young people enjoying themselves.
Instead, simple black-and-white illustrations from Jen Collins are dotted throughout the book, and while they're nothing special on their own they do help maintain the theme of doing the basics well. However, all this simplicity does come at a cost. The balance between sections is a little off; as an example, there are 18 pages on salads and mezze platters, but just 12 pages of main courses. For those of us who don't make a living as café chefs, cooking time is primarily main course time and a recipe book with so little focus on actual meals seems a little off. It all seems a bit too straightforward.
That, of course, is the whole point. The Parlour Café Cookbook shows that good café cooking is within the grasp of all of us, and that food shouldn't be complicated for the sake of complication. It shows us all that with a little perseverance, some creativity, and a larder full of ingredients, we too can land our own pseudo-motivational food programme on Channel 4.