This book contained fabulous pictures, and really was a joy to read. I hoped that the recipes lived up to the joy while reading, and they did so - some gems in here for sure! They are mostly easy to make, and don't require any hard to find ingredients - a great addition to your shelf.

Great recipes, easy to follow and lots of great photographs included.

I really enjoyed this! I would definitely purchase it if I see it at the bookstore. Even though most people joke that British cuisine does not exist, this book really argues differently.  It is also quite beautiful.

A great collection of recipes from across the UK.. This would be great to add to any cookbook collection for public libraries or those with culinary programs. For those looking to spice things up and try new things in the kitchen, you will not be disappointed.

Thank you for the opportunity to read this book; unfortunately I missed its window of availability, and no longer have access. I'm sorry I missed it.

Not just a straightforward recipe book, this also gives information on the chefs and their establishments. This book is not “traditional British food” like my grandma made, but more of the progressive, high style, new-age cuisine. It is not for the faint of heart or timid cook. There are some fancy techniques and some ingredients that could be difficult to find if you don’t live in a metropolitan area. That said, there are definitely some recipes here that I can’t wait to try.

Wonderfully written and easy to understand! Delicious ingredients and simple to make

Nourish and NetGalley provided me with a copy of The Really Quite Good British Cookbook: The Food We Love from 100 of Our Best Chefs, Cooks, Bakers and Local Heroes. This is my honest opinion of the book.

This weighty cookbook with over 400 pages showcases the best of British cuisine, as the chefs from the region have compiled some of their favorites.  From the celebrity chefs to the home cooks, the recipes contained within these pages will inspire those with all levels of expertise in the kitchen.  With breathtaking photographs accompanying some of the recipes, readers can get a clear picture of some of the finished dishes.

The recipes are marked in a clear and concise manner, making it easy for those who are dairy free, gluten free, or vegetarian to find recipes that will work for them.  Prep times, cook times, and skill levels are displayed throughout the different sections, like Breakfast, Pasta, Risotto & Sides, and Baking & Desserts.  Although this is a British cookbook, units of measure are displayed in both metric and standard for ease of use.  The only note of criticism that I have is regarding certain ingredients that may be unfamiliar to readers from other countries.  It would have been nice to have alternative ingredients listed or a description of the uncommon items, so that appropriate substitutions could be made.

The Really Quite Good British Cookbook is a great addition to the home cookbook library and I would recommend it to cooks who are looking to try something new in the kitchen.

If you’re still believing the stereotype that the food in the UK is terrible, you’ll want to check out The Really Quite Good British Cookbook: The Food We Love from 100 of Our Best Chefs, Cooks, Bakers and Local Heroes , which has been complied by William Sitwell. Maybe the UK has a few terrible home cooks that have won them a reputation, but the fact of the matter is that some of the world’s best restaurants are in the UK, and some of the pub food is fabulous. This excellent cookbook will get you excited about cooking really good British food.

The cookbook features unique and innovative recipes such as Grilled Banana Bread with Tahini and Honeycomb, Potted Shrimp on Toast, Risotto of Courgette and Crab, Baked Cod with Olive Crust and Lentils, and Sticky Bourbon Ribs. There are some traditional recipes, as well such as Toad in the Hole (a favorite at our house and this is an excellent recipe), Flapjacks (these are chewy oatmeal bar cookies), Bakewell Pudding (which is actually a tart), and a Guinness Chocolate Cake.

Although some of the recipes have a lot of ingredients, the recipes actually turn out as they should. They are fairly easy to follow, and there are enough of them to make almost everyone happy. There are excellent photographs of the dishes, and a good index and table of contents.

While this is not a basic British cookbook, and is, rather, one that has recipes from some of Britain’s top chefs, it is a good one to include in a recipe collection.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

This is very beautifully illustrated and the photography fabulous.  I loved looking through this book, although I am not sure how many of the recipes I would actually make.  In some ways this felt like more of a book to look at, rather than a book to cook from.

The Really Quite Good British Cookbook is filled with complex and exotic dishes inspired by the variety of vegetables, fruits, herbs and seafood available in the British Isles.  While there are a number of simpler dishes including keftides (meatballs), beef ragu, and toad in the hole, far more common are dishes you would likely see in a Michelin starred restaurant.  The list of contributors reads like a who’s who of the British culinary world.

I loved the pictures, but many of the recipes were out of my reach, partly because of difficulty obtaining certain ingredients but mainly because of the complexity.  I did like the grilled banana bread and the butternut squash chia pudding. The Really Quite Good British Cookbook is lovely to look at, but  I think that the majority of the included recipes will appeal to experienced chefs rather than beginners.

4 / 5

I received a copy of The Really Quite Good British Cookbook from the publisher and Netgalley.com

--Crittermom

This book is full of a wide variety of well-written recipes from a collection of British chefs. I made three recipes and all turned out well, encouraging me to want to make more.

A great collection of Modern British recipes from famous cooks , home cooks and Restaurant owners......

The Really Quite Good British Cookbook is a collection of recipes from one hundred contributors (but more than one hundred recipes). Many of the contributors are chefs, food writers, but the cookbook also features recipes from a food historian, a home baker, a beekeeper and more.

The recipes are organized into six sections: Breakfast; Entrees & Snacks' Fish & Seafood; Poultry, Meat & Game; Pasta, Risotto & Sides; Baking & Desserts. Each recipe is laid out well, providing number of servings, prep time, cook time, skill level (either 1 [easy] or 2 [moderate]), a few sentences about the dish from its' creator and then 'Ingredients' on the left and 'Method' in the center/right. It's a very clean, easy to read and follow format.

I have not yet been able to actually try making any of these recipes but I have read through many of them and their directions seem well written. With such variety in the contributors, you really get a bit of everything in this cookbook. Some (like Shrimp & Dill Fritters with Ouzo or Grilled Skirt Steak with Anchovy Cauliflower Cheese) are appealing and I'm curious to try. A few, I probably won't (Okay, really just the Roast Woodcock on Toast one . . . it's a whole bird roasted, it's head split open, its intestines, heart, and liver cut into a paste and then put on toast and I have a thing about eating things with heads currently on them.) But even the recipes I don't want to try, are unique.

In his introduction, the editor mentions how much is available in British supermarkets, if all of the ingredients used in these recipes are readily available, then I'm quite jealous. (From quail's eggs to fresh curry or kaffir lime leaves to woodcock, guinea fowl or pheasant, there are some things I don't have easy access to.)

The book has a comprehensive index that not only sorts things, as might be expected, by title but by main ingredients as well. That 'Roast Woodcock on Toast with Wild Mushrooms' for example is listed under 'bread,' 'mushrooms,' 'woodcock,' and the title's under the R's. There are website or Twitter addresses for most of the contributors and information on where their recipes were previously published.

A portion of the book's proceeds will benefit The Trussell Trust which runs food banks in Britain (there's a page at the end of the book explaining what they do and why's it's so vitally important).

My advance copy did not feature any images but those I have seen through Amazon's book preview are very nice. They're simple but colorful and really seem to showcase the food.

Wow, what a book!  
There are 100 British chefs, cooks and bakers sharing their favourite recipes, and how! The photographs are beautiful, the instructions are easy to follow and the meals look delicious. They cover breakfast, entrée/snack, fish/seafood, poultry/meat/game, pasta/risotto /sides, and baking/desserts. Nothing like having a fabulous foodie at your fingertips.
But most important a percentage of all sales go to the Trussell Trust - stop UK Hunger, what a great cause.

The best cookbooks are full of recipes that become our 'go-to' choices when cooking for family and friends. This book has this philosophy at its heart as it challenges some of Britain's best known and loved chefs to choose those recipes that they cook at home rather than in their restaurants. The lay-out is clear and the photography inspiring. For me - what sets this above many compilations is the index, which makes it easy to find suitable recipes based on what is in the fridge begging to be used. You can also select recipes based on particular dietary needs. Vegetarians and those who want or need to follow a gluten-free or dairy-free diet, will have plenty of choice. Prepare to be inspired and encouraged.

Looks like a terrific collection of recipes- an exciting new entry onto the cookbook shelf

This is a beautiful book. Superb photography, both of the food and the contributors.   I really enjoyed the comments from the contributors too. Well laid out, easy to read, and not over edited, so there was variation in the style of recipe writing.  
So why only three stars?  My problem  is with the title.  The Really Quite Good British Cookbook was hugely appealing and  the preface says that the "book celebrates the melting pot of cuisines.... highlighting our cultural mix"  So I was expecting more along the lines of traditional English fare that has been tweaked  to add interesting ingredients or given an new approach to common ingredients - Gordon Ramsay's combination of Beef Brisket with a New Potato Piccalilli Salad or Adam Byatt's Pot-roasted Guinea Fowl with Wild Mushrooms, Prunes and Thyme  (which I cooked and it was delicious!) or the interesting English Asparagus with Ginger and Garlic butter from Mark Sargeant are the sort of recipes I was expecting to find. But Colombian Chicken and Potato Soup ?  Using dried guasca leaves?  I don't think that, and other recipes of its ilk have a place in  a "British Cookbook" 
If you buy recipe books to sit on the coffee table, this is definitely a book for you. It really is gorgeous to browse through.  I'm in two minds whether I would buy it for myself though - a couple of recipes that really looked great, but probably not enough to justify buying the book.

Really quite good. Nice range of recipes but doesn't stand out enough in the competitive world of cookbooks. Needed to get more inspiration from it. Quite good but not brilliant.

This book is just a big wow! Such a wealth of recipies, some of them what everyone would term "English" but the majority from all around the world, but from people who became English, and it's amazing how varied these recipies are. 
In this book you get it all, traditionell, exotic or both, I love this book!