I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book; it was highly informative. I will certainly recommend it to others. Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

I was intrigued about this book and the 90s for me was a fun time-not being able to afford Michelin star restaurant food, but there seemed to be a influx of "celebrity chefs" - thank you to NetGalley for letting me review.

First of all as the author has written many Good Food Guides this was a theme running through the book. Essentially ,the description of this book calls “a tasting tour of 33 iconic dishes that still shape restaurant menus today,” There is a huge emphasis on the chef Marco Pierre White - so maybe the author was going to write a biography of Marco then thought differently as there were many famous chefs around this time. Although the emphasis on the 90s - there is history about foods we grew up - I was born 19 year after the war ended so a lot is familiar to me.
One thing to say was the sheer amount of testosterone in the kitchens and shocking bullying that went on that appears to have been accepted to get on within this cut throat industry some survived, some could not cope with the stress of a coveted Michelin star and I read in one of Hugh Fearnley Whitingstall books about his experience of having his head flushed down the toilet at River Cafe!!! We saw on TV Gordon Ramsey and Marco Pierre Whites way of managing a kitchen was to shout and swear which was shocking then and still is.
For readers not so familiar with some chefs this may not be so interesting for readers and although ground-breaking we were not all able to have expensive meals with mortgage interest rates late 80s at 13% and juggling jobs to get through.
I did travel and airline meals were included so we made to feel grateful that Brian Turner had spent a long time with his skills to be given a cheese and pickle sandwich with his name on or a chicken roast dinner with James Martin name on it - how they must have burnt the midnight oil with the recipes.
It did bring back nostalgia - Jamie Oliver showed you could make fab supper dishes for your friends with good ingredients and less faff.
I hoped Bradford would have got a mention as we ate some great curries in the 90s there, we also enjoyed micro breweries in West Yorkshire and I did enjoy a chicken in a basket and a Yorkshire pudding filled with roast beef and gravy.
We watched Ready Steady Cook and were amazed at what chefs could cook with a few ingredients - I would now say what we have in the house so not really cheffy now.
It does show the chefs like Heston cooking with science, and Rick Stein and his empire in Padstow and the differing trends such as organic, field to fork, local and season ( which is one of the best) and definitely better food- the thing about resurrecting your grandmother meals - well for me they were awful so liver and onions today is well cooked but not in my mothers or grandmothers day.
In this time it was very male dominated and there was a lack of woman at the top, which thank fully has moved on and today, we have vegan which has taken us by storm.
I did think at times where was I in the 90s - but like a lot of us there was still industry long hours and we could not afford some of the meals.
In the 200s I did review a couple of recipes for a Gordon Ramsey cook book, saddle of lamb and the other fishcakes and my name is mentioned in the Olive and Good Food Magazine.
Interesting book and due for publication September 25 2025.

Marco Pierre White is on the cover of Andrew Turvil’s Blood, Sweat, and Asparagus Spears, and even though the book purports to be a telling of the revolution that happened in the culinary world in 1990s Britain, White remains front and center throughout a good portion of the book. Most chapters include a passing reference to White in some way, including detailed descriptions of photographs from his book White Heat, information about many of the restaurants White opened, details about White’s likes and dislikes, information on his relationships with other chefs, and much more. I wondered if the author originally hoped to write a book about White and his contributions to 1990s British food culture but instead made the decision to write more broadly while still including all of his information about White.

Each chapter heading is a dish from a restaurant, which the description of this book calls “a tasting tour of 33 iconic dishes that still shape restaurant menus today,” and while some of the dishes are recounted quite enticingly by Turvil, others are barely mentioned and instead are used as a vague prompt to discuss the chapter’s subject. In the same vein, some of the chapters plod along, dutifully recounting restaurants and chefs and historical events, but others positively sing, such as Turvil’s chapters about how Indian food became less generic, the lack of women chefs heading Michelin-starred kitchens, how fusion restaurants came to be, Heston Blumenthal and the rise of molecular gastronomy, how gastropubs came to be, and why and how British restaurants began to embrace the informality that many restaurants are still known for today.

While many of the chapters in this book provide a very interesting and delicious sounding look at British restaurants during a decade when huge changes in ingredients, culture, economy, and celebrity happened, there is a glaring lack of detail in quite a few sections of the book. I read several paragraphs over repeatedly to make sure I didn’t miss the context that is desperately needed in many instances in this book. If you are well acquainted with the chefs of 1990s British culture, as well as the food they made, this book will be an easy read for you. If not, this book provides a good, albeit general, description of a momentous decade in British culinary history that will allow you to seek out more information on the chefs or food moments that interest you.

Despite not being much of a cook, I’ve always been fascinated by chefs and the restaurant industry as a whole. It probably dates back to watching Ready, Steady, Cook (which is mentioned in the book) with Nana. I like how instead of just one chef’s journey, through the lens of working at the Good Food Guide, the author discusses the major cultural shifts that took place in the British food scene in the 1990s. There were plenty of chefs I’d read about or seen on TV.

The chapters are named after a dish at a particular restaurant but as well as giving the background of that restaurant, they’re also used to illustrate wider themes for example the growing pride in high quality local produce, influences from other cultures besides classical French, the lack of women in the top positions at Michelin starred restaurants and the changing attitudes towards vegetarianism (which I found really interesting because I’ve been a vegetarian since the early 1990s).

I finished reading Blood, Sweat and Asparagus Spears in less than a day and when I had to take a break, I was eager to get back to it. It’s easy to follow and manages to cover restaurants from different cuisines and parts of the UK without getting bogged down with too much detail. It definitely made me hungry and eager to broaden my culinary horizons both at home and at restaurants.