Cookbook Review – The Basics by Anthony Telford

Hundreds of Easy to Follow Recipes with Simple Ingredients

Apr 7, 2009

With basic everyday meals, recipe troubleshooting tips, substitute ingredient ideas and general cooking tips, this cookbook is ideal for both new and experienced cooks.

Experienced professional chef Anthony Telford offers home cooks a comprehensive guide to getting it right in the kitchen with The Basics: A really useful cookbook (Allen & Unwin, 2009).

A Really Useful Cookbook

With more than 500 pages covering a range of recipes and mealtimes, The Basics is suitable as a reference for Australian home cooks for both everyday family meals and entertaining.

Most recipes occupy a double page spread, with one page listing ingredients and method and the second offering a range of hints and tips including a list of necessary equipment, recipe variations, solutions for common cooking mistakes and general cooking tips relevant to that particular recipe. Each recipe lists the final quantity or number of serves.

A Basic Recipes section includes preparing stocks, a range of pastries and other recipes for items used as a base or ingredient in further recipes including beer batter, fondue and vanilla sugar.

A final section of Really Useful Information contains almost 100 pages of additional information about specific ingredients, food allergies and intolerances, food additives, basic preserving and cooking techniques, essential kitchen equipment, conversion charts and basic pantry essentials.

Basic and Useful Cooking Tips and Recipes

Somewhat surprisingly for a book written by a professional chef, The Basics delivers what it promises, a cookbook that really is suitable for home cooks of varying degrees of experience and skill who want an all-in-one cookbook.

Offering a range of recipes suitable for everyday meals and entertaining, the greatest benefit of The Basics over other back-to-basics cookbooks is the selection of recipe variations, general cooking tips and recipe rescue remedies.

The lack of photographs or illustrations may be a drawback for some, although recipe instructions are given in a very clear step-by-step format and addition tips ensure that even cooks with only basic cooking skills and experience should be able to easily prepare most recipes.

Anthony Telford

The author of The Kitchen Hand (Allen & Unwin, 2003) and a regular guest on Australian commercial TV and radio, Anthony Telford is a trained chef and at the age of 21 was the executive chef at Rydges hotel in Melbourne.

Despite his extensive professional experience, Telford draws inspiration for The Basics from his childhood and his rural upbringing. It is perhaps this home rather than professional kitchen inspiration that has ensured that The Basics is indeed suitable for everyday cooks rather than professional or experienced chefs, as is so often the case with celebrity chef cookbooks.

Guide to Cooking Basics

While The Basics may not be “the only cookbook you will ever need” (as stated on the cover), it is certainly an extremely practical and comprehensive guide to functioning competently in the kitchen thanks to the large collection of recipes and practical tips on meal preparation, stocking a pantry and kitchen and dealing with common problems.

The large number of tips and variations ensure that even experienced cooks will learn something new. The Basics is particularly suitable as a housewarming gift or for anyone moving out of home for the first time.

The copyright of the article Cookbook Review – The Basics by Anthony Telford in Home Decor/Cookbooks is owned by Susan Whelan. Permission to republish Cookbook Review – The Basics by Anthony Telford in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.