The Prawn Cocktail Years

Here they all are, fresh as paint, as if they'd never been away. Why did we let them go? Neglected, derided, dismissed as hopelessly naff, in what dismal Midlands eateries have they been waiting out the years of shame? No matter, they're back. Prawn Cocktail, Steak and Chips and Black Forest Gateau are the signature dishes of The Prawn Cocktail Years, a bravura collection of favourite restaurant dishes from the Fifties, Sixties and Seventies--years when Britain was learning to eat out. How evocative the recipe titles are (the authors describe a Proustian moment when the memories came pouring out): Coquilles St-Jacques, Sole Veronique, Beef Stroganoff, Mixed Grill, Swedish Meatballs, Wiener Schnitzel, Chicken Maryland, Crepes Suzette, Peach Melba and Profiteroles. Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham remind us firmly that although these may not chime with present food fashions (or prejudices), they were loved in their time and should be again, because when well made they are very good dishes indeed. They need no apology or special pleading.

The time machine of The Prawn Cocktail Years visits a number of favourite establishments over the years: the Fifties Hotel Dining Room, the Gentleman's Club, the Continental Restaurant. It looks into the coffee-bar madness that was Expresso Bongo (unexpectedly, perhaps, offering Cornish Pasty and Sausage Rolls for refreshment here), the Sixties Bistro, the Tratt-Era and Chez Gourmet; and returns us to the present burning to throw out our sun-dried tomatoes and lemon-grass and get down to making a good Fish Pie and Brown Bread Ice-Cream. Readers of a certain age, as they say, will be thrilled to see these old friends again; younger readers may care to discover what we ate before cooking became the new rock 'n' roll. --Robin Davidson

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View books by Simon Hopkinson, Lindsey Bareham.

The signature dishes of the 50s, 60s and 70s, `Prawn Cocktail`, `Steak and Chips' & `Black Forest Gateau' ....back on the menu. - Rated
Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham have written several individual books between them, but this one has that.....well.....`je ne sais quoi'!
It just beckons one to open the seductive looking black cover and reveal the collection of favourite restaurant dishes from the 50s, 60s and 70s, revisited with nostalgia and a fair bit of pride.

For me the book arrived at a time when I was desperately seeking, dare I say a new `shop-bought', `Marie Rose Sauce', as my favourite had been given an up-to-date `tweak' with red peppercorns! Yuk!
As I sampled the vast array, most were too lemony, too mayonnaisey or simply too bland.......so the answer....well.... good old DIY!

And with the help of the `Prawn Cocktail Years', it is actually incredibly easy to achieve just the right balance for your own sauce.
Quite simply with...........well, actually, on second thoughts, I don't think I could possibly spoil the surprise!
The mouth-watering `Prawn Cocktail' photograph on page 15, and in the images above, is enticing enough in its own right to encourage the purchase of this gem of a book, which opens up to a wealth of forgotten or `not culinary correct' recipes.

272 shiny, incredibly high quality pages, split over 8 chapters:-

The Great British Meal Out
The 50s Hotel Dining Room
The Gentleman's Club
The Continental Restaurant
Expresso Bongo
The 60s Bistro
The Tart-era
Chez Gourmet

with introductions for the September 2006 edition as well as the original in February 1997, plus a recipe index and a general index.
Each chapter opens with text, often humorous, as do the recipes, e.g.:-

`Black Forest Gateau'
`Along with rather sad oranges in caramel, wilting profiteroles, gaudy sherry trifle and too-much-apple-in-it fruit salad,
`BFG' remains the bully of the sweet trolley.
It's always there isn't it, in the most prominent position, shoved in your face almost. `And will Madam be having cream with that?' Yes, of course she will, we all do, poured from that silver-plated jug and drowning the already creamy black wedge into submission............'

Recipes are well laid out with a clear list of ingredients and method, and include:-

Steak Garni and Chips
Scampi with Tartare Sauce
Chicken Maryland
Tournedos Rossini
Peach Melba
Toad-in-the-hole
Spotted Dick and Custard
Jam Roly-Poly
Chicken Kiev
Rhum Baba
Cornish Pasty
Treacle Tart
Steak au Poivre
Lobster Bisque
Quiche Lorraine
Beef Stroganoff
Duck a l'Orange
Sirloin steak with Red Wine Sauce
Syllabub

Sumptuous full colour photography throughout, sometimes double page spreads - not of every recipe but one can forgive that for a book of this calibre .....and the book stays open at the required place, which isn't achieved by all publications!

Quite simply, this book has become my new `Number One', with five star+ status - and it takes an awful lot to do that!

The Greatest Cookery Book Ever? - Rated
Quite possibly in my view. I have an elderly dog-eared copy of this. It's covered in food stains because the recipes are so good, and it's so well written that you can read it for pleasure.

The Ultimate British Cookbook - Rated
This is the only cookery book I have worn out through repeated use (the first edition). I looked for a replacement a while ago and a second hand one was going for £50 - that's how unwilling people who own this book are to part with it!

Every recipe merits it's own 10 page rave - from the unashamedly posh Savoy Hotel's Omlette Arnold Bennet, the Tournedos Rossini with it's foie gras and black truffle fit for royalty, the Victorian breakfast kedgeree right out of the last days days of the Raj, Jam Roly Poly 'Dead man's leg' pudding beloved of public schoolboys (and lords) everywhere, real cornwall cornish paasty, and the rather eccentric sounding brown bread ice cream.

The real icing on the cake (pardon the pun) though is the writers' style - this is a book to read even when you are nowhere near the kitchen, even when you're eating a big mac. Each recipe has as its introduction a brief but fascinating history of where it originated, how it became 'British', and how it won its place in the canon of culinary history.

The recipes are listed by the establishments that made them famous - The fifties hotel dining room, the Gentleman's club, the Italianate 'Espresso Bongo' coffee bars the cropped up in Soho in the 60's and many others - giving you the choice to dine like a lord, a cornish miner, or a mod or rocker.

This is the cookbook of Britain - if you're not a native Brit it's time to treat your tastebuds in a way you never thought possible coming from these isles. If you are a Brit - it's time for a journey through your culinary birthright.

A wonderful read, which provides great recipes - Rated
A lovely book full of stories and nostalgia. The recipes cover a lost era of British food which are well worth recalling. Excellent writing. Thoroughly recommended.

Classic recipes given a delicious new spin - Rated
A wonderful reinterpretation of classic dishes which have fallen out of favour, this book gives you the ultimate - and delicious - recipe not just for prawn cocktail, but for coq au vin, chicken kiev, a really ace shepherd's pie and fantastically good (and quick) saltimbocca. All the recipes work and it's food you really want to eat. The pictures are great. Highly recommended.