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May15
ARTS&LEISURE
ON THE
PAGE
If you’re looking for agood read thismonth,
here are our thoughts on a selection of
recent releases.
MY BEST
Daniel Boulud
Editions Alain
Ducasse
115 pages
Hailing from Lyon,
France, Daniel
Bou l ud i s t he
chef and owner
of award-winning
r e s t a u r a n t s
throughout the
world, including
New York’s three-
Michelin-starred
Restaurant Daniel,
and Singapore’s
newly revamped
db Bistro and Oyster Bar at Marina Bay Sands Shoppes.
A fan of Chef Boulud, I was eager to get my hands on
his new hardcover cookbook,
My Best
– part of the Alain
Ducasse series of recipe books featuring top, career-defining
dishes by some of the world’s most celebrated chefs,
including Eric Ripert, Pierre Herme and Ducasse himself.
Though I’m often intimidated by cookbooks, there’s
something different about
My Best
– perhaps a more casual
feel, starting with an interesting, two-page interview with the
personable Chef Boulud, and continuing with image-rich,
step-by-step guides for each of the 11 featured dishes, plus a
story about each dish, and where and how it was conceived.
Since I’m a visual person, I love the fact that there’s an
ingredients shot for each recipe (a great visual checklist
that makes the task seem less daunting), and then plenty
of photos for each step along the way – a way to dumb it
down for people like me without actually coming across as
condescending.
It’s a classy, accessible and beautifully photographed
step-by-step tutorial that makes even the more difficult dishes
look totally doable at home; I especially can’t wait to try my
hand at Chef Boulud’s sea bass “En Paupiette” – a specialty
from his days at famed Le Cirque in New York City – and the
Moroccan chicken tagine with cauliflower.
Other featured recipes from his illustrious career include
venison ragout
orecchiette
with roasted chestnuts and
butternut squash, harissa-spiced lamb with eggplant and
m’hamsa
(couscous), cedar-grilled
rouget
with fennel and
mushroom filling and lemon vinaigrette, and octopus
a
la plancha
with Valencia orange and almond puree – a
Mediterranean-inspired specialty, found both at Manhattan’s
Boulud Sud and db Oyster Bar and Bistro here in Singapore.
As for dessert, while Chef Boulud’s Gâteau Basque with
brandied cherries and vanilla crème anglaise seems doable at
home for an experienced cook, I’d be a bit wary of attempting
the Grapefruit Givré with sesame halva and rose
loukoum
;
for this one, I think I’d rather just fly to New York for a taste
at Boulud Sud.
Amy Greenburg
THE MISSING AND
THE DEAD
(LOGAN MCRAE,
BOOK 9)
Stuart McBride
HarperCollins
581 pages
Just when acting
c h i e f i n s p e c t o r
L o g a n M c R a e
thinks he’s about to
be promoted, he is
transferred to a B
Division policing role
in the rural depths of
northern Scotland
– a “developmental
opportunity”, they tell
him.
Unlike most UK police novels, the plot of
The Missing and
the Dead
doesn’t focus solely on a single major investigation;
though it has that, too – the body of a small girl is washed
in by the tide, sparking off a major manhunt and bringing
in the arrogant Major Investigation Team from Aberdeen.
Instead, this reminds me of some of the better TV police
series, weaving in a number of genuinely interesting sub-
plots and conjuring a realistic evocation of everyday life
in a police force in the wilds of Scotland – from domestic
abuse and drug dealing to Saturday-night brawling and a
cat up a tree.
As if McRae’s new day-job weren’t demanding enough,
he inevitably gets drawn into the murder investigation, and
his ex-boss – DCI Steel – wants him back on her team. She,
by the way, is just one of many well-drawn characters in a
gritty novel that gripped me from start to finish.
I enjoy McBride’s clean, sharp, to-the-point style of writing
and look forward to going back and reading the first eight
books in the series. No doubt I’ll then know exactly why
DCI Steel calls McRae “Laz” – risen from near-death after a
dreadful injury, it’s hinted.
Roy Titchmarsh