Bill Granger

Bills Everyday Asian
Bill Granger
Quadrille Publishing
September 2011

Bill Granger has had quite a remarkable background. Today he is a successful restauranteur and well recognised chef. His books have an international audience and he appears regularly on television in many countries. His smile and casual manner are seen in his cooking and in his approach to food.

"Born in Melbourne into a family of butchers and bakers, Bill moved to Sydney when he was nineteen. As an art student with a passion for food, he worked part-time as a waiter and gradually his focus shifted from
the easel to the kitchen. In 1993, at just 22 years old, he opened the original bills in the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst..." (from www.bills.com.au)

The unique thing about this first venture was the only meal you could get at Bills was breakfast, seemed an odd thing to do in Sydney at that time but it was a runaway success. His approach to food has always been straight forward, simple food prepared with the very freshest ingredients. Let the quality of your ingredients create the flavours.

This book is for those who love the flavours of Asian food and want to cook those dishes at home. The recipes cover many cuisines and many countries and includes classic dishes such as pad Thai and Hainanese Chicken rice to street foods found all over Asia. In the introduction Granger lays out a simple philosophy to cooking these recipes, creating authentic flavours at home with the minimal number of ingredients. One thing he does say is that if you want to go hunting for those hard to find ingredients go for it but he also wisely he gives everyday western ingredients which can be used instead. The reason is that he doesn't want the difficulty of finding an ingredient keeping the home cook form diving in and trying the wonderful flavours.

The first recipe I tried was a wonderful prawn dish simple but packing in some real flavours, the second a cashew chicken curry that was just delightful. This is a great book and one I would recommend to anyone who loves Asian food or would like to start cooking Asian food is not not sure where or how to get started.