Good Together: Drink & Feast with Mr Lyan & Friends

Another gem from Mr. Lyan! Wonderful, creative recipes that I’ve been enjoying at home! If you enjoy getting creative in the kitchen, don’t miss this one!

Food is such a vital part of our lives. For many professionals, free time and socializing are almost foreign concepts. This book is a celebration of getting together and relaxing and enjoying the people we care for at the same time as we eat and enjoy good food. Almost everyone seems to have some foods from their past which are tied into some shared family history. Aunt Gen's cranberry orange salad, gran's chestnut turkey dressing, that broccoli cheddar casserole that cousin Judy always brings... etc. This book is a very adventurous trendy gastronomique version of those homey dishes. These are edgy, impressive, challenging and (to me) very unusual. The collaborators in this cookbook are all, as far as I can tell, professional foodies, most of them actively cooking for very high end restaurants. Many of the ingredients are (again, to me) bizarre and difficult to source. A few examples: fennel pollen (p. 30), moscatel vinegar (p.34, presumably sherry vinegar would be an acceptable substitute?), 300g (10½oz) beef muscle, from a happy, grass-fed cow (p. 42), salted wild garlic capers (same recipe), gentian liqueur (Kamm & Sons for preference, p. 70), etc. There is also a lot of very specialized and expensive kitchen equipment specified in the recipes. I usually try to test several recipes before reviewing cookbooks, however, this time around, I could only easily source the ingredients for one of the recipes: Cherry Kirsch Cake (p. 110). It was lovely, and I closely followed the directions (including adding eggs one at a time with flour to prevent splitting), but my cake split quite ferociously. I think if I try the recipe again, I will probably add a pan of water to increase the humidity in the oven (or maybe source eggs from truly happy chickens) ;) The photography is lovely and compliments the recipes very well. (I was also fascinated by the varied and beautiful tattoos of the creators pictured in the book). Final thoughts. VERY fancy, very trendy, fairly difficult. For foodies who intend to impress and really love the process of food and creating food. Three and a half stars, would be 4-5 for die-hard foodies. Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.

Rarely does a cookbook come along that contains absolutely nothing tempting enough to put forth the effort to cook. However, Good Together: Drink & Feast with Mr. Lyan & Friends is one of those rare cookbooks. Mr. Lyan runs two very famous bars in London, and there is no doubt that he is gifted when coming up with fancy drinks and running bars. However, in an effort to add upscale recipes, Mr. Lyan has paired his tempting drinks with famous chef’s recipes that have absolutely no appeal to the mainstream cook or foodie. Most of the recipes are for dishes that will most likely appeal to the pretentious, who think that eating ostentatious and extravagant foods will make them somehow better than all of the other humans who eat. Even in a cookbook as unappealing as this (personally, I have over 7,000 cookbooks in my recipe collection and have over 30 years of experience reviewing and cooking from them, and so know what constitutes a good or a poor cookbook for most people), there are positive aspects. The photographs, especially of the drinks, are beautiful. The prose is well-written and easy to understand. The book is organized and it is easy to find what you are searching for. This is a cookbook for food snobs. Since the focus is on the drinks, it is also a book for those looking for unique and fun cocktails. It is for that reason alone – fancy drinks - that Good Together: Drink & Feast with Mr. Lyan & Friends has any appeal at all, and the only reason to actually purchase it. For those who appreciate good cookbooks, this is definitely one to skip. Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Good Together by Ryan Chetiyawardana, et. al. is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in early November. A diverse, eclectic, gathering-themed cookbook compiled from several different cooks (i.e. each chef/restauranteur chimes in with a full menu related to a kind of gathering, rather than all the drinks, appetizers, etc. being grouped together) that's replete with sunny photos, narrow and vertically-oriented recipes, and quirky doodles. My favorite recipes include grilled sweet corn and fermented shrimp butter, peach and fino cobbler (a drink, not a dessert), lamb shank berry biryani, and dumplings (both vegetarian and meat-filled).

fantastic book, full of lots of ideas and many things to make!

Perfect

i can see why this book would divide opinion among some readers but having trained as both a chef and bartender in my time i really enjoyed it.. i dont think this is a traditionally inspired cook book its a story of the authors that allows you to see the pairings and dishes experienced in other parts of the world. Yes some of the ingredients are a little hard to obtain but they are subsitutable. if you have a love of travelling, cocktails and food then this is the book for you. if its your desire for it to be your bible for your next dinner part on a budget to impress mrs jones at number 25 then move on. i personally really enjoyed it but i dont see myself every creating the dishes... the cocktails however are a different story im definitely trying some of those the next time we have a creative day at work!

not had a chance to create any of the recipes or cocktails out of this as yet, but I certainly will. It is a slightly eclectic collection but that does make it interesting and different from a glutted market. The book itself is well presented with easy to follow instruction and as you would expect excellent images.

A consummate coffee table book- lush photos, high quality printing, achingly hip author, all boxes ticked for a book to leave casually lying around to show just how switched on you are. Content-wise it's not bad either- nicely complied, some good set-pieces and a more than pleasant browsing experience guaranteed. A good mix of recipes for both food and drink are present and correct, although whether this book will see much practical action in most kitchens is of course, unlikely. Nice book all the same, an ideal gift for the foodie in the family.