cover image Never Trust a Skinny Cook: Huey's Culinary Travelogue

Never Trust a Skinny Cook: Huey's Culinary Travelogue

Iain Hewitson. Allen & Unwin Academic, $29.95 (293pp) ISBN 978-1-74114-692-9

Australian celebrity cook Hewitson (Huey's Best Ever Barbecue Recipes) offers a culinary travelogue detailing his Epicurean adventures in Mauritius, Bali, Thailand and New Zealand. The result is a diverse and flavorful compilation of dishes, ranging from Bloody Mary Soup with Plumped Oysters to Vietnamese Chicken Coleslaw to Churros with Chocolate Sauce. This quirky collection covers all the fundamentals (soups, starters, fish and meat, vegetarian, desserts) and includes a short run-down of basic recipes like Fish Stock and Mayonnaise. Almost all the recipes are simple to prepare, although Hewitson's instructions occasionally err in favor of brevity (i.e., you might want to trim the porterhouse steak before it goes into the Taquitos with Soft Goat Curd). Still, it's a wide-ranging collection of everyday (Eggplant Lasagne) and innovative fare (Vegetable Fritto Misto) that doesn't require 12 hours of preparation and hard-to-find ingredients. Illustrated with lively color photos of dishes and destinations, this book is almost as big and colorful as its author.