Second Helpings of Roast Chicken

by Simon Hopkinson, Flo Bayley (Illustrator)

Following the phenomenal success of Roast Chicken and Other Stories, Second Helpings of Roast Chicken takes as a starting point forty-seven of Simon Hopkinson's favourite ingredients, from apples to linguine, lettuce to truffles. His recipes, which have in common the love of good food prepared to please rather than simply impress, are drawn not only from classic French and British cooking but also from around the world, from Austria to Thailand and India to Spain. As well as the ultimate roast chicken recipe, Simon Hopkinson's many fans will find new inspiration in recipes which range from Smoked Haddock Chowder and Thai Pork Rissoles with Sweet and Sour Dipping Sauce to Spiced Cucumber Salad and Lemon and Ginger Syllabub.

Simon Hopkinson rose to prominence as a young chef with the opening of Bibendum restaurant with Terence Conran. His critically acclaimed cookery writing has won him the André Simon award, and the Glenfiddich award three times. His first book, Roast Chicken and Other Stories, was voted 'The most useful cookbook of all time' by Waitrose Food Illustrated, and became an overnight sensation.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Nonfiction, Food and Drink, Food Writing, Essays

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Please see: Simon Hopkinson


Simon Hopkinson is often hailed as the ‘food writer’s food writer’. He left school at 17 to begin a career as a chef in the kitchen of Yves Champeau, which formulated a lasting impression, developing his passion for French regional cooking.

Simon announced himself onto the London restaurant scene in 1983, opening Hilaire and drawing attention as a leading young chef. Designer and entrepreneur Terence Conran spotted his talent and persuaded him to lead the kitchen for the opening of Bibendum in 1987. Simon left the restaurant in 1995 to concentrate on writing cookery books. Notably Roast Chicken and Other Stories was declared the ‘most useful cookbook of all time’ in 2005 by Waitrose Food Illustrated.

Reviews

[Liz De Coster · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with his first book, I found Hopkinson's tone (and illustrations) charming. I did not, however, want to run out and cook many of the recipes.

[Eszter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Simon Hopkinson could write a sexy book about merely a glass of water as well. Here he does much more. This book is flawless entertainment with no strings attached. It would be the case with no any recipes attached, too. The effortless, easygoing yet very distictive attitude of the book made it absolutely unnecessary for all the usual, fancy-cookbook features to be included, such as breathtaking photography or a sumptous edition. The style of the narrative is so strong and capturing that there is no need for the attention to be kept alive with any other means than words. I daresay that the recipes themselves are secondary to the storytelling. I reckon this book would be greatly appreciated by the ones who could not care less about cooking, too. When you want to indulge even more into the atmosphere words have created, I would strongly suggest you to get up and try one of the recipes as well. A smart and very enjoyable book.

[Salvatore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this writer and his strong opinions (and his recipes). He writes with such passion and enthusiasm and sometime vitriol for ingredients and preparations. I feel like I learn a lot. Or at least feel more able to voice my strong opinions.

(Ok, fine, I'll start: I will probably refuse outright things with cantaloupe, honeydew melon, strong anise scents, celery [on its own, raw, especially unpeeled], and dill. But please give me more of pomegranate, veal, lemon, raw meat and fish [or, if you're not so bold, I'll take rare], Italian Nutella [yes I'll go there], grapefruit, vanilla, and a couple of other flavours. Seriously though, I don't know how one can ingest melons without the body reacting in a vicious way.)

I wish this author would catch on in the States. Or that his columns would be serialized somewhere here.

Thank you Caitlin for this one!

[Catherine Woodman]

This book is gorgeously put together. I love theformat, the watercolor illustrations, and the idea of featuring some thing--a spice, an ingredient, a vegetable. Salt, curry, chicken, cabbage. These are all brilliant, and maybe I should have read his first book first--I didn't realize that I was reading his second book, or that he had a first book that had a lot of critical acclaim until I was well into the second book--one of my holiday house guests, a man I would trust implicitly with both my reading and my palate said that he heard tremendous thigns about the first book. But you couldn't prove any of that by me. I did not enjoy the essays and none of the recipes (with the exception of one) did I even want to try, much less enjoy. I

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it in dribs and drabs. His tone is too arch to take in one long read, but if you read a chapter or two a day, it can be very funny. That being said, I will never cook anything from this book, and that has to be at least a mild criticism of a tome that is at least a cookbook. But try his essays. You will know fairly quickly if Simon Hopkinson is your cup of tea. Or Filet of Sole. Or . . .

[Alexis]

Second Helpings of Roast Chicken (Ebury Paperback Cookery) by Simon Hopkinson (2006)

[Dawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Only a few recipes were possibly vegan, but I loved the way he curmudgeonly wrote about food.

[hilary]

And even more guilty pleasures, I love cookbooks--this is a good one, good stories, good recipes, good prose. I like to read about food while I eat...

[Gretchen Ingram · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading this but I don't think I'll ever cook from it.

[Sara-Jayne Terp · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite cookbooks (the favourite is Roast Chicken and Other Stories, by the same author)