SORTED: A Recipe for Student Survival

by SORTED Crew

This book has been written by a group of school friends, now in their third year of Uni, who during a reunion found themselves recounting the things they wish they had known at the beginning."Sorted" is the result; a book written for students by students, centered on the important recipes and tips needed for healthy living at university, as well as providing practical help and advice on all key matters relating to real student life. As students themselves who got fed up of the hourly preaching sessions from worried parents on what to expect at university, the "Sorted" crew wrote this book to give everyone a much needed heads-up. Having made all the usual student mistakes already, they are on a mission to save future students the stress and want to make sure that their university life is a lot healthier and hassle-free!Crammed full of cheap, wholesome, simple yet tasty recipes and seasoned with tips and tricks to surviving university life on a tight budget. Down-to-earth, fun and cheeky. True student banter!

Genres: Food, Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2008

About the author

Ben Ebbrell and Barry Taylor head up The Sorted Crew, a group of childhood friends who got together during their university holidays to share anecdotes, assumptions and problems that they were each facing during their first year away from home. After mocking each other's laughable set of domestic skills in the kitchen, Ben decided to help them out with recipe ideas and 'Sorted' was the result. With Ben cooking and Barry taking photographs and using his design skills, the crew set themselves up on YouTube to upload filmed recipes, and these SortedFood video recipes now get millions of views every month. They have self-published two recipe books, A Recipe for Student Survival and A Rookie's Guide to Crackin' Cooking, and Beginners... Get Sorted was their first book with Penguin.

Reviews

[Sylwia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book should be given to every starting UK student, seriously.

Alongside pretty nifty recipes that don't require a lot of cooking experience or talent, the book is full of very useful tips about the life at uni overall: cleaning, organisation, studying etc. I would even go as far as to say that these are the jewels in the book and not the cooking.

The book has a useful alphabetical index at the end, so reader can find anything from kale, to paperwork and hangover at the drop of a hat.

The recipes are not the most exciting, but they're simple and full of different vegetables and meats which could potentially make a uni cuisine a little more interesting. Unfortunately, they are presented in some of the worst book design I have ever laid my eyes on. We've got photos that are cut off by page breaks, recipe list that has no header, is bolded and placed right next to recipe steps which are not numbered, but instead every first word is also bolded - it created a horrible effect.

The book is also a little dated by now, but not enough to not still be very useful to starting students.
And I would highlight the "starting", because people who are in the middle of the student life already know most of the tips included, either because they figured it out ahead or were bitten in the ass by the lack of that knowledge.