Following on from the hugely successful and highly acclaimed Roast Chicken and Other Stories, which won both the Andre Simon and the Glenfiddich Awards, Simon Hopkinson returns to that winning formula of chapters based around key ingredients and gives recipes for utterly delicious dishes using them. So we have a chapter on apples with a perfect apple tart, a chapter on curry with Constance Spry’s original Coronation chicken salad dressing and a chapter on duck with Braised duck with peas and the classic Roast duck and apple sauce. Here, too, you will find Pear and ginger sponge, Armenian lamb pilaf, Baked whole plaice with lemon butter sauce and what is, quite simply, the best Bloody Mary.

This is quintessential Simon Hopkinson, full of practical recipes for food you want to eat, whether it’s a quick everyday supper dish or something for a more leisurely weekend meal.