The Bluffer's Guide to Food - a review.

The other day I received a little book through the post – “The Bluffers Guide to Food” so sat myself down with some coffee and homemade cookies (I had to get through them!)  and got stuck in.

The premise of the Bluffers Guides is, of course, just as it says – how to look like you know what you’re talking about when you don’t! This guide was written by Neil Davey, he of The Lambshank Redemption (great name for a blog!) which I have followed for some time. 

At the very start of the book, Mr Davey tackles the use of the word" foodie" which, for some inexplicable reason, is now a no-no and there seem to be several other words that are also not acceptable, if you want to impress when talking about food; “passionate” for instance.  

I have been a passionate foodie for well over 30 years because I love cooking, eating, creating meals, writing about food, thinking about and talking about FOOD but in that time the food world has changed radically. For instance conversation with a stranger in the 80s might go like this …

Stranger   “What do you do?”

Me   “I’m a chef”

Stranger “Oh yeah, I’m a ... (name a job)

Same conversation now

Stranger   “What do you do?”

Me   “I’m a chef”

Stranger   “Oh Wow, that’s like amazing blah, blah de blah blah blah”. 

The job hasn't changed (not really, deep down, we might have a few different ingredients to play with but it’s still long, hot hours and hard work) but the perception really has and, seemingly, this is true of all aspects of matter.

So, back to the book, there are 12 Chapters …

In the glossary I was pleased to discover that tap water, in France, is called “eau de robinet” which sounds like just the sort of thing I might enjoy!

The book contains lots of interesting snippets of info, much of which I already knew, and lots of opinions many of which I share and have even already expounded on but then I am a foodie, I mean ”food worshipper” (the correct term at present).  

In “Shopping Around” which is in part about best before dates he makes many of the same points (eg. abut cheese already being preserved) as I do in my rant on the matter at the end of Creative Ways to Use Up Leftovers and I’m always telling Americans that they didn’t invent apple pie and English people that potatoes are foreign “muck”!

The Bluffer’s Guide to FOOD is a quick read which I enjoyed but more in an “oh yes, I agree with that” way than, perhaps the way the book was intended.  If, however, you would like to pick up some interesting info about food, cooking, eating and learn how to sound erudite when talking about it, plus maybe be guided into looking deeper into some matters (there is a chapter on useful books) then go for it, it's available from Amazon and here are the relevant details,

Paperback: 128 pages

Publisher: Bluffer's; New edition (1 April 2014)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1909937126

ISBN-13: 978-1909937123

Product Dimensions: 16cm x 11cm x 1cm

If you are unsure if you need this book find out here!

The Bluffer’s Guide to Food Quiz

This is one of quite an extensive series covering everything from dogs to the quantum universe via wine, sex and chocolate – all the good stuff! 

In other news …

~   Slightly related to the above, the bit about shopping, I am still finishing off a carton of whipping cream which we bought for 16p on 3^rd April as that was its “best before date”.  Yesterday, 16th April, I finished it off to make an Alfredo sauce as part of my Finnan Crispy Pizza!

~   Similarly my 10 days out of date red cabbage is absolutely fine and yummy in coleslaw and I can’t see it going off any time soon!

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