Food and Drink: Cookbook of the Week

SALLY CLARKE'S BOOK: RECIPES FROM A RESTAURANT, SHOP & BAKERY Macmillan, pounds 25, 310pp

AFTER NEARLY 15 years of running her eponymous London restaurant, Sally Clarke has finally written her recipe book. As a female chef, a rarity in 1984, who owned her restaurant (even rarer), she immediately attracted much media attention. Her insistence on following the practice of Alice Water (the grande dame of Californian cooking) of serving a set, no-choice evening meal, created an even greater stir.

Sally Clarke's menus were strongly influenced by her time in California. She dared to charge high prices for her simple, chargrilled dishes. Fame beckoned, but she did not pursue it; instead she chose to expand her business and develop a food shop which she called "& Clarkes".

It is not clear why she has chosen to write her book now, but the resulting tome is 100 per cent Sally Clarke in its voice, look and recipes. It is elegantly designed in her restaurant's green and cream colours, and its glossy pages are filled with restrained, green-rimmed photographs, appetising recipes and her slightly clipped prose. Ms Clarke gives a little of her background, before elaborating her views on Menu Planning, Garnishes & Seasoning. The book has a slightly school-marm tone, which you will find either disconcerting or reassuring. She is, for example, keen on everything being "scrupulously clean" in her recipes. Fussy customers feel the wrath of her pen as she rips apart poor clients who have claimed to be vegan before succumbing to her rich lemon tart.

The book is divided into menus of recipes for spring, summer, autumn and winter. Some date back to Clarke's earliest days: grilled spring asparagus with Parmesan and balsamic dressing, for example, or soft pistachio meringue with blood oranges and rhubarb. This is not an innovative book, but if you enjoy Alice Water's Chez Panisse recipes you will probably like Sally Clarke's English version.