Good Together: Drink & Feast with Mr Lyan & Friends

by Ryan Chetiyawardana

Good food, good drink, good company – that’s the recipe for a good time. This original book sees celebrated cocktail creator and man behind White Lyan and Dandelyan bars in London, Mr Lyan, call on his many friends from the world’s best restaurants to share their favourite dishes.

From an enormous summer BBQ to an intimate romantic dinner, it covers an impressive range of occasions and holidays, showing how a great feast and delicious cocktails can easily be part of everyone’s lives and social gatherings. A menu of world-class cocktails are crafted to suit recipes contributed by chefs including Nuno Mendes (Chiltern Firehouse), James Lowe (Lyle’s), Nieves Barragán Mohacho (Barrafina), Roca (El Celler de can Roca), Robin Gill (The Dairy), Isaac McHale (The Clove Club), Tien Ho (Whole Foods) and Richard Hart (Tartine) among many others, in this unique guide to the complete social gathering.

A masterclass in bringing together the very best food and drink to create a home gathering with impact, this book is the ultimate guide to entertaining guests with style.

• ISBN13: 9780711238978
• Publish Date: 28 September 2017
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 18 January 2022
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: White Lion Publishing
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 224
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

Food is such a vital part of our lives. For many professionals, free time and socializing are almost foreign concepts. This book is a celebration of getting together and relaxing and enjoying the people we care for at the same time as we eat and enjoy good food.

Almost everyone seems to have some foods from their past which are tied into some shared family history. Aunt Gen's cranberry orange salad, gran's chestnut turkey dressing, that broccoli cheddar casserole that cousin Judy always brings... etc.

This book is a very adventurous trendy gastronomique version of those homey dishes. These are edgy, impressive, challenging and (to me) very unusual. The collaborators in this cookbook are all, as far as I can tell, professional foodies, most of them actively cooking for very high end restaurants. Many of the ingredients are (again, to me) bizarre and difficult to source. A few examples: fennel pollen (p. 30), moscatel vinegar (p.34, presumably sherry vinegar would be an acceptable substitute?), 300g (10½oz) beef muscle, from a happy, grass-fed cow (p. 42), salted wild garlic capers (same recipe), gentian liqueur (Kamm & Sons for preference, p. 70), etc. There is also a lot of very specialized and expensive kitchen equipment specified in the recipes.

I usually try to test several recipes before reviewing cookbooks, however, this time around, I could only easily source the ingredients for one of the recipes: Cherry Kirsch Cake (p. 110). It was lovely, and I closely followed the directions (including adding eggs one at a time with flour to prevent splitting), but my cake split quite ferociously. I think if I try the recipe again, I will probably add a pan of water to increase the humidity in the oven (or maybe source eggs from truly happy chickens) ;)

The photography is lovely and compliments the recipes very well. (I was also fascinated by the varied and beautiful tattoos of the creators pictured in the book).

Final thoughts. VERY fancy, very trendy, fairly difficult. For foodies who intend to impress and really love the process of food and creating food.

Three and a half stars, would be 4-5 for die-hard foodies.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher.