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The Age votes The Cook's Companion the number one most influential cookbook
02-09-2009
Stephanie's immensely popular and respected work, The Cook's Companion, was recently recognised as the most influential cookbook in a survey undertaken by The Age's Epicure.
More than 100 top chefs, food writers, publishers, restaurateurs and respected home cooks were asked to nominate "the most important cookbooks you would recommend to improve cooking skills and food knowledge".
The Cook's Companion was the clear leader, with a glowing review as follows:
Stephanie Alexander's Cook's Companion resonates with Australian cooks and chefs like no other. It is ours. It is Australian. While great British books gave recipes for cod, turbot, pheasants in feather and wild salmon, Stephanie Alexander wrote about the food we grew up with. Lamb, plums and pumpkin. It was a standout for inclusion in the top 10, scoring twice as many votes as its nearest rival. First published in 1996 and revised in 2004, The Cook's Companion has become so entrenched in our society that it has become a gift that marks the coming of age - when a young person leaves home or a couple marries, a large familiar-sized brick (1100 pages) sits among the gifts.
Alexander draws upon her experience as a chef, delves into the works of great food writers and picks the brains of the people who grow our food to give the recipes a past, a context and a purpose. She creates meals suitable to feed and entertain in a manner suited to 21st century living in a voice that is distinctively Australian and has an authoritative authorial tone. In homes across Australia The Cook's Companion is simply referred to as ''Stephanie'' or "The Bible". Sydney chef Damien Pignolet says it is "the most useful and comprehensive cookery book ever written for both a professional and home cook''. It has sold nearly half a million copies around the world.
(Richard Cornish, The Age, Tuesday 18th of August 2009, Epicure section, p.4)
Congratulations Stephanie!
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