Author(s): Cinead McTearnan

Vegetable & herb gardens

With this book any gardener can follow the precise steps that top chefs take to create great-tasting dishes. From choosing, growing, harvesting and cooking, find out how to make the tastiest dishes using more than 40 crops and recipes. The chefs reveal the details that contribute to perfection, how they collaborate with their head gardeners to determine soil preparation, the timing of sowing, careful harvesting and refined storage, right down to how they prepare the crops for cooking. Forty signature recipes bring their food to your table. For existing gardeners it will offer inspiration when it comes to choosing what to grow from the perspective of what's good to eat. Arranged by season, this book will enable armchair and real exploration of restaurants, kitchens and gardens, from fruit to veg to herb and from plot to kitchen. You can enjoy a memorable meal at all the restaurants featured, or enjoy recreating the ingredients and the meals for many years to come. Twenty featured chefs include: Raymond Blanc & Anne-Marie Owens at Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, Gill Meller at River Cottage Sir Terence Conran at Barton Court, Simon Rogan at L'Enclume, Tom Lewis at Monachyle Mhor, Jack Stein at Padstow Kitchen Garden , Contini at The Sottish Kitchen Garden and Ruthie Rogers at River Cafe, Skye Gyngell at Heckfield Place. Each chef is ably assisted, often behind the scenes, by the expert skills of a head gardener.