Lesley Waters, author of Broader Than Beans is, the blurb informs us, "one of the bubbliest and most adventurous presenters of BBC 1's Ready, Steady, Cook . . . she has also appeared regularly on Can't Cook Won't Cook (BBC 1), Surprise Chefs (ITV) and Mixing It (Channel 5)." So, you say, she is a television personality, and does all that stuff where people who should know better prepare feasts for 5,000 in five minutes. In fact, the bubbly and adventurous Waters was senior chef at Leith's school, and head teacher there, which might lead one to hope for imagination in this collection of "130 stunning vegetarian recipes for all occasions".
Sadly, this is not the case, for this is yet another of those best-selling books sold on the back of somebody's celebrity status, and there isn't a single idea in the book I regard as even half decent. The writing is glib and unhelpful, and the only thing which might have rescued the book was chucked away, for in her introduction Lesley Waters writes, "My original title for the book was Pleasures Without The Flesh. At the time I really felt this was the perfect title: it was a play on words, clever and funny, and I thought it neatly summed up how you could eat really good food without meat. Now I'm glad that I changed my mind." How sad to think there is a generation growing up cooking from books like these, all sold on the back of their authors' television appearances, who haven't a clue who Jane Grigson and M.F.K. Fisher were.
Broader Than Beans, by Lesley Waters is published by Headline, price £16.99 in the UK