In partnership with Heinemann, an imprint of Harcourt Education, City and Guilds has put its imprimatur on two new cookery texts to support level 2, one for the Diploma, one for S/NVQs. Thomson Learning have stepped in with a level-1 text to support the Diploma, to be followed by a level-2 title, and two S/NVQ titles, at levels 2 and 3.
The contenders
All three books are in full colour. Thomson’s includes commissioned (for the step-by-step sequences) and library colour photographs, Heinemann makes more use of graphics, with some library and industry/supplier-sourced photographs, and some step-by-step sequences. Thomson keeps the references to diploma units at a simple level, Heinemann provides more specific links as well as itemising the key skills which each chapter might help achieve…
What do they add?
Beyond this, there is no exciting innovatory feature. We’ve had Stevenson putting the focus on process, Finch on what went wrong, Mastercraft on the double-page spread, Ceserani and Kinton on recipes, recipes, recipes, and Cracknell and Kaufmann cocking a snoot at the lot with
no cross-reference is made to processes or methodology nor are recipes forced into awkward groupings. The logical sequence in this book is the time-honoured one of placing recipes in their natural categories.
There are a great many irritants in the recipes in all three books. Thomson give quantities for four and 10 or 12 portions, scarcely a learning exercise when the quantity for each of the ingredients is simply multiplied by 2 ½ or 3. In the ingredient list for chicken Caesar salad (which is more accurately a recipe for Caesar salad with the variation of adding chicken breast ‘which has usually been grilled’), is an egg boiled for two minutes, step two of the method, states
Strain off ¾ of the [garlic-marinaded] oil to make the dressing and add it to the lemon juice, mustard, pepper and egg. Whisk well and add the finely chopped anchovies and grated parmesan cheese.
The references to ‘finely chopped’ and ‘grated’ could be omitted since the ingredient list already states this, and there is no explanation of what to do with the soft-boiled egg – should it be hot or cold, peeled, chopped or what?
For bread sauce, step one states ‘Infuse the milk with the cloves, bay leaves, salt and pepper’, step two: ‘Heat together the milk (with spices), butter and chopped onion. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer.’ Step three ‘Simmer for five minutes and turn off letting the flavours continue to infuse off the heat.’ Step four: ‘Strain through a fine sieve into a clean pan.’ (Step one is meaningless, step three has no time guidance and four steps follow – double the number in Practical Cookery – where the infusion is kept simple by using an onion studded with a clove, there is no need for straining, far less butter is used and no cream.)
For poached smoked haddock Florentine, there is no reference to the spinach base (which could have been rectified with a cross-reference to a previous, similar, recipe). No cartouche is used in either the photo sequence or recipe for poaching pears (one instance in which the paper covering really does serve a valuable purpose). Heinemann’s picture sequence of bread-crumbing a pork escalope (a procedure that lends itself to a great deal of chaos and mess, and thus could be a real opportunity for helpful guidance), in step four, states ‘allow the excess [beaten egg] to run off. Clean your hands.’ and step five continues ‘Put the pork in the breadcrumbs…’ What you do with the pork while you wash your hands is not explained!
Chef’s recipes
The chef’s recipes Thomson uses are too advanced for a level-1 text. Mark Dodson’s for iced amaretto parfait (how else could a parfait be except iced?), has as step two: ‘Put the yolks into a mixing bowl and slowly whisk, cook the sugar to 121°C’ and step three:
Pour the sugar onto the yolks and mix, dissolve the pre-soaked gelatine in the warmed Amaretto, pass into the mixture and continue whisking until cold.
Ramsay’s recipes for parfaits are much easier to follow, do not require gelatine (a plus for vegetarians) and allow the egg custard mixture to be cooked to the safe temperature of 75°C. Another Thomson chef’s recipe is for baked oysters with creamed chard and gruyere cheese, with just this explanation for preparing the mollusc: ‘Open the oysters and disconnect from shell, reserve the best half of each shell and discard the other.’ Herbert Berger’s recipe for poached fillet of new season lamb for four, in the ingredients list states ‘Pair of best ends of lamb, remove fillet and clean completely’.
You said how much?
Recipe quantities seem to have gone awry. For four portions of ratatouille (it is not clear if this is for a vegetable dish, starter or vegetarian main course), the ingredients in Thomson include two small aubergines, two courgettes, one large onion, one each of medium green, red and yellow peppers, and six tomatoes. Heinemann uses just one egg white to clarify a consommé made with five litres of stock (Practical Cookery has six to ten). For 10 to 12 portions of ratatouille, quantities are more helpfully given as weights (200g tomatoes, 100g each of green and red capsicums, 200g each of courgettes and aubergines, etc.) and a ‘hint’ of garlic! As for the tuile biscuits, the 12 which the recipe makes must be ‘ginormous’: 450g icing sugar, 360g butter, 360g soft flour, and 9 medium egg whites.
Entangled with the law
Legislation gives all three books a problem. Thomson gets correct the title of the Food Hygiene (England) Regulations 2006, but fails to point out that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own. Reference to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is accurate, and here Thomson does state that Northern Ireland and Scotland have their own similar legislation. On smoking, however, it explains that this is prohibited ‘where food is being prepared’, giving as reasons the danger of contaminating food by staphylococci spread from the lips and saliva by the fingers, and that smoking encourages coughing.
Heinemann is not thinking of readers in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland when declaring that the ban on smoking in the workplace was introduced in July 2007 (and, of course, it is a more accurately a ban on smoking in public places). At least the test-yourself questions at the end of this chapter do not ask the student to explain why a smoking ban came about, but as vacuous is question four: ‘Why were regulations introduced covering minimum wages?’
Heinemann declares that health and safety laws are enforced by ‘an inspector from the Health and Safety Executive or sometimes from the local council’ (the reverse is the case, with EHOs undertaking this role, except in engineering, manufacturing, transport and similar sectors). In the S/NVQ book, a table of laws relating to working safely, captioned as different regulations that form part of the Health and Safety at Work Act, includes ‘Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) (no regulation has this title and the food hygiene regulations, which deal with the requirement, are made under the Food Safety Act), and still refers to the Fire Precautions Workplace (the parenthesis is omitted) Regulations 1997, although the replacement regulations were made in June 2005, foreshadowed for several years before (and initially due to come into effect in April 2006). It seems random whether regulations are given a date (COSHH is not), and some dates are incorrect (Work Equipment is 1998, not 1992). Since April 2001 a central reporting system for accidents has been operated by the HSE (so it is not the EHO who has to be informed).
Heinemann in a ‘remember’ box muddies important issues (core temperatures reached in initial cooking, if the food is subsequently reheated and law as opposed to good practice):
All food must be heated to at least 75°C and that temperature held for at least two minutes to make it safe. In Scotland food must be heated to at least 82°C for at least two minutes. No food should be reheated more than once.
Opposite is a computer-generated graphic (many of these feature in the Heinemann books) which is captioned ‘shallow, flat container allows faster cooking’ but transposes the temperature readouts, so that the unmistakably deeper dish says 70.5° and the shallower 50.0°. Two pages on, another box, this time ‘Did you know? states:
To ensure that all heat-resistant spores are destroyed by cooking, a temperature of 75°C must be reached for two minutes. In Scotland it must reach 82°C. Such intense heat may damage the quality of the food. It is also possible to destroy spores by heating food to a lower temperature for a longer period of time.
It is extraordinary that Heinemann uses Department of Health information to explain what it calls ten critical-control points (for HACCP systems) and not to refer to the Food Standards Agency’s work (and the kits it makes freely available), although the pack for England, Safer food better business, has a mention, without the credit, coming third after Codex HACCP and Assured Safe Catering.
Even more serious, is Heinemann’s reference to the Food Safety (General Food Hygiene) Regulations 1995 (these were replaced first in 2005 and then again in January 2006). In the poultry chapter, it is stated:
Hot holding the poultry at the right temperature is also about complying with the law. The Food Safety Act 1990 states that hot food must be served and held at a temperature of at least 63°C.
First, temperature control is dealt with in the food-hygiene regulations, and the requirement is in relation to hot-holding for service. Heinemann’s wording is careless and potentially misleading.
The verdict
…I’m afraid that these books will not help the case for college-based training and if I had been responsible for their content, my then boss at HCTB, Brian Smart, would have sacked me. So what could have gone wrong? Substantial resources and expertise back the projects, the team involved are extremely knowledgeable in their fields, talent abounds.
Inadequate time for research, writing and checking must be the reason. Publishers are driven by huge commercial pressure to get products onto the market, and it may not be a coincidence that Harcourt, Thomson Learning and Nelson Thornes have all been sold by their parent companies in the first half of 2007, Harcourt to Pearson (the FT, Longman and Penguin group) and the others to venture capitalists.
Those responsible for developing and approving new qualifications have their own pressures, will tinker and adjust content until the very last moment, and then bang, they are on the market. Authors have a perilously short period for delivering their contribution, too little opportunity for liaising with colleague authors and industry advisers, none for reflection. Smart would have enjoyed the challenge, but I know I could not have coped. Hats off to those who have managed to do so with these texts. A publishing director, frustrated at the delays my obsession with detail were causing, pleaded that it was the cover and the look of the book that would sell it. Readers make their own adjustments and allowances and may notice less than a pernickety reviewer.
Nevertheless, Thomson and Heinemann should be warned that lecturers, trainers, assessors and others who direct students and trainees to buy such texts, can also be pernickety. The first video project I was involved in at HCTB, was quickly dismissed by YT tutors because the customer was not offered ice and lemon with the gin and tonic. The fact the video was about induction and not bar skills was inconsequential.
