Rachel de Thample

Head of Fantastic Food at Abel & Cole

Heston has long been my culinary hero. I love all his books and all he does. You cannot dispute that he's a genius. In this, and in all of his other books, he bares all his secrets and he weaves, so beautifully cooking with science, art, literature, history, traditions, culture and more. He takes you on the full journey of discovery for each recipe. I choose this book over Historic Heston and the big Fat Duck Cookbook because there's a lot more in this book for the home cook, like how to cook the most amazing carrots ever: just carrots, salt, pepper and butter. While many of the other recipes seem long and complex, read your way through them and you’ll learn more than you would on a cookery course. Also don’t be afraid to just pick out small elements of bigger recipes. I made just one of the layers of the multi-tiered Black Forest Gateau featured in this book and it was by far the best chocolate cake I've ever had or made.

Florian Pinel

Lead engineer for the Chef Watson project

Noam Ben-Ami

Host of Platypus (San Francisco pop-up)