Tough Cookies: Tales of obsession, toil and tenacity from Britain's culinary heavyweights - Tapa dura

Revelatory, principled and entertaining, this enjoyable book explains why so few of our restaurants are excellent and so many are mediocre. (Christopher Hirst The Independent)

[Simon Wright] has captured the authentic stench of the top flight kitchen ... a delicious tale. (Jay Rayner Observer)

Enough kitchen gossip to satisfy the most prurient foodie. (Aileen Reid Sunday Telegraph)

An explosive expose of the culinary brotherhood of Britain. From Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay to Heston Blumenthal, Shaun Hill and Marcus Wareing, Tough Cookies blows the lid on the revolution in British cooking. 'The whole thing was a shit-fight. If they'd filmed it, it would be an Oscar nominee' Gordon Ramsay. Think of great cooking and you must think of France - the classic dishes, techniques and structure of kitchens are all derived from across the channel. British food was never renowned for its flair and inventiveness, until the 1980s when Marco Pierre White led an extraordinary revolution in British cuisine. Passionate and unpredictable, he inspired many of the top chefs in Britain today. In this insightful book, Simon Wright exposes the revolution for what it was and shows how the passionate idealism of the early years has been compromised. He takes us inside the kitchen to the brotherhood of chefs and tells the very distinct tales of Gordon Ramsay, Heston Blumenthal, Shaun Hill and Marcus Wareing - four men who have risen through the vicious climate of the kitchen to make a special mark. Theirs is an elite band, tough to join, and these are the stories of how they qualified for membership. In terms of their impact on British eating out, their achievements in the kitchen and their status among fellow chefs, they have dominated the last fifteen years. From Michelin stars and the AA Restaurant Guide to haute cuisine and bacon and egg ice cream, nothing will ever be quite the same again on the British restaurant scene. Wright captures the magic, sweat and imagination of these exceptional characters in the kitchen.