Product Review

Since 1992 Russell Jeavons has owned and cooked at a unique restaurant in an old cottage in one of South Australia's prized wine districts. It is famous for the fact that it only opens on one night of the week, on a Friday night but is famous most of all for its fresh, simple food cooked entirely in Russell's wood-fired brick ovens. His pizzas are renowned throughout Australia and their toppings drip with fine regional ingredients which are combined on classic, thin, wood-oven cooked bases. Huge trestle tables in the outdoor shed comfortably house large groups, while the cosy cottage caters to smaller parties. It's the kind of place where friends and family gather to eat within site of the visible kitchen; where the garden is equipped with warming braziers and outdoor fire pits for chatting and munching around. The first part of the book is a step-by-step guide that takes you through the stages of building an oven, from choosing the site to firing up for your first bake. Part 2 explains how to cook in the oven with invaluable tips for brick oven cooks and includes recipes for sour dough bread, pizza, dukkah, traditional English roasts and some of Russell's famous desserts. Not every household can accommodate a brick oven in their garden but its something many keen home cooks aspire to. Buy this book and dream or buy this book and build one.