Recipe For Disaster - Miriam Morrison

Morrison whips up a stroy of the culinary world which is full of fierce rivalry, love, life issues, violence and the odd raspberry souffle. It primarily focuses on Kate, an undercover journalist who aims to expose the seedy and corrupt world of restaurants yet she finds Cuisine, the new restaurant at which she becomes a waitress at, to be completely different to her previous expectations. The owner and the head chef, Jake Goldman, prdies himself on his great standards and passion for delivering fantastic food rather than making mony. A tough but caring boss, he goes from crisis to crisis, mainly due to the work of culinary college rival, Harry Hunter, who, jealous at the praise lavished on Jake, soon opens a rival restaurant nearby. Kate findself embroiled in this strange new world and finds herself in too deep, especially as she makes great friends with the staff of Cuisine, and becomes more that friends with Jake. Can Jake succeed with his new restaurant? Will Kate manage to carry through with her lie without getting caught out? Will Harry manage to achieve his goal of destroying Jake?

The plot is hardly original and it feels quite soapy, but Morrison offers a story of pure escapism which is enjoyable to read. I revelled in the stock villain, Harry's, attempts to derail Jake's path to success. He becomes a character who you love to hate. One thing which was negative was the description of Harry and Georgia's affair - it was a bit too explicit and bizarrely written, and it didn't really make sense how Harry fell for Georgia. It was refreshing, however, not to see Harry suddenly become a good guy at the end of the book and redeem himself, which is quite common in other books.

The blossoming relationship between Kate and Jake was superbly written, and the stories of the supporting characters are also fascinating - in particular, Tess is a great character. In fact, all of Morrison's characters are built up well that you love to follow the journeys that they take within the story. Morrison has cooked up a light delicious tale that will whet anyone's appetite for a good romantic story. 4 stars.

Baked White Chocolate Cheesecake

Made this at the weekend, a rich,creamy cheesecake with a slight flavour of white chocolate.

Ingredients:
300g white chocolate
50g melted butter
225g digestive biscuit crumbs (recipe called for chocolate digestives but I prefer plain)
150ml soured dairy cream
400g cream cheese
1tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs lightly beaten

Recipe:
1. Add melted butter to digestive biscuit crumbs and combine well. Press into springform loose-bottomed cake tin, ideally 18cm diameter.
2. Melt white chocolate, and then add cream cheese, soured dairy cream, vanilla essence and eggs.
3. Pour onto biscuit base on level out on top
4. Bake in pre-heated oven at Gas Mark 3/160 C for 1 hour, until cheesecake is firm to touch.
5. Take out of oven, leave to cool in tin, and then eat and enjoy!

This is an easy to follow recipe and the cheesecake tasted great!