There’s a good variety of foods to try and the recipes themselves are great, but the design does the book an injustice.
Morgan Hipworth may not be known to many but he’s a rising culinary star, popular on TikTok and invited as a guest judge on Junior MasterChef Australia at just 19 years of age.
Made by Morgan is a collection of 60 favourite recipes, made to his taste but, as he points out, they’re easily adaptable to any individual’s personal taste.
The book is vibrant and colourful, although not always the best for acceptable contrast with the colour choices. Elisa Watson’s stellar photos also make this cookbook pop and add to the enthusiasm Hipworth shares. His love of cooking is evident from the introductory tales of loving KFC, to opening his first bistro.
Outside of the opening biography, there’s four chapters of food: Breakfasts, Mains, Sweet treats and Anytime, the latter being a selection of treats that can be enjoyed as a meal or snack.
Each recipe uses a star rating for the level of difficulty, and includes the prep time, cook time and yield. The instructions are in paragraph form, sometimes quite lengthy which, when combined with the small text, isn’t the easiest to follow.
There’s a good variety of foods to try and the recipes themselves are great. It’s just a shame that Rebecca King has put so little consideration into the practical nature of the book design. The poor contrast on some pages, and the layout of the recipes do the book an injustice.
CORN AND PEA FRITTERS WITH AVOCADO SALSA (PAGE 20)
This recipe combines an avocado salsa with the fritters themselves, both simple to make and both quite flavoursome. The salsa itself is a quick, effortless affair–just combine and stir the seven ingredients. The fritters aren’t much harder, mixing nine other ingredients into a bowl and then frying. At most, the entire recipe takes less than 20 minutes to give a tasty, simple breakfast or snack that’s slightly tangy from the lime and slightly sweet from the corn. It’s a wonderful combination of flavours.
MUSHROOM RISOTTO (PAGE 30)
Remind me never to make risotto again. Despite Hipworth’s good instructions, I could have donated my rice to the local primary school as Clag. At least the taste turned out right, even if the texture didn’t. Hipworth rates this recipe as 2 out of 3 stars for difficulty. The rice alone is probably worth 4 stars. The rest is dead easy. The difficulty is balancing the right amount of water with the rice. The result is a satisfying vegetarian risotto that uses shallots, thyme, butter, parmesan cheese and a few other ingredients to bring the flavour to the fore. If I were to try this one again however, I’d admit defeat and make it as a vegetarian pasta.
Reviewed by Rod Lewis
Twitter: @StrtegicRetweet
This review is the opinion of the reviewer and not Glam Adelaide.
Distributed by: Penguin Books Australia
Released: September 2021
RRP: $24.99
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