This is not a pure cookbook, rather an insight into the world of the Dylan hotel in Amsterdam, the 41-bedroom hotel transformed by Anouska Hempel in 1999. The Dylan, Amsterdam A Tasteful Experience is structured around 24 hours in the hotel from a guest's point of view, from arrival to departure, and as part of that premise, it takes in the kitchen and food of head chef Schilo van Coevorden.
The book is stylishly presented but it feels rather like what I assume it is: a photographically-led promotional exercise. There are 95 recipes listed, although some of these are not complete dishes but rather component parts.
Van Coevorden cooks fusion food. His dishes are grounded in Europe but influenced by the flavours of Thailand and by Japanese presentation. This leaves the door fully ajar to ingredients like lemon grass, ginger and lime leaves, which he uses to interesting effect sometimes successfully, sometimes less so. I didn't, for instance, fancy foie gras soup built on a curry base (a dash of Thai fish sauce and coconut milk). More alluring was a caviar dish with crème fraîche ice-cream topped with a warm potato cream.
Desserts, it has to be said, are pretty basic, without many sparks of inspiration. In fact, I would say that they were not up-to-date with current trends (in one dish there was a real blast from the past in the shape of a chocolate teardrop). However, on the whole, the recipes are clearly laid out with good use of space on the page and large, full-page pictures of each dish.
It's an often-used cliché, but this book is more coffee table than kitchen pass. It's a beautiful book but not an inspiring one. It does what it sets out to do, which is to sell the Amsterdam hence an abundance of shots of plumped up pillows and candlelit bathrooms interspersing the food fest. And yes, I'd love to stay there for a night or two.
Marc Wilkinson, chef-proprietor, Restaurant Fraîche, Oxton, The Wirral, Cheshire
The Dylan, Amsterdam A Tasteful Experience
Edited by J Freud
Inmerc Publishing, 55 (£38)