Alan Rochford was living the dream when he started Stone Cottage, an idyllic French restaurant nestling in the Adelaide Hills. He had everything going for him apart from experience, money, and the first idea about what he was doing. After two years and one divorce, he began to see the funny side, fed on a endless diet of characters and occurrences so crazy that you couldn't make them up.
Australia's answer to Basil Fawlty, Alan Rochford serves up a degustation of lip-smacking anecdotes, from his side-line in snail trading across the French countryside, to the time two customers got a touch too 'intimate' in the middle of his dinning room. GUINEA PIG IN WHITE WINE SAUCE is the tale of one man trying to keep his head in the certifiably insane world of fine dining.
An entertaining book of funny anecdotes (but not too PC)
I was given an early copy of Guinea Pig in White Wine Sauce as a gift, and I am so glad. This is a hillariously funny book that is easy to read.
Guinea Pig in White Wine Sauce is NOT a recipe book, it is a funny memoir of a restaurant owner in the Adelaide Hills. Just like the jacket promised, the restraunt owner really is like Basil Faulty (just as politically incorrect too). I loved Faulty Towers and I loved this book.
I can't ruin it with any 'spoilers' but just want to say that every anecdote stands well on its own. Chapters Two - Four are anecdotes of a young man travelling through France (getting ideas for his restaurant) and are just as manic and funny as the anecdotes he tells through the rest of the book when he attempts to run a restaurant(stories about staff/ health inspectors/ pets in the restraurant/ customers hijinx/ food he served). I could re-read this book over and over. A brilliant gift, I can't praise it enough.
Sarah, 04/07/2019