The publication of Blood, Sweat and Asparagus Spears, written by Andrew Turvil, was timed to coincide with the 35th anniversary of White Heat, Marco Pierre White’s seminal book that became a must-read for any young or aspiring chef when it was first released in 1990. Pierre White has become the poster boy for what many consider to be the rock n roll years of UK gastronomy, and it is an image of him, apron clad (he famously eschewed chef whites), fag in hand and cup of coffee close by, that adorns the cover of this new book that charts the progression of the UK’s food scene during the 1990s.

Yet Blood, Sweat and Asparagus Spears is not the Marco show. While Turvil, a former editor of The Good Food Guide and AA Restaurant Guide, acknowledges the role the chef had in kickstarting a food revolution on these shores, his book is a comprehensive look at the various kitchen protagonists of the 1990s and their individual contributions to what is now seen as a pivotal decade in UK gastronomy. Pierre White may have lit the touch paper, but there were plenty more chefs adding to the fireworks display, as his book demonstrates.

Written through the perspective of a young lad having his first taste of a restaurant sector that was still very much the butt of French jokes, and later as that of an inspector eating in some of the decade’s most influential dining rooms at the height of their fame, Blood, Sweat and Asparagus Spears will either be a nostalgic trip down memory lane or a description of an unknown past that still casts a shadow over the present depending on the age of the reader. While chefs in their 50s and 60s might remember what it was like to eat out in the 1970s and 1980s and the paucity of decent options available, the new breed of chefs reading this book might be unwittingly spoilt by the efforts of their forbears to make the UK a genuinely exciting culinary destination.

The appeal of Turvil’s book is in his treatment of the decade (and of a few that preceded it), charting the 90s through a tour of 33 dishes that have shaped British cuisine and which he has had the privilege of eating. From the chicken korma he first tried as a kid at the Taj Mahal in Stevenage to the tagliatelle of oysters with caviar at Pierre White’s Harvey’s, by way of The River Cafe’s chocolate nemesis, Nobu’s black cod with miso, Heston’s triple cooked chips, and St John’s roasted bone marrow and parsley salad, Blood, Sweat and Asparagus Spears tells the story of the 90s restaurant evolution first by what was being served on the plate.

From here, Turvil delves into the people behind the stoves dishing them up as well as those pulling the financial strings in the background. Thus chefs, food writers and restaurateurs who have since become household names, as well as those whose careers and work might be under-appreciated in today’s restaurant world appear, from the Roux brothers, Pierre White, Nico Ladenis, Nigel-Platts Martin to Oliver Peyton, Terrence Conran, Paul Heathcote, Paul Kitching, Peter Gordon, Sam and Sam Clark, and Alan Yau. These are the people who have etched their influence on the UK’s food scene as a chef today might ink their arm.

To understand the present, you need to look to the past, and nowhere is this more apposite than with the UK’s restaurant scene, which underwent a seismic shift in a relatively short space of time thanks to the vision of a few trailblazing chefs and voices and an environment that encouraged their creativity and innovation and rewarded success. Turvil’s book is at the heart of this shift. Any young chef cooking in restaurants today owes it to themselves to understand the environment in which they operate, and they could do a lot worse than using this book as their reference.

Blood, Sweat and Asparagus Spears – The Story of the 1990s Restaurant Revolution

Andrew Turvil

240 pages

Elliot & Thompson, £20