Book Reviews
Stay in and stay warm with a good (cook) book
Midnight Feasts
Midnight Feasts conjures up a misty-eyed nostalgia, which makes for an enjoyable wallow in memories, but more than that, there are ideas for everyone in here, from the novice to the more accomplished cook: and better still, 100% of the profits go to Springboard for Children.
Seasonal Spanish Food - Jose Pizzarro
A professional chef, and the man behind the successful Brindisa tapas kitchens, Jose Pizzaro knows his stuff. As Spain continues to culinarily crush all before it, thanks to the El Bulli factor, Jose still has his heart set on the simple honesty of tapas type meals.
Food presenting secrets - Cara Hobday and Jo Denbury
Do people laugh when you put food on the table? Are you ashamed of how your leeks look? Fear not for here coming at you like an embossed invitation to Abigail’s Party, is Food Presenting Secrets featuring all the Creative Styling Techniques you never knew you needed.
Letters to a young chef - Daniel Boulud
Boulud is a great chef, as London will discover later this year. Before he comes to the UK discover how he got where he is right now. A great read for the young chef in the title and a great read for food lovers, Letters to a Young Chef is a letter of love of cooking.
The Masterchef Cookbook
Here are the recipes we saw, loved and occasionally hooted at in derision. If you fancied your chances at trying some of them out, then now’s your chance. 250 of the ‘best’ from the series over the last years.
The Cheesemonger's Tales - Arthur Cunynghame
This is a charming, authoritative read that makes you feel you know Arthur personally. With his lack of ego and warm friendly ways, Arthur makes you want to rush out and buy lots of cheese straightaway. And, of course, some wine to go with them.
Meals in Heels - Jennifer Joyce
Aiming itself quite deftly at the ‘ladies who lunch’ demographic – or, quite possibly, anyone who can’t be arsed with faffing about – the premise here is that all the dishes can be made ahead of time. Then, when the moment comes, it’s simply a case of pimp my [salted caramel sauce] profiteroles, slip on the heels, and away we go.
Antony Makes It Easy - Antony Worrall Thompson
Once, children, there was but one cookery programme on the TV and it was called, rather unimaginatively, Food and Drink. Presided over by Queen Jilly Goolden and a couple of other queens too, it ended in 2000 and was lost to the mists of time. Today it all looks rather quaint, like footage of pre Second World War sporting events.
The 100 Foods You Should Be Eating - Glen Matten
Chirpily written packed full of useful information, clearly explained, and with 100 tempting recipes, this unassuming book can hold its own with the glossy fantasies we’re more used to seeing. It has practicality at its heart and it wants to help you look after yours. What’s not to like about that?
Zilli Light. Healthy Eating - Aldo Zilli
Do you feel guilty about the amount you ate at Xmas? If you were the family that I saw in Sainsbury’s with a trolley full of nothing but cakes and crisps you should be, but I suspect Foodepedia readers tend to always eat rather better than most. Aldo Zilli offers Italian food that won't make you fat.
Songs of Sapa - Stories and Recipes from Vietnam. Luke Nguyen
What, you might reasonably ask, is a Sapa? Is it a person, a place or a planet in a galaxy far, far away? It is in fact a town and district in northwest Vietnam and the homeland of Luke Nguyen the award-winning chef and owner of the Red Lantern restaurant in Surry Hills, Sydney. Well known across Oz as a ‘TV chef’ Luke is fascinated by his Vietnamese homeland and, speaking the language, is able to find and enjoy the best places to eat in this wonderful, and still to most westerners, mysterious land.
Just One Pot -Great food, less fuss
One pot meals? Hmm that’s going to mean a load of old casseroles isn’t it? Those sludgy brown meals that always have at least one carrot bobbing about like a torpedoed Noel Coward going down in the North Atlantic. Well actually, no. Just One Pot has pushed the definition.
Vineet Bhatia’s Rasoi: New Indian Kitchen
Vineet Bhatia’s Rasoi: New Indian Kitchen is a beautiful book that refuses to patronise its readership. From the wry black flock cover that mimics high street Indian Tandoori décor to the serene, understated photography, this 272-page cookbook should thrill the style seekers.
Cook Express. Over 700 quick recipes ed:Heather Whinney
The one thing you can always guarantee with books from Dorling Kindersley is that they won’t get lost on your shelf. Gosh they are big. These monster books don’t go in for arty photography or long essays on sustainability. They are business-like tomes, designed to do what it says on the tin and Cook Express is no different with over 700 quick recipes to drum up after work and to entertain.
The Italian Cookery Course –Katie Caldesi
This is weighty book, not just in the way it makes my IKEA ‘invisible support’ shelf adopt a distinct downward incline, but also in the weight of knowledge inside it. Katie spent three years travelling all over Italy to talk to chefs, old ladies, producers and experts in food fields to put it all together.
The Fat Duck Cookbook – Heston Blumenthal
What makes this less than perfect tome remarkable? The production values for a start. There's the sumptuous food photography of those singular, world famous dishes such as Snail Porridge (complete with live snail); the iPod-tastic Sound of the Sea and eye-poppingly opulent Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh with its gold leaf-wrapped bars of solidified langoustine bouillon
The Soup Book - Edited by Sophie Grigson
What is it about soup that makes it so, well, so super actually? I don’t think there’s anyone who doesn’t like a nice bowl of soup, be it a gin-clear consommé or a potage you could stand your spoon up in. Soup makes us feel comfortable, cosy and warm. It’s like a big cuddle from a favourite aunt.
Stephane Reynaud
If you’re one of those people who only eats roast on Sunday or, God forbid, one of those sad souls that never eat roast at all, this wonderful book will have you putting your head in the oven for all the right reasons.
Gordon Ramsay's World Kitchen (The F-Word)
Gordon’s back on our screens, slapping one hand into the other every five minutes and calling everyone Big Boy, which I know at least one viewer finds slightly disturbing to say the least.Here is the book of the series, with the emphasis on, as you may have guessed from the title,world cuisine.
Everyday Harumi - Harumi Kurihara
The manageress at one of London’s finest Japanese restaurants, if not the finest, told me that when Harumi Kurihara came to eat there one day the hardened, perfectionist uber chefs in the kitchen queued up to be presented. She is Japan’s most popular cookery writer and most of the staff had got the chef bug from reading Harumi’s books when they were younger.
