Book Reviews
Stay in and stay warm with a good (cook) book.
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Urban Rajah's Curry Memoirs - Ivor Peters
Sunday May 12th, 2013AKA the book I wish I’d penned. And, were I a British-born son of the Subcontinent with a way with a word, a dashing, dandy-ish dress sense, and a slim pencil moustache, I may well have pipped him to the post.
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From India - Kumar & Suba Mahadevan
Wednesday May 8th, 2013You can keep your Kindle - I love the smell of a book in the morning. I also love the jolt of a spiced Mysore coffee; the divine Parsi scrambled eggs known as akuri; and the crisp-spongy bite of a dosa dipped into creamy coconut chutney.
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Melt: Ice Cream Sensations to Make at Home
Sunday May 5th, 2013Making ice cream at home needn't get you hot and bothered. With a copy of Melt at your side, you can be the coolest cook in the street
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The Green Kitchen – David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl
Saturday April 6th, 2013In the wake of ‘Horsegate’ it’s inevitable many people will have a dalliance with vegetarianism, however short-lived. But, as the authors prove, it’s really just more about mindful eating than mealy-mouthed moralising. This pair have got it licked.
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The Amalfi Coast - Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi
Friday March 29th, 2013Chic and sun-kissed, Italy's Amalfi coast nestles between sea and mountain and is home to some seriously delicious food. Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi have created a book that brings a bit of that dolce vita back to the UK and Nick Harman meets Giancarlo to discover more.
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The Ultimate Nepalese Cookbook – Pemba Lama and Nicci Gurr
Monday February 25th, 2013Ultimate compliments to the authors in filling a very vacant niche with this enlightening, accessible little number. It’s not aiming to set the world alight - rather, it ignites a slow-burning fondness for this esoteric, undercelebrated cuisine, showcasing a collection of dishes to really put fire in your belly.
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MasterChef Cookery Course
Thursday February 21st, 2013The first few times I tried cooking without my Mum holding my hand, culinary disaster ensued. Utensils were flung across the kitchen in fury, and, eventually, takeaways were ordered. If I’d had a book like ‘MasterChef Cookery Course’ as my guide, I might have been keener to persevere.
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Where Chefs Eat- A guide to chefs' favourite restaurants
Tuesday February 12th, 2013Of course few normal people, when pressed, can actually name even five working chefs and odds are they would mostly think of Ramsay, who isn’t in the book and Blumenthal who is, despite being more of a James May of food these days. But if you’ve heard of Harald Wohlfahrt, ‘in 2005 he was awarded the German Order of Merit’ then you can now find out what he likes for breakfast.
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Devnaa: Indian-Inspired Desserts- Roopa Rawal
Friday February 8th, 2013Bijou confectionary company Devnaa is out to disprove the notion of Indian mithai as the exclusive preserve of those with an entire mouthful of sweet teeth (or, more likely, no teeth at all). It's a solid buy for a spot of sweet Valentine's seduction or even just sheer cold weather comfort.
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Cook Wrap Sell- Bruce McMichael
Monday January 21st, 2013These days, who doesn’t have a culinary speciality? You can’t visit a friend for fear of being bestowed with yet another jar of their ‘special chutney’. But wouldn’t it be nice to sell your wares to willing customers instead?
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The Bowler's Meatball Cookbook - Jez Felwick
Friday January 18th, 2013Isn’t mince just magic? Doesn’t need chewing and is so versatile. Use it in your spag bol or chile con carne, shape it into a burger, stuff it into peppers or roll it into balls. The last option is the one Jez Felwick feels is best and considering he’s done all right out of these balls, who can doubt him?
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Sherbet and Spice: The Complete Story of Turkish Sweets and Desserts- Mary Isin
Tuesday January 8th, 2013If you go and dig around the Christmas leftovers cupboard- what do you mean you don’t got one?- you might find one of those whimsical, hexagonal boxes of Turkish delight. And you might think a few glunky cubes would be the perfect accompaniment to this sweet tome. Wrong.
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Divine Vegan Desserts - Lisa Fabry
Tuesday January 8th, 2013Vegetarians eh? Blooming nuisances that they are, always checking you haven’t used non veggie stock in their soup or slipped some gelatine in their jelly. If there’s one thing worse than a veggie round for dinner though, it has to be a vegan. They won’t eat anything that isn’t 100% made of plants.
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Marque. A culinary adventure -Mark Best and Pasi Patenen
Monday December 31st, 2012This is ultimately a book you will in fact probably never cook from but you will enjoy enormously. It will make you want to search out restaurants that take the care, the creativity and the time that Marque does to deliver a dining experience beyond the norm. You’ll eat with renewed appreciation of what it takes to be a chef at this level and you’ll savour every morsel because you’ll have a very good idea of just how very hard it was to create.
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Nuovo Mondo: Modern Italian Food. Stefano De Pieri and Jim McDougall
Sunday December 30th, 2012Nuovo Mondo is a collaboration between Stefano de Pieri, Italian originally of course, and Jim McDougall who was born an Aussie. Together they set out to create dishes that break moulds. Stefano admits he is a conservative chef, marinaded in tradition. Jim, once his apprentice, is brimming with new ideas and together they set out to surprise each other, to create new dishes together and argue amicably in pursuit of the exciting.
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The Food of Morocco - Paula Wolfert
Wednesday December 26th, 2012Morocco is still a mysterious place but it is accessible, a vast area with cooking as varied as its landscape, towns, villages, souks and medinas. Tangiers, Casablanca, Marrakech are all names that conjure up memories of classic films, as well as of Led Zeppelin, and Paula Wolfert has over 50 year’s experience in country. This lavish book is another expert excursion into the cooking she loves so much.
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Rococo: Mastering the Art of Chocolate- Chantal Coady
Friday December 21st, 2012Chocolate. Who’s not a fan? At Christmas, be you ardent admirer or casual consumer, the brown stuff seems to be afforded an elevated status as a valid and necessary food group. What the hell- there are far worse forms of substance abuse. And, in fact, chocolatiers like Chantal Coady are in the finest of fettle- testament to the properties of the food that fuelled Montezuma.
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Faviken- Magnus Nilsson
Monday December 10th, 2012Magnus Nilssen's Faviken Magasinet may uphold the stripped-back, austere values of the simultaneously reviled and revered 'New Nordic' label, but 'Faviken' is the art-house porn of the cookbook world- and we all know there’s only so much vicarious titillation you can take before you, too, are sweaty, splattered, and very, very satisfied.
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Scandinavian Christmas- Trine Hahnemann
Tuesday November 27th, 2012Ooh I do like a fuggy kitchen on a cold day, with all those lovely cooking smells wafting about like the Christmas Fairy. Especially these Scandi bakes with their liberal use of cardamom. And my own majestic love for those cakes and cookies knows no bounds. So those smells are about the only things that are going to resemble the Fairy this Christmas.
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No need to knead - Suzanne Dunaway
Wednesday November 21st, 2012Kneading is the bit most home bread-makers fall down on - it’s such very hard work. Sure you can use the bread hook on the mixer but, unless you’ve paid for something serious like a KitchenAid, the thing will dance all over the worktop and probably won’t last ten minutes before emitting a smell of burning wires as a prelude to bursting into flames.