Books November 2009
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.
