Archive For July 2008
OK, so the title is a bit of a mouthful. Helen Aitken has students in mind but this is a great book for anyone who will be away from mum’s cooking for the first time. It is packed with information about setting up a kitchen and providing yourself with tasty, quick and easy meals that…
“The Brits can cook – it’s official”, says John Burton Race. We always knew we could, but it’s nice to see it in print from time to time. This is a chunky, large-format volume that encourages you to curl up with a nice cup of tea and have a good read. All the recipes, and…
Well, the name says it all, Jams and Chutneys – Preserving the Harvest, and Thane Prince has penned this book choc-a-bloc with ideas, recipes and technical know-how. Follow the advice and by the end of the year your shelves will be bending under the weight of bottled goods. Thane grew up in the countryside when…
Mr. and Mrs. Hammond, Sally and Gordon that is, have produced quite one of the most sumptuous books around. Each turn of the page brings a new visual delight. Sally is an author and restaurant reviewer and has written several food and travel books. Gordon is an award-winning photographer, so the combination was bound to…
This is Philippa Vanstone’s first book and I am sure there will be many more. Tarts and Pies – Classic and Contemporary is lovely with both photographs (Michelle Garrett) and recipes to be proud of. It’s a bold, colourful volume with clear text and easy to follow recipes. They are easy to follow because they…
Afternoon tea is very much in vogue these days, so why wouldn’t you have a traditional afternoon tea in London, the capital of European tea-drinking? If you are going to the trouble of visiting London then you want to enjoy afternoon tea at its best and that’s just what Hyatt Regency The Churchill offers. This…
Michael J. Pettid has produced a book that is destined to become a classic work on the evolution of Korean cuisine. It isn’t a recipe book although it does have quite a few. It’s a history book and charts the culinary progress of Korea from ancient times to the present. It is, as it says,…
“I should recommend anyone with a taste for Victorian gastronomic literature to snap him up…His recipes are so meticulous and clear, that the absolute beginner could follow them, yet at the same time he has much to teach the experienced cook.” That’s from the great Elizabeth David. Culinary Jottings for Madras was written by WYVERN…
Jancis Robinson is instantly recognisable as the wine expert with the soft voice….and glasses. She became popular when presenting The Wine Programme and later Jancis Robinson’s Wine Course. She is also the voice for several documentaries. But where did “Jancis” come from? “I was given the unusual name Jancis because my mother and her sister…
This is the second bread book by Bath-based baker Richard Bertinet and doesn’t disappoint. If you have Dough in your cookbook collection you will already have reserved a bit of space just next to it for this sequel. Richard has a very different technique for kneading dough but if you follow his method you will…
Pat Chapman is famous among Anglo curry enthusiasts as a passionate Indian food lover and the man who started the Curry Club over 20 years ago. Its members now number 15000 so there is evidently support for Pat’s take on food of the subcontinent. This is a hefty volume with the first 60-odd pages devoted…
No, dear reader, this isn’t another chilli-laden recipe book but rather a book about us British – how our food has developed over the last 150 years and what that development says about us as a nation. Panikos Panayi has written a well-researched and absorbing book that explains the progression from traditional to Tikka Masala….
Trish Deseine has written a cookbook that proclaims French home cooking to be still the best in the World. I would rather say that the best French cooking can be found in French homes, and Nobody Does It Better gives recipes for some of the finest. This book is one of the most faithful representations…
This chap Richard Bertinet has really got something here. It’s a totally different approach to bread-making and it’s explained and illustrated in his book Dough. I am ashamed to say that I didn’t know much about Richard’s work before reading this book but now I am an enthusiastic convert of this man from Brittany. I…
Well, the title is a mouthful but James Martin has written a book that is mostly about the food at the village show. The book was inspired by the BBC series The Great British Village Show and gives tips from the expert Village Show judges on growing prize-winning veg, making gold-medal baked goods as well…
Elisabeth Luard has written this Regional Celebration of the food of Spain and Portugal, and there is nobody better placed to do just that. She is considered one of the best writers about Spanish food in the English language and with Elisabeth’s background I am inclined to agree with those opinions. Having been bought up…
Ice cream was probably invented in China in the first millennium. The first British recipe for ice cream was published in “Mrs. Mary Eales’s Receipts” in 1718. The recipe did not include a process for making the ice smooth so it must have had the texture of a granita (frozen flavoured syrup which is then…
Moroccan Modern will introduce you to something a bit different. There are plenty of authentic Moroccan dishes to tempt you, but also a host of new and, as the man says, Modern recipes. The man in question is Hassan M’souli. Who he? A young executive chef and owner of Out of Africa on Sydney’s northern…