Foolproof Cooking
Mary Berry
(UK: BBC Books; 2016; USA: BBC Books, 2017)
This book features all the recipes from the show, including delicious weeknight dinners, irresistible dinner party suggestions and of course, plenty of tempting traybakes and biscuits for those with a sweet tooth… Featuring her no-nonsense tips and techniques, each chapter ensures perfect results every time, whatever you’re cooking. In addition, Mary’s no-fuss advice will help you foolproof your kitchen – whether that’s preparing ahead to entertain a crowd, planning weekly family meals, or ensuring your store cupboard is well stocked… With Mary’s no-fuss guidance, discover how every delicious dish can be made completely foolproof.
Recommended by:
Christopher Norris, Jolabokaflod Book Campaign
Available in the UK via ‘My Local Bookshop‘ search engine or Amazon (Foolproof Cooking
Available in the USA via Amazon (Foolproof Cooking
Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef
Massimo Bottura
(UK: Phaidon, 2014; USA: Phaidon, 2014)
Osteria Francescana is Italy’s most celebrated restaurant. At Osteria Francescana, chef Massimo Bottura (as featured on Netflix’s Chef’s Table) takes inspiration from contemporary art to create highly innovative dishes that play with Italian culinary traditions.
Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef is a tribute to Bottura’s twenty-five year career and the evolution of Osteria Francescana into a three-Michelin star establishment voted the best restaurant in the world in 2016. Divided into four chapters, each one dealing with a different period, the book features 50 recipes and accompanying texts explaining Bottura’s inspiration, ingredients and techniques. Illustrated with photography by Stefano Graziani and Carlo Benvenuto, Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chefis the first book from Bottura – the leading figure in modern Italian gastronomy.
Recommended by:
Jane Johnson
Available in the UK via ‘My Local Bookshop‘ search engine or Amazon (Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef
Available in the USA via Amazon (Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef
Taste of Persia
Naomi Duguid
(UK: Artisan, 2016; USA: Artisan, 2016)
Naomi Duguid introduces us to a place we want to visit with recipes for food we can’t wait to make, with tales that real memorable and moving. In the same way that the Mediterranean has a common palate, so too do these nations: one centred on a love for the fresh and the green (beginning with the piles of fresh herbs that accompany every dish with abandon) and also the tart, as revealed in the ingenious use of sour plums, sour cherries, pomegranates, and limes.
Recommended by:
Caroline Mawer, Writer and Researcher, Caroline Mawer (author website)
Caroline says: ‘This book mixes up yummy recipes with travel stories and photos; and proves how extraordinarily dangerous it can be to travel to Iran – for your waist-line! I especially like how it recognises that Greater Iran extended – and perhaps still extends? – well beyond the current national boundaries.’
Available in the UK via ‘My Local Bookshop‘ search engine or Amazon (Taste of Persia
Available in the USA via Amazon (Taste of Persia
Contact Caroline at Caroline Mawer (author website) for details about her first book:
The Shah’s Road: One Woman’s Journey across Iran
Slow Cooking: Mouthwatering Recipes with Minimum Effort
James Martin
(UK: Quadrille, 2012)
Let your oven do the work as James Martin, host of Saturday Kitchen, shows how cooking slowly is the perfect way to draw out flavours and textures, enabling you to produce mouthwatering dishes with minimum effort.
Every recipe in Slow Cooking includes an hour or more of cooking or marinating time and no last-minute preparation. There are recipes for slow-cooked fish, vegetables and desserts as well as soups, roasts and one-pot dishes. Family favourites include Pot-Roast Chicken, and Banana and Custard Tart – and there are delicious dinner party ideas that embrace the slow food philosophy, such as Treacle-marinated Salmon and Slow Roast Leg of Lamb in Hay.
Recommended by:
Liz Fay
Available in the UK via ‘My Local Bookshop‘ search engine or Amazon (Slow Cooking: Mouthwatering Recipes with Minimum Effort
Honey & Co: The Baking Book
Our day is marked by what comes out of the pastry section, and there’s always something good on the way: sticky buns full of cherries and pistachios in the morning; a loaf of rich dough rolled with chocolate, hazelnuts and cinnamon that has been proving since dawn and comes out of the oven fresh for elevenses.
Lunch is a crisp, crumbly shell of pastry filled with spiced lamb or burnt aubergine, and at teatime there are cheesecakes and fruit cakes, small cakes and massive cookies – so many cakes that it’s hard to choose one. (There’s no need to worry, whatever you choose will be great!)
After dinner there might be poached peaches with roses or something more traditional, sweet and salty Knafe drenched in orange blossom syrup, or maybe just a small piece of fresh marzipan. There’s something sweet, something in the oven for everyone, all day long – welcome to Honey & Co.
Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer are a husband-and-wife team who together run Honey & Co in London’s Fitzrovia. They first met ten years ago in a restaurant kitchen in Israel and arrived in London dreaming of high gastronomy and Michelin stars. Their tiny restaurant has ten tables and brings the magic of homely Middle Eastern soul food to a hungry crowd.
Recommended by:
Emma Daley, Emma Daley PR
Available in the UK via ‘My Local Bookshop‘ search engine or Amazon (Honey & Co: The Baking Book
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