|summary=I love soup. It's more filling than a drink and less time-consuming than a meal but with all the flavour you could ask for. I don't mind good quality canned soup such as Baxter's or New Covent Garden, but I do prefer to make my own, so what could be better than a recipe book from New Covent Garden Food Co? It's not a book of recipes for the soups they sell, but a series of recipes from their staff which will take you, as the title says, through all occasions.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752226797</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Richard Mabey
|title=Wild Cooking
|rating=4
|genre=Cookery
|summary=It's become fashionable now to make do, to cut back - even for those who have no need to do so. Conspicuous consumption is frowned upon and thriftiness is the new black, so ''Wild Cooking'', previously published in hardback as ''The New English Cassoulet'' is going to appeal to the mood of the moment with its approach of 'busking in the kitchen' and making do. Some of it might seem a little extreme – I really can't imagine that I will ever slow cook a Peking Duck in front of a fan heater simply because it might as well cook the food whilst it's heating the room – but I love the idea of using a glut to make broad bean hummus, or even of gathering up vegetables which have been left when the field has been harvested.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099522969</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gill Holcombe
|title=Fish Pies and French Fries, Vegetables, Meat and Something Sweet...Affordable, Everyday Food and Family-friendly Recipes Made Easy
|rating=2.5
|genre=Cookery
|summary=Following on from her success with [[How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, with Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time, Even If You Have a Tiny Kitchen, Only Three Saucepans ... - Unless You Count the Garlic Crusher... by Gill Holcombe|the book with the atrociously long title]] Gill Holcombe has given us another long title and more easy recipes aimed at busy people who live real lives. The principle is the same – few people have unlimited time and/or money and these recipe books go some way towards proving that it is possible to prepare food simply and quickly without breaking the Bank. She promises 'simple, wholesome and nutritious recipes' – does she deliver?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905862334</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Victoria Moore
|title=How to Drink
|rating=5
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=A friend who saw me reading this book was moved to ask if I really needed the advice and was quite surprised when I explained that it was about the whole range of liquid intake from the humble glass of warm water (try it – it's wonderful first thing in the morning) to rare spirits costing hundreds of pounds a bottle. It's completely unpreachy with not a word about how much liquid you should be taking in each day to how few units you should be consuming each week. It's about getting the best (which isn't always the most expensive) and enjoying it – and most importantly, enjoying a drink when that's the drink you want.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847080200</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Delia Smith
|title=Delia's Complete How To Cook
|rating=4
|genre=Cookery
|summary=At the end of the last century Delia Smith produced her ''How to Cook'' series – three volumes which gave the inexperienced cook the grounding that they would need to put good food on the table for any occasion. Produced in three volumes ([[Delia's How To Cook - Book 1 by Delia Smith|volumes 1]], [[Delia's How To Cook - Book 2 by Delia Smith|2]] and [[Delia's How to Cook - Book 3 by Delia Smith|3]]) it always seemed to me to be a reworking of her [[Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course by Delia Smith|Complete Cookery Course]] which began life in a similar manner. There were some new recipes, some reworkings of old favourites and some that were well known. The books were directed at the novice rather than the experienced cook, but found favour with both as this was a time when Delia could do no wrong.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0563539070</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kate Colquhoun
|title=The Thrifty Cookbook
|rating=5
|genre=Cookery
|summary=Using left-over food can, as Kate Colquhoun says, become something of an obsession. I've done it for years and I do occasionally wonder if I ever eat a meal which doesn't owe something to the day before – or even the day before that. Tonight we're having chicken (from yesterday's roast) and roast vegetables (the last of the selection in the vegetable rack) followed by queen of puddings (the end of the loaf which made chicken sandwiches for lunchboxes, the last of a pot of jam and a couple of eggs). The carcass of the chicken made stock and whilst that was simmering I used the steam to make the custard for ice cream with the last of this week's eggs, the end of the weekend's cream and some milk. It's all good food, but you do need to know what you're doing and how you can make best use of what's in the kitchen. That's where ''The Thrifty Cookbook'' comes in.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747597049</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=David Pritchard
|title=Shooting the Cook
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=David Pritchard would have you believe that he was a bumbling TV producer and that he, almost by accident, discovered two men who would go on to become celebrity chefs. The first, Keith Floyd, was a revelation to viewers as he slurped a glass (or two) of wine, said exactly what you thought he shouldn't have said and cooked amazing food in one exotic location after another. After the stultifying programmes made by the likes Fanny Craddock he was a breath of fresh air and like or loathe him there was no way that you could be ambivalent. The second man, Rick Stein, was an entirely different, er, kettle of fish. Quiet, thoughtful and decidedly more erudite – it was difficult to imagine two more diverse personalities, but he brought out the best of both and made programmes which stay in the mind years later.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007278306</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Daniel Stevens
|title=Bread: River Cottage Handbook No 3
|rating=5
|genre=Cookery
|summary=Have you ever been tempted by a bread recipe in a magazine and thought that it looked so easy you really ought to give it a go? Have you followed the instructions to the letter – or so you thought – only to find that you produced a solid mass fit only for the birds and even they took it as an insult? Me too. 'Bread: River Cottage Handbook No 3' was to be my final attempt at bread making and if that failed then I would have to make the regular trip to the local artisan baker.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>074759533X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Delia Smith
|title=Delia's Frugal Food
|rating=4
|genre=Cookery
|summary=Following a lamentable lack of ability to predict the way that public opinion was heading when she published [[Delia's How To Cheat At Cooking by Delia Smith|How to Cheat at Cooking]] it's good to see that Delia's returned to form with an updating and reissue of her original classic bestseller, ''Frugal Food''. Frugal Food was first published in the nineteen seventies when we were having a little local financial difficulty and it caught the mood of the times with its preference for spending time in the kitchen to produce economical meals rather than spending money to buy time.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034091856X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Rick Stein
|title=Coast to Coast
|rating=4
|genre=Cookery
|summary=You know what you're going to get with Rick Stein. There's a good reason why he's a television chef, successful restaurateur and author – he delivers, on the table, on the screen and on the page, the sort of food which people want to eat. In his early days it was all about fish but in his latest book he gives recipes for food from land and sea inspired by his travels across the world.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846076145</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Gill Holcombe
|title=How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, with Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time, Even If You Have a Tiny Kitchen, Only Three Saucepans ... - Unless You Count the Garlic Crusher...
|rating=4
|genre=Cookery
|summary=These days few people have the luxury of unlimited time in which to prepare meals. Jobs, children, families and life all seem to get in the way. The same is true of money and when you put the two factors together it's easy to see why people are tempted to buy cheap convenience food. It's on the table without much effort, requires little in the way of equipment and superficially it looks a lot cheaper than buying all the ingredients to make a family meal. In ''How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy, Balanced Diet…'' gill Holcombe sets out to prove that it's possible to put good food on the table without breaking the Bank.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905862156</amazonuk>
}}