Difference between revisions of "Newest Cookery Reviews"

From TheBookbag
Jump to navigationJump to search
 
(97 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
 
[[Category:Cookery|*]]
 
[[Category:Cookery|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Cookery]]
+
[[Category:New Reviews|Cookery]]__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->
==Cookery==
+
{{Frontpage
__NOTOC__
+
|isbn=1454955546
{{newreview
+
|title=Sugarless
|author=Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
+
|author=Nicole M Avena
|title=River Cottage Veg Every Day!
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall wants to make it clear that ''River Cottage: Veg Every Day!'' is a ''vegetable'' cookbook and that it's up to the reader to determine whether or not it's a ''vegetarian'' cookbook.  He makes it quite clear that he's not a vegetarian and has no intention of becoming one, but for the four months which it took to film the series of which this is the book he didn't touch a scrap of meat or fish.  It's a new Hugh, but the slimmed-down version is the result of a conscious decision before filming began rather than the consequences of the change of diet.  The new hairstyle has yet to be explained…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1408812126</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Matt Armendariz
 
|title=On A Stick!
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=There's something rather fun about eating your food off a stick.  The first thing that springs to my mind is candy floss (I never buy it when it's in a bag...sacrilegious!) but if you think about it there are lots of things you can eat off a stick, both savoury and sweet.  And the author of this cookery book would have you believe that everything tastes better when it's eaten off a stick!
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594744890</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jojo Tulloh
 
|title=East End Paradise: Kitchen Garden Cooking In The City
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=It's easy to think that growing your own fruit and vegetables is only possible if you live in the country and have a large garden, but Jojo Tulloh prove that you can live in a city, have an allotment – in her case a patch of East London waste ground – and put good food on the family's table.  Even if you don't have the luxury of an allotment (and in some areas the waiting list is longer than most people can contemplate) there are still ways that almost everyone can produce some of their own food.  You might wonder why this matters, but anything you grow yourself is going to be fresher when you eat it and taste far better than anything you pick up at the supermarket.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099523590</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Charles Lamb
 
|title=Great Food: A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig and Other Essays
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=''A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig'' is a collection of food-related essays from the early 19th century, with a humorous bent. They're but a few pages each - a light read to bring a smile to your face, then on to the next little foodie treat.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951003</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Dr A W Chase
 
|title=Great Food: Buffalo Cake and Indian Pudding
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=Think of a slim, American Mrs Beeton (her cookbook, not her) and you've got a rough idea of the premise of ''Buffalo Cake and Indian Pudding''. It includes recipes for such treats as Minnesota corn bread, popcorn pudding, pumpkin pie and pork cake. The recipes aren't the whole picture, though. Dr Alvin Wood Chase was a travelling salesman as well as an author, so being blessed with the gift of the gab, he peppers his recipes with anecdotes and comments to amuse and entertain the reader.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241950996</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Elizabeth David
 
|title=Great Food: A Taste of the Sun
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=There are three people to whom I owe my ability to put imaginative and tasty food on the table: [[:Category:Nigel Slater|Nigel Slater]] for taking away the mystique, [[:Category:Jane Grigson|Jane Grigson]] for teaching me that food was deeply interesting and [[:Category:Elizabeth David|Elizabeth David]] just for being who she was.  Initially I found her a little daunting but once I realised that cookery books were about far more than recipes I appreciated her true worth.  In the wonderful ''Great Food'' series Penguin have given us a selection of her writing and a demonstration of how she changed the way that post-war Britain thought about food.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241951089</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Max Clark and Susan Spaull
 
|title=Leith's Meat Bible
 
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Cookery
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=I've been cooking beef for almost half a century and I thought that I was making a pretty good job of it, but last weekend I cooked the best beef I have ever done and it was down to 'Leith's Meat Bible'.  It wasn't because I had suddenly found a recipe to top all the others – it was because this book doesn't just tell you ''what'' to do; it tells you whyBecause of this I made some fairly minor adjustments to how I cooked the beef – and the results were amazing. It's the ultimate meat cookbook and unless you're vegetarian or vegan you should have one.
+
|summary=''This isn't a diet book.  The last thing anyone needs is another diet book.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747590478</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
There was a time, not that long ago, when it was thought that sugary food was better for you than food with high-fat content.  Fat was the demon food which was going to elevate your cholesterol and cause heart disease.  Sugar was a carbohydrate, so goodThere's a problem, thoughSugar is addictive and can hijack your brain in much the same way as drugs like heroin and cocaine.  Does that sound over the top?  Well, it isn't.
|author=Gregg Wallace
 
|title=Gregg's Favourite Puddings
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=Anyone who has watched Gregg Wallace on ''MasterChef'' will be aware of his passion (and that is ''not'' putting it too strongly) for puddingsHe's never lost his sweet tooth and, unlike many men, is not afraid to admit itHe takes a child-like delight in the final course and has been known to go against the professional judge if something particularly appeals to him: he's salvaged the pride of many a contestant with his ''yummy''.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>060062143X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Anna Del Conte
+
|isbn=1635866847
|title=Risotto with Nettles
+
|title=The Lavender Companion
|rating=4
+
|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
|genre=Autobiography
+
|rating=4.5
|summary= People who are serious about food will know the name of Anna Del ConteShe's a serious writer about Italian food but not someone who has courted fame via the television screenYou'll have met her in places like 'Sainsbury's Magazine' or read some of her brilliant writing about the food of her native Italy.
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099505991</amazonuk>
+
|summary=It's strange, the things that make you ''immediately'' feel that this is the book for youBefore I started reading ''The Lavender Companion'', I visited the author's [https://www.pinelavenderfarm.com/ website] and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepageI don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally.  (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it.  Notes in the margins are sanctioned.  You get to fold down the corners of pages.  You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem.  I ''loved'' this book already.
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=3791388398
|author=Yotam Ottolenghi
+
|title=New European Baking: 99 Recipes for Breads, Brioches and Pastries
|title=Plenty
+
|author=Laurel Kratochvila
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|summary=I'm sure that there are many good reasons for buying the Guardian of a Saturday but I always enjoy Yotam Ottolenghi's New Vegetarian columnI'm not a vegetarian (nor, indeed, is Ottolenghi) but he has a way with vegetables whether they're to be served on their own or as an accompaniment which is fresh, full of flavour and excitingThe background to the food is in Israel and Palestine with the region's rich supply of vegetables, pulses and grains.
+
|summary=This is probably one of the most unusual baking books I've encounteredIt's built around 99 recipes for breads, brioches and pastries but the recipes are interwoven with some thought-provoking writing on how bread - and baking - have changed in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.  We start with the basics - the equipment you'll need (there's nothing extravagant or indulgent) and the ingredients, where the author is particularYou might not have realised that different salts can change the flavour and sensation on the tongue of the finished product but, apparently, they do.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091933684</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1398508632
|author=Xanthe Milton
+
|title=The Wilderness Cure
|title=Eat Me!: The Stupendous, Self-raising World of Cupcakes and Bakes According to Cookie Girl
+
|author=Mo Wilde
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Cookery
+
|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=What a stunning book this is.  The inside, that is.  I was almost
+
|summary=It had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food.  The end of November, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to start, in a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, Brexit and a pandemic.  Wilde had a few advantages: the area around her was a known habitat with a variety of terrains. She had electricity which allowed her to run a fridge, freezer and dehydrator.  She had a car - and fuel.  Most importantly, she had shelter: this was not a plan to ''live'' wild just to live off its produce.
stunned in a less positive way by the brightness of the front cover.
 
I don't like pink at the best of times, and this book is very, very
 
pink.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091925118</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1635864674
|author=Michael Booth
+
|title=Tomato Love: 44 Mouthwatering Recipes for Salads, Sauces, Stews, and More
|title=Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking
+
|author=Joy Howard
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|summary=Japanese food has a tendency to sound a bit freakish or even controversial.  Raw fish?  Octopus ice cream?  Whale meat?  Yet it is slowly infiltrating the UK with sushi conveyor belt restaurants popping up everywhere and noodle bars offering Westernised bowls of steaming noodles.  In this book Michael Booth takes his wife and two young children to experience the real thing, travelling across the whole of Japan tasting an enormous range of foods and learning about their history, how the foods have been produced and are cooked and eaten.
+
|summary=''Think of it as no-whining dining.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516446</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
  
{{newreview
+
We know it's a fruit rather than a vegetable but the fact that so many people get confused just goes to show how versatile the tomato is.  Then there are all the different types, not to mention the cultivars - and you begin to understand why Joy Howard says that she hasn't met one she didn't love. I'd argue with her there - I have no affection for the ones you find in the supermarket ''next'' to the ones labelled 'grown for flavour' to distinguish them from the ones that have obviously just been grown for profitPersonally, I'd prefer a tin of tomatoes to those - and Howard makes good use of these. She's not at all precious if you get the taste.
|author=Cass Titcombe, Patrick Clayton-Malone and Dominic Lake
 
|title=Canteen: Great British Food
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=I love food and I can happily read a recipe book for fun and for inspiration.  It's always good to see what cookery books spawned by restaurants offerJust occasionally you spot a combination of foods which you would never have thought of, but which works brilliantly, but more often I've found myself wondering two things.  Who, in their own home, would go to the trouble of creating these dishes and, more importantly, who would want to eat them? At the other end of the scale you find 'Canteen: Great British Food' and you heave a sigh of relief.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091936322</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0241480442
|author=Mo Smith
+
|title=Healthy Vegan The Cookbook: Vegan Cooking Meets Nutrition Science
|title=The Lazy Cook's Family Favourites
+
|author=Niko Rittenau and Sebastian Copien
 
|rating=4.5
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|summary=These days I get very nervous when I hear about books for 'lazy' cooks, or how to cheat when preparing mealsThere's a very simple reason for this: good food, prepared using seasonal ingredients which don't break the budget needs skill and knowledge and neither are the prerogative of the lazy.  Mo Smith might like us to think that she's lazy, but take my word for it – she isn't.  She might have learned a few tricks for making good food quickly, but she's a woman who knows her onions and all sorts of other food.
+
|summary=Emotionally, I am a vegan.  Mentally, I am a veganI read [[How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World by Henry Mance]] and was appalled by the way in which we treat animals in our search for (preferably cheap) food.  Practically, I am not a vegan.  It worked for a while apart from the odd blip with regard to cheese but then a perfect storm of those events which you hope don't occur too often in your lifetime tempted me back to animal-based protein.  It wasn't the taste - I know that I can get plant-based food that tastes just as good as anything plundered from the animal kingdom - it was the ease of being able to get sufficient protein when meals were often snatched in a few spare moments.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007826</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=1529418100
|author=Jim Lahey
+
|title=Bruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales
|title=My Bread: the Revolutionary No-work, No-knead Method
+
|author=Martin Walker
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=It's a long time since I did Home Economics at school, but a major part of it was learning methods, which, I was assured would stand me in good stead for the rest of my life.  A Victoria sponge was a careful progression of creaming and gently adding flour and eggs.  A white sauce had a couple of these methods, but essentially it meant working through a series of instructions until they became second nature.  Bread was the worst requiring fermenting, kneading, proving and then more kneading and rising.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393066304</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Stuart Brown
 
|title=Mma Ramotswe's Cookbook
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Cookery
+
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=I expect there will be a few people who spot this book on the shelves and wonder who Mma Ramotswe is, but [[:Category:Alexander McCall Smith|Alexander McCall Smith's]] legion of fans certainly won't be amongst themThis cookbook is a nice tie-in to the books, written with a foreword from AMS himself, and full of flavoursome recipes that are spoken of in his series of books about Mma Ramotswe and her Number One Ladies Detective Agency.  Illustrated with beautiful photography, lots of quotes from the books, and lots of information about Botswana's rich variety of food it's a wonderful mix of being both a cookery book, a reference book and a companion work to the Mma Ramostwe books.
+
|summary=I'm not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to put the book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - but I am a fan of Martin Walker's [[Martin Walker's Commissar Bruno Courreges Mysteries in Chronological Order|Bruno Courreges Mysteries]] so the temptation to read ''Bruno's Challenge'' was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even tryFor those new to the series, there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who's who and the background to why Bruno is in St Denis.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184697139X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 +
{{Frontpage
 +
|isbn=1787332098
 +
|title=How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World
 +
|author=Henry Mance
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Politics and Society
 +
|summary=''When we do think about animals, we break them down into species and groups: cows, dogs, foxes, elephants and so on. And we assign them places in society: cows go on plates, dogs on sofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, and millions of wild animals stay out there, ''somewhere,'' hopefully on the next David Attenborough series.''
  
{{newreview
+
I was going to argue. I mean, cows are for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat...) and I much prefer my elephants in the wild but then I realised that I was quibbling for the sake of it.  Essentially that quote sums up my attitude to animals - and I consider myself an animal lover. If I had to choose between the company of humans and the company of animals, I would probably choose the animals. I insisted that I read this book: no one was trying to stop me but I was initially reluctant. I eat cheese, eggs, chicken and fish and I needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices.  I suspected that making the decision would not be comfortable.
|author=Ani Phyo
 
|title=Ani's Raw Food Desserts
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=I'm always keen to try new desserts. I'm also - in a low-key kind of way - quite a fan of raw-food eating. I read a couple of books on the topic some years ago, and was inspired by the medical anecdotes, and also the 'green' aspects of eating primarily raw food. But most of the raw food recipes I've come across are over complex. So most of the time I made raw juices and smoothies, and eat some salad and fresh fruit and nuts, but my diet is mainly non-raw.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0738213063</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0008333173
|author=Keith Floyd
+
|title=Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More
|title=Stirred But Not Shaken: The Autobiography
+
|author=Grace Dent
|rating=4
+
|rating=5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=I grew up with television cookery programmes and still have some recipes in my childish handwriting, which begin ''4oz SR fl 2oz marg 2oz C sug…'' as I battled to copy what was on the screen before we retuned to the presenterProgrammes stagnated as the cook spoke to camera and lectured the viewer on how to make sponge cake or a fish dish.  Then we were shocked awake. There was a man, quite good-looking in a raffish, slightly dangerous sort of way, who cooked on the deck of a trawler or wherever the whim took him, always glass in hand and who was quite capable of berating the cameraman about how he was doing his job.  Like him, or hate him – you could not help but know that he was Keith Floyd, or Floydy to millions.
+
|summary=I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of the judges on ''Masterchef''.  You know that you're going to get an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the timeYou also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in front of her.  I've often wondered about the woman behind the media image and ''Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More'' is a stunning read which will make you laugh and break your heart in equal measures.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283071052</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Tee_Gross
|author=Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray
+
|title=This Cookbook is Gross
|title=The 30-Minute Vegan: 150 Simple and Delectable Recipes for Optimal Health
+
|author=Susanna Tee and Santy Gutierrez
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=I am a committed vegetarian, who strongly believes in the health benefits of a meat free diet. I have in the past been tempted to go completely vegan, but the lure of chocolate and cheese proved too strong. I have no will power.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0738213276</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Phil Vickery
 
|title=Phil Vickery's Puddings
 
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Cookery
+
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=I have a weakness for puddings and whilst I wouldn't consider buying a ready meal I will happily trawl the aisles for a good desert when I haven't the time to spend in the kitchen. So, the opportunity to read a book with the sub-title ''every pudding you have ever wanted to make'' was simply too good to pass up. I have two favourites when I think of puddings – Tarte Tatin and Crème Brulee – so I was keen to see Phil Vickery's recipes for these classics.
+
|summary=The misuse of language is a modern disease. Too many times something is described as awesome or stupendous, but were you truly awed by it? Or stupefied? People just seem to pluck words out of the ether and pretend that they are the correct ones. Are the recipes in Susanna Tee and Santy Gutierrez's 'This Cookbook is Gross' truly gross? For once the language is not overplayed. These recipes may taste nice, but in appearance, they are absolutely vile.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847376835</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
{{Frontpage
|author=Jennifer McCann
+
|isbn=1848993609
|title=Vegan Lunch Box Around the World
+
|title=Good Mood Food: Unlock the Power of Diet to Think and Feel Well
|rating=3.5
+
|author=Charlotte Watts and Natalie Savona
|genre=Cookery
+
|rating=4.5
|summary=I am a long-time Vegetarian but sometimes flex up (or down, depending on how you look at it) to Vegan since I don't like eggs unless cleverly disguised as a cake, and don't drink milk. Not having either in the house most of the time means cooking some recipes can be a pain, so I was keen to have a look at this book for ideas of what I could use as substitutes.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0738213578</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=New Covent Garden Food Co
 
|title=Soup For All Occasions
 
|rating=4
 
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|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 forI 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.
+
|summary=I thought I was getting a cookbook: I liked the idea of a series of recipes which would make me feel happyFor once this isn't a case of 'if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is' - it's a case of getting something which could change your life for the better - for good - rather than a quick fix.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0752226797</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=0241367875
|author=Richard Mabey
+
|title=Completely Perfect: 120 Essential Recipes for Every Cook
|title=Wild Cooking
+
|author=Felicity Cloake
|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
 
|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
 
|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 occasionProduced 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.
+
|summary=It's a novel concept for a cookery book: these are not Felicity Cloake's recipes but the best ones she found to do a particular job - the job of delivering the best meal, the ''Completely Perfect'' meal of the title.  Think of it as the equivalent of a comparison site for when you want to renew the car insurance and then taking the best elements out of each recipe to make perfectionThere's nothing cutting edge here: it's the sort of food which we've been eating for decades and probably will be for decades to come.  There's a reason for that: roast chicken followed by apple crumble ''works'' and providing that you don't have a vegetarian or a vegan at table, it's a meal which is unlikely to do other than go down well.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0563539070</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Kay Vintage
|author=Kate Colquhoun
+
|title=Vintage Kitchenalia
|title=The Thrifty Cookbook
+
|author=Emma Kay
|rating=5
+
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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.
+
|summary=Over the half-century and more that I've been preparing meals on a regular basis I've seen food preparation move from being just something you did to an obsession akin to a religion. My first kitchen had nothing in the way of luxury - it was there to make meals as nutritiously and economically as possible: my current kitchen is not ''quite'' state of the art, but it's equipped to a high standard and is a pleasure to work in. But what of all the equipment which went before, which paved the way to what we have now? Emma Kay is going to give you a quick trip through the history.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747597049</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Jopson_Science
|author=David Pritchard
+
|title=The Science of Food: An exploration of what we eat and how we cook
|title=Shooting the Cook
+
|author=Marty Jopson
 
|rating=4
 
|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
 
|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.
+
|summary=I've always believed that if you understood ''why'' something worked in a particular way it was very easy to remember ''how'' it worked and what you needed to do.  The food we eat is no exception to this rule and ''The One Show'' resident scientist Marty Jopson has undertaken to explain how things work in the kitchen - and he covers everything from the type of knives we use through to the food of the future.  Best of all, he does it in language that even a science illiterate like me can understand.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>074759533X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Hayward New
|author=Delia Smith
+
|title=Juan Altamiras' New Art of Cookery: A Spanish Friar's Kitchen Notebook
|title=Delia's Frugal Food
+
|author=Vicky Hayward
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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.
+
|summary=In 1745 a Spanish friary cook, Juan Altamiras, published the first edition of his ''New Art of Cookery, Drawn From the School of Economic Experience''. It contained more than two hundred recipes for meat, poultry, game, salted and fresh fish, vegetables and desserts. The style was informal, chatty and humorous on occasions and it was aimed, not at those who could afford to cook on a grand scale, but at those with more modest budgets, who sometimes needed to cook for large numbers. Whilst the ingredients were - for the most part - modestly priced there is a stress on the careful combination of flavours and aromas. Spices are used conservatively and the bluntness of some Moorish cooking is eschewed in favour of something much more subtle and we see influences from Altamiras' own region, Aragon, the Iberian court and the New World.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>034091856X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Federman_Fasting
|author=Rick Stein
+
|title=Fasting and Feasting - The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray
|title=Coast to Coast
+
|author=Adam Federman
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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.
+
|summary=For more than thirty years, Patience Gray--author of the celebrated cookbook Honey from a Weed--lived in a remote area of Puglia in southernmost Italy. She lived without electricity, modern plumbing, or a telephone, grew much of her own food, and gathered and ate wild plants alongside her neighbours in this economically impoverished region. She was fond of saying that she wrote only for herself and her friends, yet her growing reputation brought a steady stream of international visitors to her door. This simple and isolated life she chose for herself may help explain her relative obscurity when compared to the other great food writers of her time: M. F. K. Fisher, Elizabeth David, and Julia Child. So it is not surprising that when Gray died in 2005, the BBC described her as an ''almost forgotten culinary star.'' Yet her influence, particularly among chefs and other food writers, has had a lasting and profound effect on the way we view and celebrate good food and regional cuisines. Gray's prescience was unrivalled: She wrote about what today we would call the Slow Food movement--from foraging to eating locally--long before it became part of the cultural mainstream.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846076145</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Mordechai_Simple
|author=Gill Holcombe
+
|title=Simple Fare: Spring and Summer
|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...
+
|author=Karen Mordechai
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|summary=These days few people have the luxury of unlimited time in which to prepare mealsJobs, 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 mealIn ''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.
+
|summary=Karen Mordechai's family history has its roots in the Jerusalem of the 1950s when people from around the globe were coming together in a young country and forming their own way of livingWhen the family then emigrated to the United States they brought this way of cooking with them, along with the tradition of sharing and enjoying food.  Mordechai believes that food's ability to bring people together is unparalleled and that the food you make is a compilation of the way you have livedThinking back over the food we eat, that is so true and for the first time, I looked on a recipe book as an elegant way of seeing someone else's history.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905862156</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Miller_Five
|author=Laura Lockington
+
|title=Five Ways to Cook Asparagus (and Other Recipes): the Art and Practice of Making Dinner
|title=Cupboard Love
+
|author=Peter Miller
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
+
|genre=Cookery
|summary=There's something extraordinarily refreshing about a book by someone with whom you can empathise – not a celebrity, a victim or an axe-grinder, but a real person leading the sort of life which you can recogniseIt's even better when that someone unashamedly loves good food and wants to share that love with the readerMeet Laura Lockington, writer, playwright, bon vivant and feeder of a greedy fridge.
+
|summary=When you've been producing meals for around about half a century the chances are that, like me, you have a fairly regular set of menus which you produceHopefully, it's not quite in the 'fishcakes! Goodness is it Friday already?' realm but you probably have something in your culinary locker for every occasion.  It takes a very good book to make you settle down and actually read what it has to offer and it's an exceptional one where you end up with lots of dog-eared pages for recipes which you're going to tryThe inspiration to read ''Five Ways to Cook Asparagus'' was simple and serendipitous - I'd just come home with the first of the season's English asparagus when the book arrived in the post.  I couldn't ''not'' have a look, now could I?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846242800</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Kunin_Good
|author=Sybil Kapoor
+
|title=Good Clean Food: Plant-Based Recipes That Will Help You Look and Feel Your Best
|title=Citrus and Spice: A Year of Flavour
+
|author=Lily Kunin
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|summary=It's not often that a cookery book keeps me awake at night but Sybil Kapoor's ''Citrus and Spice'' did just that.  The cause of the problem was the need to sort out in my own mind what, exactly, I understood by the word 'flavour'.  For me it's always been a combination of various senses – taste, smell, texture on the tongue, even the visual impact of the food – which gave a dish its flavour.  It's the overall experience of the foodSybil Kapoor wants me to think differently.
+
|summary=I've got to begin by outlining a bias:  I don't like food fads.  There's a very good reason for avoiding gluten if you are coeliac, but if it's simply a food choice then you make life more difficult for people who ''must'' avoid gluten.  The same point applies to a lot of other food 'intolerances'.  I believe in eating a balanced diet but will happily admit that I have my own no-go areas: I don't eat processed sugars because they're empty calories and after a couple of weeks without them I discovered that I don't actually like the taste.  I don't touch caffeine and haven't done so since I discovered what it did to my blood pressureHaving said all this, I'm quite happy to read books which ''do'' advocate avoiding certain food groups, simply because (a) there ''might'' be something in it and (b) people who've had to the inventive to create a varied diet with restricted ingredients often come up with some excellent recipesAnd that was how I came to ''Good Clean Food''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184737221X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Yang_Food
|author=Kathleen Burk and Michael Bywater
+
|title=A Food Guide to Lowering Blood Pressure: 6 Simple Steps
|title=Is This Bottle Corked? The Secret Life of Wine
+
|author=Yuchi Yang
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Trivia
 
|summary=Now, I'm the first person to admit I am not a wine buff.  I know a lot more now than I did before my current relationship, but she is right to say I have a very masculine (ie dead weak) sense of smell.  Added to that a blunt sense of taste and I'm left saying I know what I like when I drink it, and that's it.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571241743</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Pam Corbin
 
|title=Preserves: River Cottage Handbook No 2
 
|rating=5
 
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|summary=I was born not long after the end of the Second World War, at a time when some foods were rationed and a banana or an orange was a treat.  Preserving was simply one of those things that you did to store one season's bounty to help you through less generous times – and all this without the help of a freezer or even a fridgeFreezers have undoubtedly made it easier to save food but it's not the greenest solution and I have long wanted a book which extended my range of recipes, most of which I inherited from my parents.
+
|summary=Yuchi Yang has been a registered dietitian for over twenty years and she's allowing us the benefit of her knowledge to help us to reduce our blood pressure ''without'' taking medication, although she does stress that if you ''are'' taking medication you shouldn't stop doing so without consulting your doctor.  You can reduce your BP in six steps, which are actually a lot simpler than they soundDoes it work? Yes, it does: I've been eating this way for more than two years and I've gone from having 'very worrying' blood pressure readings to getting a smile when they're taken and being told that my BP is perfectly normal - and that's without taking medication of any sort.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747595321</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Bacchia_Italian
|author=Rosie Sykes, Polly Russell and Zoe Heron
+
|title=Italian Street Food
|title=The Kitchen Revolution
+
|author=Paola Bacchia
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|summary=I've been cooking regular family meals for over forty yearsFor more than 95% of those nights I've prepared a meal from scratch and sometimes it's just plain drudgery.  It's not just the cooking either – there's all the thinking, the planning and the buying to take into account tooRosie Sykes, Polly Russell and Zoe Heller have come up with a solution.
+
|summary=Books about Italian food are everywhere, with recipes for pizza, pasta dishes and all the usual suspectsIn a winter which seems to be starting hard all too early what I wanted was sunshine - and the sort of food which you find on the Italian streets and in those bars which only the locals know about.  It's the sort of food which you eat on the move, or leaning against the bar - tables and chairs don't usually come into the equationFor the most part, it doesn't aspire to being ''healthy'' - frying plays a larger part than it does in a virtuous diet and it is a little short on fruit and veg - but we can all be a bit naughty on occasions, can't we?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>009191373X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{newreview
+
Move on to [[Newest Crafts Reviews]]
|author=Paul Richardson
 
|title=A Late Dinner: Discovering the Food of Spain
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Travel
 
|summary=Although subtitled ''discovering the food of Spain'', this excellently written, engaging and interesting book is about so much more. Yes, the focus is on food, mouthwateringly described, but it is also about culture, people, travel, tourism, history and geography.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747593809</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Manju Malhi 
 
|title=Easy Indian Cookbook
 
|rating=5 
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=Have you ever thought that you'd like to make good Indian food but you don't really know where to start?  Have you ever worried about over-spicing or under-spicing your dishes?  Have you ever wondered what foods work well together and which don't?  If you have, this third book from Manju Malhi will provide all the answers.
 
 
 
''Indian cuisine is perfume for the nose, relish for the lips, nourishment for the body and nectar for the soul.''
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1844835839</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Fuchsia Dunlop 
 
|title=Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-sour Memoir of Eating in China
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=On her first trip to the orient Fuchsia Dunlop is appalled at the preserved duck eggs served as hors d'oeuvre in Hong Kong.  Her description of this first encounter with the Chinese delicacy is rich with words like filthy, revolting, nightmarish, translucent, oozy, mouldy, toxic, slime…
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091918308</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Delia Smith
 
|title=Delia's How To Cheat At Cooking
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=I don't often begin a review by saying who shouldn't read a book, but I think it's important with Delia's How to Cheat at Cooking if there are not to be a lot of disappointed readers. If you've ever sighed because you know that your home-made soup would have tasted so much better if you had gone to the trouble of making a decent stock, if you've ever made a quick soufflé for lunch with a friend then you shouldn't even look at this book as you will end up besmirching the name of St Delia and that would never do.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091922291</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|title=Moro East
 
|author=Sam and Sam Clark
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|rating=4
 
|summary=Imagine an area of land bordered on one side by the River Lea and on another by the Grand Union Canal. You'll have approached with care because you had to go through some rather insalubrious areas to get there but once you were over the bridge you were in the Manor Garden Allotments – a tiny part of the Eastern Mediterranean in East London – where the Clarks grew vegetables for seven years, but, perhaps more importantly became part of a community of Turks and Cypriots who showed them how to make use of every part of the plant. You'll notice that I've spoken of this in the past tense. Have the Clarks given up, moved on? No – the Manor Garden Allotments have been bulldozed to make way for a hockey stadium for the 2012 Olympics and this book shows the last year of vegetable growing on the site and the glorious food that has been eaten.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0091917778</amazonuk>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 09:32, 12 December 2023

1454955546.jpg

Review of

Sugarless by Nicole M Avena

5star.jpg Lifestyle

This isn't a diet book. The last thing anyone needs is another diet book.

There was a time, not that long ago, when it was thought that sugary food was better for you than food with high-fat content. Fat was the demon food which was going to elevate your cholesterol and cause heart disease. Sugar was a carbohydrate, so good. There's a problem, though. Sugar is addictive and can hijack your brain in much the same way as drugs like heroin and cocaine. Does that sound over the top? Well, it isn't. Full Review

1635866847.jpg

Review of

The Lavender Companion by Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci

4.5star.jpg Lifestyle

It's strange, the things that make you immediately feel that this is the book for you. Before I started reading The Lavender Companion, I visited the author's website and there's a picture of a slice of chocolate cake on the homepage. I don't eat cakes and desserts - but I wanted that cake viscerally. (There's a recipe in the book, which I'm avoiding with some difficulty!!) Then I started reading the book and I was told to make a mess of it. Notes in the margins are sanctioned. You get to fold down the corners of pages. You suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem. I loved this book already. Full Review

3791388398.jpg

Review of

New European Baking: 99 Recipes for Breads, Brioches and Pastries by Laurel Kratochvila

4.5star.jpg Cookery

This is probably one of the most unusual baking books I've encountered. It's built around 99 recipes for breads, brioches and pastries but the recipes are interwoven with some thought-provoking writing on how bread - and baking - have changed in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. We start with the basics - the equipment you'll need (there's nothing extravagant or indulgent) and the ingredients, where the author is particular. You might not have realised that different salts can change the flavour and sensation on the tongue of the finished product but, apparently, they do. Full Review

1398508632.jpg

Review of

The Wilderness Cure by Mo Wilde

5star.jpg Lifestyle

It had been on the cards for a while but it was the week-long consumer binge which pushed Mo Wilde into beginning her year of eating only wild food. The end of November, particularly in Central Scotland was perhaps not the best time to start, in a world where the normal sores had been exacerbated by climate change, Brexit and a pandemic. Wilde had a few advantages: the area around her was a known habitat with a variety of terrains. She had electricity which allowed her to run a fridge, freezer and dehydrator. She had a car - and fuel. Most importantly, she had shelter: this was not a plan to live wild just to live off its produce. Full Review

1635864674.jpg

Review of

Tomato Love: 44 Mouthwatering Recipes for Salads, Sauces, Stews, and More by Joy Howard

4star.jpg Cookery

Think of it as no-whining dining.

We know it's a fruit rather than a vegetable but the fact that so many people get confused just goes to show how versatile the tomato is. Then there are all the different types, not to mention the cultivars - and you begin to understand why Joy Howard says that she hasn't met one she didn't love. I'd argue with her there - I have no affection for the ones you find in the supermarket next to the ones labelled 'grown for flavour' to distinguish them from the ones that have obviously just been grown for profit. Personally, I'd prefer a tin of tomatoes to those - and Howard makes good use of these. She's not at all precious if you get the taste. Full Review

0241480442.jpg

Review of

Healthy Vegan The Cookbook: Vegan Cooking Meets Nutrition Science by Niko Rittenau and Sebastian Copien

4.5star.jpg Cookery

Emotionally, I am a vegan. Mentally, I am a vegan. I read How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World by Henry Mance and was appalled by the way in which we treat animals in our search for (preferably cheap) food. Practically, I am not a vegan. It worked for a while apart from the odd blip with regard to cheese but then a perfect storm of those events which you hope don't occur too often in your lifetime tempted me back to animal-based protein. It wasn't the taste - I know that I can get plant-based food that tastes just as good as anything plundered from the animal kingdom - it was the ease of being able to get sufficient protein when meals were often snatched in a few spare moments. Full Review

1529418100.jpg

Review of

Bruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales by Martin Walker

4star.jpg Short Stories

I'm not usually a fan of short stories - I find it all too easy to put the book down between stories and forget to pick it up again - but I am a fan of Martin Walker's Bruno Courreges Mysteries so the temptation to read Bruno's Challenge was hard to resist and I'm rather glad that I didn't even try. For those new to the series, there's an excellent introduction that will tell you all you need to know about who's who and the background to why Bruno is in St Denis. Full Review

1787332098.jpg

Review of

How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World by Henry Mance

5star.jpg Politics and Society

When we do think about animals, we break them down into species and groups: cows, dogs, foxes, elephants and so on. And we assign them places in society: cows go on plates, dogs on sofas, foxes in rubbish bins, elephants in zoos, and millions of wild animals stay out there, somewhere, hopefully on the next David Attenborough series.

I was going to argue. I mean, cows are for cheese (I couldn't consider eating red meat...) and I much prefer my elephants in the wild but then I realised that I was quibbling for the sake of it. Essentially that quote sums up my attitude to animals - and I consider myself an animal lover. If I had to choose between the company of humans and the company of animals, I would probably choose the animals. I insisted that I read this book: no one was trying to stop me but I was initially reluctant. I eat cheese, eggs, chicken and fish and I needed to either do so without guilt or change my choices. I suspected that making the decision would not be comfortable. Full Review

0008333173.jpg

Review of

Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More by Grace Dent

5star.jpg Autobiography

I'm always relieved when Grace Dent is one of the judges on Masterchef. You know that you're going to get an honest opinion from someone whom you sense does real food rather than fine dining most of the time. You also ponder on how she can look so elegant with all that good food in front of her. I've often wondered about the woman behind the media image and Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More is a stunning read which will make you laugh and break your heart in equal measures. Full Review

Tee Gross.jpg

Review of

This Cookbook is Gross by Susanna Tee and Santy Gutierrez

4star.jpg Children's Non-Fiction

The misuse of language is a modern disease. Too many times something is described as awesome or stupendous, but were you truly awed by it? Or stupefied? People just seem to pluck words out of the ether and pretend that they are the correct ones. Are the recipes in Susanna Tee and Santy Gutierrez's 'This Cookbook is Gross' truly gross? For once the language is not overplayed. These recipes may taste nice, but in appearance, they are absolutely vile. Full Review

1848993609.jpg

Review of

Good Mood Food: Unlock the Power of Diet to Think and Feel Well by Charlotte Watts and Natalie Savona

4.5star.jpg Cookery

I thought I was getting a cookbook: I liked the idea of a series of recipes which would make me feel happy. For once this isn't a case of 'if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is' - it's a case of getting something which could change your life for the better - for good - rather than a quick fix. Full Review

0241367875.jpg

Review of

Completely Perfect: 120 Essential Recipes for Every Cook by Felicity Cloake

5star.jpg Cookery

It's a novel concept for a cookery book: these are not Felicity Cloake's recipes but the best ones she found to do a particular job - the job of delivering the best meal, the Completely Perfect meal of the title. Think of it as the equivalent of a comparison site for when you want to renew the car insurance and then taking the best elements out of each recipe to make perfection. There's nothing cutting edge here: it's the sort of food which we've been eating for decades and probably will be for decades to come. There's a reason for that: roast chicken followed by apple crumble works and providing that you don't have a vegetarian or a vegan at table, it's a meal which is unlikely to do other than go down well. Full Review

link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/Kay Vintage/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21

Review of

Vintage Kitchenalia by Emma Kay

3.5star.jpg Cookery

Over the half-century and more that I've been preparing meals on a regular basis I've seen food preparation move from being just something you did to an obsession akin to a religion. My first kitchen had nothing in the way of luxury - it was there to make meals as nutritiously and economically as possible: my current kitchen is not quite state of the art, but it's equipped to a high standard and is a pleasure to work in. But what of all the equipment which went before, which paved the way to what we have now? Emma Kay is going to give you a quick trip through the history. Full Review

Jopson Science.jpg

Review of

The Science of Food: An exploration of what we eat and how we cook by Marty Jopson

4star.jpg Cookery

I've always believed that if you understood why something worked in a particular way it was very easy to remember how it worked and what you needed to do. The food we eat is no exception to this rule and The One Show resident scientist Marty Jopson has undertaken to explain how things work in the kitchen - and he covers everything from the type of knives we use through to the food of the future. Best of all, he does it in language that even a science illiterate like me can understand. Full Review

link=http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/Hayward New/ref=nosim?tag=thebookbag-21

Review of

Juan Altamiras' New Art of Cookery: A Spanish Friar's Kitchen Notebook by Vicky Hayward

4star.jpg Cookery

In 1745 a Spanish friary cook, Juan Altamiras, published the first edition of his New Art of Cookery, Drawn From the School of Economic Experience. It contained more than two hundred recipes for meat, poultry, game, salted and fresh fish, vegetables and desserts. The style was informal, chatty and humorous on occasions and it was aimed, not at those who could afford to cook on a grand scale, but at those with more modest budgets, who sometimes needed to cook for large numbers. Whilst the ingredients were - for the most part - modestly priced there is a stress on the careful combination of flavours and aromas. Spices are used conservatively and the bluntness of some Moorish cooking is eschewed in favour of something much more subtle and we see influences from Altamiras' own region, Aragon, the Iberian court and the New World. Full Review

Federman Fasting.jpg

Review of

Fasting and Feasting - The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray by Adam Federman

4star.jpg Cookery

For more than thirty years, Patience Gray--author of the celebrated cookbook Honey from a Weed--lived in a remote area of Puglia in southernmost Italy. She lived without electricity, modern plumbing, or a telephone, grew much of her own food, and gathered and ate wild plants alongside her neighbours in this economically impoverished region. She was fond of saying that she wrote only for herself and her friends, yet her growing reputation brought a steady stream of international visitors to her door. This simple and isolated life she chose for herself may help explain her relative obscurity when compared to the other great food writers of her time: M. F. K. Fisher, Elizabeth David, and Julia Child. So it is not surprising that when Gray died in 2005, the BBC described her as an almost forgotten culinary star. Yet her influence, particularly among chefs and other food writers, has had a lasting and profound effect on the way we view and celebrate good food and regional cuisines. Gray's prescience was unrivalled: She wrote about what today we would call the Slow Food movement--from foraging to eating locally--long before it became part of the cultural mainstream. Full Review

Mordechai Simple.jpg

Review of

Simple Fare: Spring and Summer by Karen Mordechai

4star.jpg Cookery

Karen Mordechai's family history has its roots in the Jerusalem of the 1950s when people from around the globe were coming together in a young country and forming their own way of living. When the family then emigrated to the United States they brought this way of cooking with them, along with the tradition of sharing and enjoying food. Mordechai believes that food's ability to bring people together is unparalleled and that the food you make is a compilation of the way you have lived. Thinking back over the food we eat, that is so true and for the first time, I looked on a recipe book as an elegant way of seeing someone else's history. Full Review

Miller Five.jpg

Review of

Five Ways to Cook Asparagus (and Other Recipes): the Art and Practice of Making Dinner by Peter Miller

5star.jpg Cookery

When you've been producing meals for around about half a century the chances are that, like me, you have a fairly regular set of menus which you produce. Hopefully, it's not quite in the 'fishcakes! Goodness is it Friday already?' realm but you probably have something in your culinary locker for every occasion. It takes a very good book to make you settle down and actually read what it has to offer and it's an exceptional one where you end up with lots of dog-eared pages for recipes which you're going to try. The inspiration to read Five Ways to Cook Asparagus was simple and serendipitous - I'd just come home with the first of the season's English asparagus when the book arrived in the post. I couldn't not have a look, now could I? Full Review

Kunin Good.jpg

Review of

Good Clean Food: Plant-Based Recipes That Will Help You Look and Feel Your Best by Lily Kunin

4star.jpg Cookery

I've got to begin by outlining a bias: I don't like food fads. There's a very good reason for avoiding gluten if you are coeliac, but if it's simply a food choice then you make life more difficult for people who must avoid gluten. The same point applies to a lot of other food 'intolerances'. I believe in eating a balanced diet but will happily admit that I have my own no-go areas: I don't eat processed sugars because they're empty calories and after a couple of weeks without them I discovered that I don't actually like the taste. I don't touch caffeine and haven't done so since I discovered what it did to my blood pressure. Having said all this, I'm quite happy to read books which do advocate avoiding certain food groups, simply because (a) there might be something in it and (b) people who've had to the inventive to create a varied diet with restricted ingredients often come up with some excellent recipes. And that was how I came to Good Clean Food. Full Review

Yang Food.jpg

Review of

A Food Guide to Lowering Blood Pressure: 6 Simple Steps by Yuchi Yang

4star.jpg Cookery

Yuchi Yang has been a registered dietitian for over twenty years and she's allowing us the benefit of her knowledge to help us to reduce our blood pressure without taking medication, although she does stress that if you are taking medication you shouldn't stop doing so without consulting your doctor. You can reduce your BP in six steps, which are actually a lot simpler than they sound. Does it work? Yes, it does: I've been eating this way for more than two years and I've gone from having 'very worrying' blood pressure readings to getting a smile when they're taken and being told that my BP is perfectly normal - and that's without taking medication of any sort. Full Review

Bacchia Italian.jpg

Review of

Italian Street Food by Paola Bacchia

4star.jpg Cookery

Books about Italian food are everywhere, with recipes for pizza, pasta dishes and all the usual suspects. In a winter which seems to be starting hard all too early what I wanted was sunshine - and the sort of food which you find on the Italian streets and in those bars which only the locals know about. It's the sort of food which you eat on the move, or leaning against the bar - tables and chairs don't usually come into the equation. For the most part, it doesn't aspire to being healthy - frying plays a larger part than it does in a virtuous diet and it is a little short on fruit and veg - but we can all be a bit naughty on occasions, can't we? Full Review

Move on to Newest Crafts Reviews