Difference between revisions of "Newest Cookery Reviews"

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[[Category:Cookery|*]]
 
[[Category:Cookery|*]]
[[Category:New Reviews|Cookery]]
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==Cookery==
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1454955546
{{newreview
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|title=Sugarless
|author=Tori Finch
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|author=Nicole M Avena
|title=A Perfect Day for a Picnic
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|rating=5
|rating=4
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|genre=Lifestyle
|genre=Cookery
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|summary=''This isn't a diet book.  The last thing anyone needs is another diet book.''
|summary=There are strange reasons why books appeal to you.  With ''A Perfect Day for a Picnic'' my immediate reaction was it would be lovely to have the ''weather'', never mind the foodThen I had a look at the spine of the book (I know - I'm sad) and it looked just like one of those expensive linen glass cloths - you know, the ones you have to ''iron'' and it brought back such memories of childhood picnics that I had to see what was on offer.
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|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849753539</amazonuk>
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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 cocaineDoes that sound over the top?  Well, it isn't.
 
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<!-- INSERT NEW REVIEWS BELOW HERE-->
{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Andy Bates
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|isbn=1635866847
|title=Andy Bates: Modern Twists on Classic Dishes
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|title=The Lavender Companion
|rating=3
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|author=Jessica Dunham and Terry Barlin Vesci
|genre=Cookery
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|rating=4.5
|summary=I do tire of cook books which regurgitate what are essentially the same recipes time after timeSometimes food writers rework their own recipes - a tweak here, a change of emphasis there and you can have the same dish many times over, so it's a real breath of fresh air when you find a book which seems to have new ideas, or genuinely new approaches to classic dishesAndy Bates has a classical background (working in a Michelin starred restaurant by the time he was seventeen and time in France to hone his skills) but his business is a stall in London's Whitecross street marketSo - a perfect combination of technical knowledge, experience and knowing what people ''really'' want to eat.
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|genre=Lifestyle
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1908917709</amazonuk>
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|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 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 pagesYou suspect that smears of butter would not be a problem.  I ''loved'' this book already.
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=3791388398
|author=Margaret Powell
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|title=New European Baking: 99 Recipes for Breads, Brioches and Pastries
|title=The Downstairs Cookbook: Recipes From A 1920s Household Cook
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|author=Laurel Kratochvila
|rating=4
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|summary=Margaret Powell began her life in service as a housemaid, but she had an interest in cooking (her mother wouldn't allow her to learn at home as food was too precious to waste) and by talking to cooks, watching what they did and making notes she eventually rose to be cook in the grand houses on the nineteen twenties.  ''The Downstairs Cookbook'' is her collection of the recipes which she used, or which were current at the timeBut it's more than that.  Think of it as being rather like a visit to a good cookery school where you'd collect all those hints and tips which make recipes ''work'' and the anecdotes about life in a professional kitchen.
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|summary=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 centuriesWe 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>0230767834</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1398508632
|author=Danaan Elderhill
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|title=The Wilderness Cure
|title=The Magic Book of Cookery
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|author=Mo Wilde
|rating=3.5
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|rating=5
|genre=Spirituality and Religion
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|genre=Lifestyle
|summary=Back in the seventeenth century in what was then the Kingdom of Bohemia there was a coven of witchesAs was common at that time witches were hunted and they had to hide their beliefsThe Friends of Euphrosyne, as they called themselves, turned to this deity (she's one of the three graces and there to remind us to have fun) in their time of need and developed rituals which could be assimilated into social gatherings, allowing them to hide in plain sightTheir book The Magic Book of Cookery - vanished along with the coven when they were discovered but Danaan Elderhill wants us to benefit from its ancient wisdom - and its fun.
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|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 foodThe 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 pandemicWilde 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 dehydratorShe had a car - and fuel. Most importantly, she had shelter: this was not a plan to ''live'' wild just to live off its produce.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>B0092BX6O0</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1635864674
|author=Antonio Caluccio
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|title=Tomato Love: 44 Mouthwatering Recipes for Salads, Sauces, Stews, and More
|title=A Recipe for Life
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|author=Joy Howard
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Antonio Carluccio is a name you know well if you've any interest in food and particularly Italian food.  He's well known as a cook, restaurateur, deli owner, television personality and author.  In everything he's done he's concentrated on the flavour of the food - this isn't the man to turn to if you're interested in fine dining as there's a lack of frills and ostentation - and he has his own phrase to describe his vision.  'Mof mof' stands for 'maximum of flavour and minimum of fuss'.  He's a man after my own heart but when I thought about it I realised that I knew little, beyond the occasional news item, of Carluccio the man.  His autobiography came at just the right time.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1742703925</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Prue Leith
 
|title=Relish: My Life on a Plate
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary=Prue Leith was born in South Africa, the daughter of a prominent actress who was considered 'dangerously liberal' in her views on race.  Prue was largely unaware of the horrors of apartheid and had a privileged lifestyle.  She came to London in the early sixties but still retains an awareness of colour as a legacy of her childhood.  What didn't come from her childhood was her love of cooking - she drifted into catering almost accidentally but went on to set up a very successful catering company and then to open Leith's Restaurant .  Her cookery school and regular food columns in national newspapers followed soon after.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857384058</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
 
|author=Robert L Wolke and Marlene Parrish
 
|title=What Einstein Kept Under His Hat: Secrets of Science in the Kitchen
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|summary=''Everyone'' knows that when you chop onions, you cry, but have you ever wondered ''exactly'' why this happens?  More to the point have you ever considered what you might be able to do so that you don't need to look like a snivelling wreck every time you make kedgeree?  Life is littered with such conundrums (along with the old-wives'-tale solutions) but there seem to be more of them in the kitchen than elsewhere. Robert L Wolke has a column in the ''Washington'' ''Post'' in which he debunks misconceptions and answers questions with logic, science and a healthy dose of common sense.
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|summary=''Think of it as no-whining dining.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393341658</amazonuk>
 
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{{newreview
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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 loveI'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 theseShe's not at all precious if you get the taste.
|author=Andrew Webb
 
|title=Food Britannia
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=I've always suspected that British food gained its dreadful reputation after the end of World War IIRationing lasted for many years and the sort of food which you could buy in the average hotel or restaurant was pretty poorAn image like that sticks: we might have Stilton cheese, Scottish raspberries, Welsh lamb and a host of other wonderful foodstuffs but still we are thought of as the people who eat the food of a post-war boarding houseAndrew Webb is a food journalist and photographer - and he's set out to prove that there's a wealth of regional food, traditional recipes and passionate producers just waiting to be found.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847946232</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241480442
|author=Lucie Cash
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|title=Healthy Vegan The Cookbook: Vegan Cooking Meets Nutrition Science
|title=Fairytale Food
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|author=Niko Rittenau and Sebastian Copien
|rating=3.5
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|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|summary=Are you looking for a gift for someone who enjoys cooking and who has an interest in fairy tales? If so, this book could well be your perfect answerIt has over sixty recipes - none of them at all complex - and they're all associated with favourite fairy talesInstead of the usual carefully-primped pictures of the finished dishes there are lavish illustrations by Yelena Bryksenkova of scenes from the tales and I didn't find a double page spread which didn't have some entertaining embellishment.  It's also a bonus that there's a gentle humour in the illustrations, as in this note from Goldilocks:
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|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 veganIt 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>1848093578</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=1529418100
|author=Marian Keyes
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|title=Bruno's Challenge and Other Dordogne Tales
|title=Saved by Cake: Over 80 Ways to Bake Yourself Happy
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|author=Martin Walker
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Cookery
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|genre=Short Stories
|summary=Right now you are probably thinking 'Marian Keyes? She writes chick-lit doesn't she?  What's she doing writing a cookbook?'  You'll quite probably also be looking at her and thinking that she doesn't look as though she eats a lot of the output either.  Well, there's a bit of a story behind this book...
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|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>071815889X</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jamie Oliver
 
|title=Jamie's Great Britain
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=The Royal Wedding in 2011 and 2012's Diamond Jubilee and Olympic Games mean that ''anything'' which can be adorned with a Union Jack will beBarbour do waxed Union Jack dog coats, so it should come as no surprise that Jamie Oliver is here with a large plate of good old roast beef in front of said flag.  It's a splendidly chunky book and beautifully presented.  Flick the book open at any page and you're likely to find a double-page spread of pictures (shooting on the country estate, making traditional cakes, foraging for food... you get the picture) or a recipe accompanied by a full-page photograph of the end product.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718156811</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
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|isbn=1787332098
 +
|title=How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World
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|author=Henry Mance
 +
|rating=5
 +
|genre=Politics and Society
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|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
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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=Nigella Lawson
 
|title=Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=Nigella Lawson's latest offering is subtitled 'recipes from the heart of home', which is a very vague title whose significance (undoubtedly clear to those who watch the TV versions) I fail to decode. All cooking is done in the kitchen after all. But I suppose coming up with interesting titles for general collections of recipes is not that easy, so I'll leave it at that.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701184604</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0008333173
|author=Clarissa Dickson Wright
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|title=Hungry: A Memoir of Wanting More
|title=A History of English Food
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|author=Grace Dent
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
|genre=History
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|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Writing a history of English food, and to some extent drink, must be a daunting task, but as an experienced TV presenter (as one of the ''Two Fat Ladies'' with the late Jennifer Paterson) and as one who was born in the post-war rationing world in 1947, Clarissa Dickson Wright is well placed to do so.
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|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905211856</amazonuk>
 
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Tee_Gross
|author=Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
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|title=This Cookbook is Gross
|title=River Cottage Veg Every Day!
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|author=Susanna Tee and Santy Gutierrez
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Cookery
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|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|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…
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|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>1408812126</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
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{{newreview
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{{Frontpage
|author=Matt Armendariz
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|isbn=1848993609
|title=On A Stick!
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|title=Good Mood Food: Unlock the Power of Diet to Think and Feel Well
|rating=4
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|author=Charlotte Watts and Natalie Savona
 +
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|summary=There's something rather fun about eating your food off a stickThe 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!
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|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>1594744890</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=0241367875
|author=Jojo Tulloh
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|title=Completely Perfect: 120 Essential Recipes for Every Cook
|title=East End Paradise: Kitchen Garden Cooking In The City
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|author=Felicity Cloake
|rating=4
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|rating=5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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 tableEven 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.
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|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 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 comeThere'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>0099523590</amazonuk>
 
 
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}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Kay Vintage
|author=Charles Lamb
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|title=Vintage Kitchenalia
|title=Great Food: A Dissertation Upon Roast Pig and Other Essays
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|author=Emma Kay
|rating=4
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|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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.
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|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>0241951003</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Jopson_Science
|author=Dr A W Chase
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|title=The Science of Food: An exploration of what we eat and how we cook
|title=Great Food: Buffalo Cake and Indian Pudding
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|author=Marty Jopson
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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.
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|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>0241950996</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Hayward New
|author=Elizabeth David
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|title=Juan Altamiras' New Art of Cookery: A Spanish Friar's Kitchen Notebook
|title=Great Food: A Taste of the Sun
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|author=Vicky Hayward
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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.
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|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>0241951089</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Max Clark and Susan Spaull
 
|title=Leith's Meat Bible
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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 why. Because 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747590478</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Federman_Fasting
|author=Gregg Wallace
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|title=Fasting and Feasting - The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray
|title=Gregg's Favourite Puddings
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|author=Adam Federman
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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 puddings. He's never lost his sweet tooth and, unlike many men, is not afraid to admit it.  He 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''.
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|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>060062143X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
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{{Frontpage
{{newreview
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|isbn=Mordechai_Simple
|author=Anna Del Conte
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|title=Simple Fare: Spring and Summer
|title=Risotto with Nettles
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|author=Karen Mordechai
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|genre=Autobiography
 
|summary= People who are serious about food will know the name of Anna Del Conte.  She's a serious writer about Italian food but not someone who has courted fame via the television screen.  You'll have met her in places like 'Sainsbury's Magazine' or read some of her brilliant writing about the food of her native Italy.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099505991</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Yotam Ottolenghi
 
|title=Plenty
 
|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=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>0091933684</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Miller_Five
|author=Xanthe Milton
+
|title=Five Ways to Cook Asparagus (and Other Recipes): the Art and Practice of Making Dinner
|title=Eat Me!: The Stupendous, Self-raising World of Cupcakes and Bakes According to Cookie Girl
+
|author=Peter Miller
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|summary=What a stunning book this is.  The inside, that is.  I was almost
+
|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 postI couldn't ''not'' have a look, now could I?
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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Michael Booth
 
|title=Sushi and Beyond: What the Japanese Know About Cooking
 
|rating=4
 
|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 noodlesIn 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516446</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|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 offer.  Just 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 thingsWho, 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>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mo Smith
 
|title=The Lazy Cook's Family Favourites
 
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|summary=These days I get very nervous when I hear about books for 'lazy' cooks, or how to cheat when preparing meals.  There'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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0749007826</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jim Lahey
 
|title=My Bread: the Revolutionary No-work, No-knead Method
 
|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 lifeA 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
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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 them.  This 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184697139X</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Kunin_Good
|author=Ani Phyo
+
|title=Good Clean Food: Plant-Based Recipes That Will Help You Look and Feel Your Best
|title=Ani's Raw Food Desserts
+
|author=Lily Kunin
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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.
+
|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 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''.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0738213063</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Yang_Food
|author=Keith Floyd
+
|title=A Food Guide to Lowering Blood Pressure: 6 Simple Steps
|title=Stirred But Not Shaken: The Autobiography
+
|author=Yuchi Yang
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
|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 presenter.  Programmes 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.
 
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0283071052</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray
 
|title=The 30-Minute Vegan: 150 Simple and Delectable Recipes for Optimal Health
 
|rating=3.5
 
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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.
+
|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 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.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0738213276</amazonuk>
 
 
}}
 
}}
 
+
{{Frontpage
{{newreview
+
|isbn=Bacchia_Italian
|author=Phil Vickery
+
|title=Italian Street Food
|title=Phil Vickery's Puddings
+
|author=Paola Bacchia
 
|rating=4
 
|rating=4
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|genre=Cookery
|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=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?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847376835</amazonuk>
 
}}
 
 
 
{{newreview
 
|author=Jennifer McCann
 
|title=Vegan Lunch Box Around the World
 
|rating=3.5
 
|genre=Cookery
 
|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
+
Move on to [[Newest Crafts Reviews]]
|author=New Covent Garden Food Co
 
|title=Soup For All Occasions
 
|rating=4
 
|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 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>
 
}}
 

Latest revision as of 09:32, 12 December 2023

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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