The Secret of Cooking: Recipes for an Easier Life in the Kitchen

Bee Wilson

£30.00 £28.50

in basket add to basket

Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine & beyond

Olia Hercules

£26.00 £24.70

This lovely book, Olia Hercules’s first, is a reminder of how much has been destroyed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and also of how much is at stake. Hercules, who has been one of the most vocal food campaigners against Putin’s war writes here of the food of her childhood from tomatoes stuffed with cheese and herbs to garlicky Georgian poussins. She writes with wit and love and nostalgia and her recipes – which are fresh and delicious - are always suffused with a strong sense of home which is all the more poignant now than it was when the book first appeared.

in basket add to basket

Made in India: 130 Simple, Fresh and Flavourful Recipes from One Indian Family

Meera Sodha

£25.00 £23.75

If you want to learn how to write a recipe, read Meera Sodha. She has a knack of telling you exactly the detail you need to know which will make the dish work and although her ingredient lists are not long, her food always makes me feel excited. I loved this book, too, for its celebration of the India of Sodha’s parents as well as the Lincolnshire where she grew up.

in basket add to basket

Med: A Cookbook

Claudia Roden

£30.00 £28.50

All of Claudia Roden’s books are masterpieces but Med, her latest one, feels as fresh as a slice of melon on a hot day. After a lifetime of documenting other people’s recipes, in this book Claudia gives herself the freedom to write about her own food: the Mediterranean dishes she cooks when friends and family come round, from taramasalata (she says that her son’s version is the best) to yoghurt cake.

in basket add to basket

Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen

LAURIE COLWIN

£14.99 £14.24

If you don’t know Laurie Colwin’s writing yet, I envy you. This is a book I re-read for comfort on sad days. Colwin’s essays are wise and kind and full of a sense that the kitchen is one of the most magical places a person can be. She is the most delightful kitchen companion. This is less a book of recipes than a series of friendly meditations on the way cooking fits into our lives.

in basket add to basket

The Zuni Cafe Cookbook: A Compendium of Recipes and Cooking Lessons from San Francisco's Beloved Restaurant

Judy Rodgers

£31.99

Judy Rodgers was an inspired Californian chef who died much too young. I have learned more about cooking from this book than any other because Rodgers talks you through not just the what of cooking but the why. She writes beautifully and her food hits a sweet spot between healthy and comforting, her legendary chicken and bread salad being a case in point. I feel so sad that she never got the chance to write more books.

in basket add to basket

Home Cookery Year: Four Seasons, Over 200 Recipes for All Possible Occasions

Claire Thomson

£30.00

It is no easy thing to write a good all-purpose cookbook but in this book, Claire Thomson nails it. One of the many things I love about it is the way she divides her recipes up not just into seasons but different categories: budget meals, weekend feasts, midweek emergencies, salads and light lunches. I began Post-It noting the recipes I wanted to cook before I realised I had Post-It noted almost every page.

in basket add to basket

Honey & Co: At Home: Middle Eastern recipes from our kitchen

Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich of Honey & Co.

£28.00 £26.60

I can’t count the ways I love this book, from the cheering quince on the cover to the way my kitchen smells when I cook from it. Every time I return to it, I feel my mood becoming one notch happier. If you are an Ottolenghi fan, you will also love this book which is full of Middle Eastern flavours and a deep sense of generosity, from herb filled salads to lamb shawarma to amazing falafel and flatbread recipes and the most delicious cakes. The authors are professional chefs but this is very much the food of home – or at least an idealised home that is always filled with the perfume of cardamom.

in basket add to basket

Cook, Eat, Repeat: Ingredients, recipes and stories.

Nigella Lawson

£26.00 £24.70

As a die-hard Nigella fan, I loved the idiosyncrasy of this book, the way she allows herself to write a whole chapter about anchovies simply because she loves them and another chapter which is a loving defence of ‘Brown Food’. Nigella communicates better than anyone how cooking gets woven into the fabric of life and how we make certain dishes our own through repetition. Her recipes are a never-ending source of solace and pleasure and reading her, I have the illusion – or delusion, come to that – of her standing next to me in the kitchen.

in basket add to basket

From the Oven to the Table: Simple dishes that look after themselves

Diana Henry

£26.00 £24.70

Diana Henry is incapable of writing a recipe that is anything other than packed with flavour. All of her books are essential, in my view, but this might be the one I return to most often with gratitude because it enables you to cook something that tastes like a huge treat simply by mixing a few things up and putting them in the oven. Her writing is also always as nourishing as her food. I could cook from her books and no-one else’s and never get bored.

in basket add to basket