The Complete Nose to Tail: A Kind of British Cooking by Fergus Henderson and Justin Piers Gellatly Published by Bloomsbury – £30.00 Fergus Henderson writes about food in the way that Beatrix Potter wrote about rabbits; his ingredients have their own perky, slightly wilful personalities. His quirkily anthropomorphic approach means that the ‘disciplining of vegetables […]
Category: Book reviews
Tea with Diana Henry
Salt Sugar Smoke by Diana Henry Published by Mitchell Beazley September 2012 – £20.00 The worst party invitation I’ve ever been sent said: ‘Come to a Pimm’s Party in Regent’s Park. Please bring Pimm’s, cucumber and lemonade. We will provide ice and paper cups.’ It was alien in every way to the invitation I’ve just received […]
Review: The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert
The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert Published by Bloomsbury September 2012 – Price £35.00 When Paula Wolfert states unashamedly that her book is full of ‘previously uncollected’ recipes rather than brand new ones, you know you’re in the hands of an expert. The Food of Morocco is the result of Paula’s fifty years […]
Review: Polpo by Russell Norman
Polpo by Russell Norman Photographed by Jenny Zarins Published by Bloomsbury, July 2012 Price £25.00 Polpo’s food, in its restaurants and in this book, is so stripped back as to be almost indecent. Eat at Polpo and you will be served Venetian-style cichèti, or small snacks and plates of food, with simple china, no linen […]
Review: Everybody Everyday and Eat Your Veg
Everybody Everyday by Alex Mackay Published by Bloomsbury May 2012 Price £20.00 Devising a new twist on an old favourite isn’t easy, as the creators of the umbrella hat, the fluffy mono-slipper and the Leonardo da Vinci action figure will tell you. But, remarkably, I think Alex Mackay has done it. Everybody Everyday is a superbly practical […]
Review: Eat London² and Hazan Family Favorites
Eat London² By Peter Prescott & Terence Conran Published by Conran Octopus April 2012 – Price £20.00 The difficulty all restaurant guidebooks wrestle with is how to stay current and authoritative when the food […]
Review: Tasting India by Christine Manfield
Tasting India by Christine Manfield Published by Conran Octopus, November 2011, £40.00 Photography by Anson Smart Combatants in the fight over e-cookery books versus printed ones have new ammunition. Or should that be heavy artillery. If you believe paper books take up too much room, you’ll no doubt point accusingly at Christine Manfield’s new book, […]
Review: The Good Table by Valentine Warner
Published 12th September (Mitchell Beazley, £20.00) Photographs: Jonathan Lovekin In the dreary sea of food writing cliche, where tomatoes ‘smell of sunshine’, chocolate is ‘scrummy’ and cakes are ‘moist’, Valentine Warner is a perky, plucky lifeboat. I want to eat what he’s cooked but more than that, I want to read what he’s written. […]
Review: In at the Deep End by Jake Tilson
Wafts of fishy scent drift insistently into my nostrils as I talk to artist and writer Jake Tilson in his Peckham studio. ‘Oh, it’s that’, he says, pointing upwards, when I ask him what the smell is. Hanging from the ceiling above my head is a large dried cod. The wizened, grey fish is just […]
Review: The Free Range Cook by Annabel Langbein
The Free Range Cook by Annabel Langbein published in hardback 6th June 2011 (Mitchell Beazley, £20.00) New Zealander Annabel Langbein radiates health, energy and optimism. She’s the perfect personification of her food – clean, wholesome and beautifully presented. I admit that I winced when I opened her latest book and read that ‘when we started […]
The Ginger Pig
The Ginger Pig Meat Book by Tim Wilson and Fran Warde Published in hardback on 7th May 2011 (Mitchell Beazley, £25.00) Photography Kristin Perers If I was a pig I’d like to grow up on one of Tim Wilson’s farms. The pink-cheeked and chubby Yorkshire farmer describes his book The Ginger Pig as […]
Review: The Ginger Pig Meat Book by Tim Wilson and Fran Warde
The Ginger Pig Meat Book by Tim Wilson and Fran Warde Published in hardback on 7th May 2011 (Mitchell Beazley, £25.00) Photography Kristin Perers If I was a pig I’d like to grow up on one of Tim Wilson’s farms. The pink-cheeked and chubby Yorkshire farmer describes his book The Ginger Pig as a ‘meat […]
Review: British Seasonal Food by Mark Hix
British Seasonal Food by Mark Hix Published in paperback on March 4th 2011 (Quadrille, £14.99) Photography © Jason Lowe Razor Clams With Wild Boar Bacon and Hedgerow Garlic Jason Lowe Mark Hix grew up in a house so close to the sea in Dorset that he could spot mackerel from his bedroom window. At […]