In-depth cookery book reviews.

Choux Buns With Coffee Custard Filling

Indulgence Coffee is a book about nostalgia. Published in April, it’s part of a series by Murdoch Books which aims to celebrate vintage style and “a bygone era when dressing up, serving tea in fine china and writing personal thank you notes afterwards were regarded as simply good manners.” In that, it succeeds, full of ... Read more »

Cuisinier Gascon: Braised Ox Cheek Bordelaise

Cuisinier Gascon: Meals from a Gascon Chef by Pascal Aussignac

I’ve been desperate to cook some of the delectably tempting recipes in Cuisinier Gascon by Pascal Aussignac since I got my mitts on it just before leaving for the Falklands. It’s a really, really beautiful book, full of mouth-watering recipes and beautiful images, not just of some of the dishes but also of life in ... Read more »

The Silver Spoon Pasta Book

The Silver Spoon Pasta book by Phaidon is a monster of a cookery book! With over 50 shapes of pasta and 360 individual recipes it’s a real tome of reference for traditional Italian pasta recipes. And just like so many of our friends, we find pasta a wonderfully delicious, yet quick and simple, option for ... Read more »

Michel Roux’s Sauces

I love a good sauce. Even the most beautiful, flavoursome, delicious meat can be lifted by a good sauce. So I’ve been keen to get my hands on Michel Roux’s Sauces. Michelin-starred Roux first wrote his compendium of savoury and sweet sauce recipes back in 1996. Quadrille have now published a new and revised edition ... Read more »

Charles Campion’s Banana Cake Recipe

This banana cake recipe is from Charles Campion’s Fifty Recipes To Stake Your Life On and makes a really, really gooey banana cake. Campion describes the recipe collection as “fifty, sure-fire, tried-and-tested recipes and fifty stories to go with them” and its a great starting point for those just getting into cooking and looking for ... Read more »