In-depth cookery book reviews.
The Levant is a region long known for the largesse of its hospitality. In The Lebanese Cookbook, Ghillie Başan explores the foods and traditions of a swathe of the Fertile Crescent that takes in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine. Başan spent many years living and working in the Middle East (as well as Europe, North ... Read more »
We’re brought up in the Western world with very definitive views on what comprises “comfort” and “easy” in food terms. A slice of bread slathered in butter, a biscuit with a cuppa, a slice of cake, a takeaway pizza loaded with anchovies and pineapple (yeah, sorry not sorry), a hot, crisp sugared doughnut from the ... Read more »
“With this book, I hope to build a bridge between Syrian culture and the rest of the world with food as common denominator. But even more, I hope that Sumac will present a positive image of my country, in spite of all of the unfortunate events now taking place in Syria.” So says author Anas ... Read more »
I have long had an interest in Sri Lankan cuisine. As a child, some family friends who had emigrated to the UK from Ceylon (as it was then) cooked Sri Lankan food for us when we visited them, as my mum cooked the food of her region of North India, when friends visited us. I’ve ... Read more »
Kwoklyn Wan grew up working in his Dad’s Cantonese restaurant with his brother Gok and has been in the food industry ever since. He has an impressive career history that includes running a Martial Arts School, and a clear passion for Chinese cookery. Following the success of his previous books The Chinese Takeaway Cookbook and ... Read more »
Mely Martínez describes this book as traditional home-style recipes that capture the flavours and memories of Mexico, and the delicately punchy red and gold frontispiece and cover do give that feel. The author starts with a warm and engaging introduction to herself, her life and her love of food, explaining how The Mexican Home Kitchen ... Read more »
I recently posted a review of The Whole Chicken, a book focused on chicken recipes, written by the founder of successful chicken wing restaurants. Today, I’m sharing Wings and Things by Ben Ford and David Turofsky, also published in 2020 and also from the founders of successful chicken wing restaurants, Wingmans. In a nutshell, this ... Read more »
Subtitled ‘Show The Dough Who’s Boss’, Crumb by Richard Bertinet is the distillation of over 30 years spent as a baker, pastry chef and expert consultant for restaurants and food businesses. Hailing from Breton in France, Bertinet now lives in Bath where he runs his cookery school, The Bertinet Kitchen. There he teaches hundreds of ... Read more »
Even if I didn’t love eating chicken as much as I do, I’d find it hard to resist Carl Clarke’s A Whole Chicken with its vibrant green cover splashed with bright yellow and hot pink in the shape of a chicken’s face! The book’s cover promises “100 easy but innovative ways to cook from beak ... Read more »
There are a few heavyweights in Scandi food whose restaurants pop up in conversation with restless frequency, breathless descriptions of experience and a powerful sense of place bubbling on the lips of critics and food-lovers. Noma, Ekstedt, Fäviken, Frantzén, Maaemo, Geranium. Names like Rene Redzepi and the author of this book, Magnus Nilsson, evoke a ... Read more »
The Place of Onions, in old Lille. After last night’s rainstorm the intense sticky heat has broken and today is cool, breezy, fresh… I love it! A drop of… [more]
We went to Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The Void this morning, an amazing VR experience where we got to be Rebel Alliance members going undercover as… [more]