Life, Food, Pleasure!
Cookbooks come in many guises. From your go-to favourite every day to special-occasion-feasting recipe books. From reference books which give you the science of cooking and definitive descriptions of ingredients, to those that talk food and eating. They all excite our interest in food and give us more cooking knowledge. These four recent books all combine witty, informative and passionate writing with recipes and food experiences, celebrating the pleasure of food in life, and lives in food!
Australian dedicated, almost obsessive, foodie Virginia Trioli delivers lively asides and joyful reflections with A Bit on the Side. Here you will find the sweet, the sour, the bitter and the sharp, all infused with delight. A Bit on the Side revels in the small moments: the sauces that make the dish, the joy of the perfect side salad, the local ingredient and the bits stuffed inside. Dotted with recipes, foodie hints and plenty of storytelling Trioli celebrates the small bursts of flavour that give life joy and meaning.
'A humorous reminder that the smallest things often carry the biggest rewards.' BONNIE GARMUS
'Utterly delightful. Trioli's passion for life - and food, glorious food - crackles through every joyous page. A book so rare and so bloody well done.' TRENT DALTON
'Each page is full of zest, wit and joy; Virginia writes like an angel.' CHLOE HOOPER
What could be better? Art, cuisine, and famous writers! The Bloomsbury Group fostered a fresh, creative and vital way of living that encouraged debate and communication ('only connect'), as often as not across the dining table. Gathered at these tables were many of the great figures in art, literature and economics in the early twentieth century: E. M. Forster, Roger Fry, J. M. Keynes, Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf, among many others. The Bloomsbury Cookbook - Recipes for Life, Love and Art is part cookbook, part social and cultural history. Generously illustrated with artworks and photographs, filled with menus and recipes this is perfect for lovers of food, literature, art, and history.
'I need this book!' - Nigella Lawson
'Glorious ... a feast of eccentric detail' - New Statesman
'A window onto Bloomsbury via recipes, grocery lists, pantries, kitchens and, above all, dining tables' - Virginia Nicholson
Restuarant critic and award-winning writer Jay Rayner’s first cookbook! With sixty recipes that take their inspiration from restaurants dishes served across the UK and further afield, Nights Out at Home includes a cheat's version of the Ivy's famed crispy duck salad, the brown butter and sage flatbreads from Manchester's Erst, miso-glazed aubergine from Freak Scene, and instructions for making the cult tandoori lamb chops from the legendary Tayyabs in London's Whitechapel — a recipe which has never before been written down. Seasoned with stories from Jay's life as a restaurant critic, and written with warmth, wit and the blessing, and often help, of the chefs themselves, Nights Out at Home is a celebration of good food and great eating experiences, filled with irresistible dishes to inspire all cooks.
'Jay has a way with words, but he's also a dab hand in the kitchen. This book is not just a collection of food memories but also of recipes that make you want to roll up your sleeves and start cooking' MICHEL ROUX
A unique work of literary and culinary joie de vivre, part food memoir, part recipe book, French Cooking for One is Michèle Roberts' first cookbook, and a personal and quirky take on Édouard de Pomiane's ten-minute cooking classic. Once a food writer for the New Statesman, Roberts was born in 1949 and raised in a bilingual French-English household, learning to cook from her French grandparents in Normandy. Her love of food and cookery has always shone through in her novels and short stories.
From quick bites for busy days to sumptuous main courses for those who enjoy spending more time in the kitchen, the focus throughout this book is on dishes that are simple and fun to prepare, and results that are mouthwatering to contemplate and, of course, to eat. With over 160 delicious recipes, the majority of which are vegetarian, combined with piquant storytelling and feminist wit, French Cooking for One is a working cook's book with French flair, bursting with life and illustrated with the author's original ink drawings, full of charm and humour.