My Top Five...Cookery Books

Recently The Guardian ran an article discussing Prue Leith’s comments on contemporary cookbooks. (“Cookbooks’ key ingredient now design not recipes, says food writer.” CarolineDavies and Nicola Slawson, Guardian website, Tuesday 18th August2015.) In this article, the authors discuss Leith’s comments regarding modern cookbooks being primarily aesthetically pleasing, rather than designed for practical use and, well, actual cooking.

This got me thinking. Which cookery books do I actually use? And which ones do I enjoy? Are the two necessarily different? 

Currently, cooking shows and competitions such as Masterchef and the Great British Bake Off are highly popular. The resurgence of baking has led to a massive boom in all things cupcake. Food festivals, gourmet fast food and local produce have all become more mainstream affairs rather than specialist pursuits. This would suggest a nation which is growing more passionate about food, and therefore cooking. Cookbooks themselves are also bestsellers. Food and lifestyle bloggers abound, with aspirational posts on social media. Conventional mainstream media covers and promotes everything food, from the latest health studies to celebrity chef campaigns. This would suggest that, not only are we cooking more conscientiously and committedly, but we’re also avidly reading about food and cooking.

This has two major benefits. Firstly, what we read is obviously inspiring our new found interest in home cooking, baking and considering issues surrounding what we choose to eat, how it is made and its origins. Secondly, it’s another avenue to improving literacy skills, increasing reading practice and encouraging people to read more – all things that our book club, our learning resource centre and our college (Yeovil College) are highly passionate about. It’s a topic that everyone can engage with, and has a very practical (and hopefully enjoyable!) application.

So, here are my own Top Five Cookery Books. 

Ones which I not only use, but adore to read. This is, of course, a highly personal selection rather than a comprehensive study, and I make no apologies for that, for the definition of good food and good writing both depend on the appetite and taste of those who consume them.

1)      Nigella Lawson – “Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home.”

This is possibly my most beloved cookery book, along with the rest of Nigella Lawson’s food writing. The overwhelming appeal and longevity of “Kitchen” is revealed in its subtitle; this is food not conjured in clinical professional kitchens, but grown and created right within the hub of the home, where food becomes more than sustenance and is revealed as the beating heart of family life.

 The magic is in the writing, and in Nigella’s open, confidential and warm style, inviting you into her kitchen and, like an amazingly supportive and vivacious best friend, emboldening and inspiring you to create fabulous meals. (I notice that when writing about this book, I find it impossible to write, rather clinically, “Lawson” rather than putting “Nigella”, because the charm of this book is that upon reading, you feel as though you know the author.) She is cooking alongside you, imparting wisdom and anecdotes and almost a philosophy for life. What’s addictive, in a culture which promotes, as Nigella says, “the hysterical pursuit of perfection”  in diet and lifestyle, is the approach that it’s absolutely fine to take an individualistic approach to food and cooking; to not possess the perfect kitchen or indeed life; and to celebrate the seasonal, sensuous and occasionally sloppy nature of kitchen cookery. The Kitchen is both haven and hub, welcoming family and friends yet providing comfort and restoration, and this book is the ultimate celebration of this.

It is also my messiest and most-used cook book for a very good reason – it works. Whether finding a decent yet different teatime recipe or making Grasshopper Pies as gifts for friends, I have yet to try a recipe that hasn’t worked brilliantly. It also has helped me through times of great stress, misery, anxiety or reader’s block by being marvellously comforting to read, which in itself is a wonderful virtue; the book itself, just like the food it advocates and celebrates, providing “essential sustenance not just for body but for soul too.”

2)      Jane Grigson - “English Food.”

This small paperback book is the most marvellous piece of food writing; part history, part practical cookbook and all poetry, Jane Grigson’s comprehensive collection of recipes from the British Isles spans time and region, focusing on celebrating and advocating our food and its origins. Each recipe comes with a story, with fascinating digressions about how our eating habits grew and changed over time, and how the nation’s diet is inextricably linked with our socio-economic history and cultural values. I love the fantastical names of old style dishes – Whim-Wham, Kickshaws and Lockets Savoury abound, along with foodstuffs that would not look out of place in an Enid Blyton-esque picnic hamper, such as head cheese and potted tongue. Enjoyable just to read, a good deal of the recipes are beguilingly simple and encourage everyone from the casual reader to the more experienced cook to discover more regional produce.

3)      Jack Monroe - “A Year in 120 Recipes.”

 Having been a fan of Jack Monroe’s blog, “A Girl Called Jack”, and an avid reader of her Guardian column, I would have to include one of her cookbooks. Jack’s writing about food is truly inspirational; rooted in her experiences and struggles as a single mother fighting to feed her son on a budget of ten pounds a week, Jack is a campaigner against hunger and poverty in the UK, and her recipes come from her principles of cooking and eating well on a strict budget. Using value ranges, growing herbs and thriftily sourcing ingredients, it comes as a welcome relief to those who read the long list of expensive, niche ingredients in other cookbooks and despair of being able to afford them all. The recipes are practical, easily achievable and wonderfully vibrant. This book is organised seasonally, encouraging the use of fresh seasonal produce and showing you how this can be achieved. Jack’s story runs throughout, and her writing is intelligent, emphatic and charismatic, with which I identified strongly at a similar point in my life. I would also recommend her first book, “A Girl Called Jack” as a fantastic introduction to her writing and to her ethos of budget cooking and eating.

4)      Jamie Oliver – “Jamie’s Dinners.”

I picked up this book in a charity shop in 2006, when I had just had a baby and suddenly I had a small family relying on me for sustenance and regular mealtimes. As a student with a serious library habit, my go-to was to go get a book, and I came home with this one and read it voraciously. Jamie Oliver has always been a really enthusiastic chef, and a fantastic advocate for healthy eating, proper home cooking, and sourcing organic food. What I like about his books is that he imparts this enthusiasm, and the confidence to have a go yourself, regardless of your skill level. This book taught me how to make sauces and stock from scratch, to develop a solid repertoire of dishes, and how flavours combine and go together. The Family Tree chapter has recipes for staples such as pesto and ragu, which serve as root recipes for the following five meal ideas, demonstrating how to use them in different ways to create different dishes, which was amazingly useful. It helped me to find my way as a cook, and to become more confident in what I cooked.

5)      Linda McCartney – “On Tour.”

 This was originally my mother’s book, and somehow I acquired it over the years – probably because I would always get it down from the shelf and try a recipe from it. My mother has been vegetarian since the age of five, since she has never enjoyed meat, and when I was a teenager, I decided that I would also give up meat, fish and related products. I even gave away my leather jacket, which was an especial wrench during my punk phase. This book was a fantastic encouragement and introduction to vegetarianism. It’s written in a friendly, breezy and informative style, and starts with detailed nutritional information and how to source ingredients. Linda McCartney’s purpose with this book was to showcase the wide range of vegetarian and vegan dishes and recipes she picked up from around the world whilst “on tour” as a musician, and her passion and enthusiasm shine through. The recipes also work really well, and for someone growing up in rural Somerset in the 80’s and 90’s, it led me to trying and exploring a wide range of foods that otherwise I wouldn’t even have discovered. And any book that makes you braver and more curious about the world is a wonderful one.

Hopefully this might inspire you to think about your favourite food writers too. We’re always looking for good book recommendations too, so if you can suggest any more, please let us know in the comments below, or via Twitter (@YC_Reading).

Books Recommended:

Nigella Lawson - "Kitchen: Recipes from the Heart of the Home."

Jane Grigson - "English Food."

Jack Monroe - "A Year in 120 Recipes."

Jamie Oliver - "Jamie's Dinners."

Linda McCartney - "On Tour."