Food Books
A collection of my favourite food books - the ones I've read and loved and cook from regularly. They're the books that inspire (and are mentioned on) my blog, Poires au Chocolat.
{Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin.} Deserves to be better known in the UK - Laurie's honest, funny writing is wonderfully relaxing.
Worth Reading, Funny Writing, Wonder Relaxing, Book Worth, Home Cooking Laurie Colwin, Laurie'S Honest, Be Better, Food Book
{Saving the Season, Kevin West.} A big book with a huge amount of information about canning, pickling and preserving. I like the way Kevin has woven literature, history and anecdotes into the book.
Pickling, Seasons, Guide To, Kevin West, Pickles, Saving, Cooking Tips, Home Canning, Cooking Guide
{McGee on Food and Cooking, Harold McGee.} An invaluable book. It never leaves my desk.
History, Encyclopedia, Cooking Book, Harold Mcgee, Book Worth, Food Cooking, Cooking Nicolaiw, Culture, Kitchens Science
McGee on Food and Cooking: An Encyclopedia of Kitchen Science, History and Culture: Amazon.co.uk: Harold Mcgee: 9780340831496: Books
{Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts, Alice Medrich.} One of my current favourites - lots of easy, reliable recipes. I've enjoyed the Queen of Sheba torte, Linzer Blitz torte and Olive Oil Pound Cake.
Alice Medrich, Recipe, Brown Sugar, Book Worth, Food, Easy Delicious Desserts, Cookbooks, Homemade Desserts, Sinful Easy
bourbon brown sugar pecans from alice medrich's sinfully easy desserts
Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts by Alice Medrich. Dessert recipes that will make you look like a star in the kitchen!
This book is a find! All desserts were designed to be doable, without hours of prep. In Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts, youll find the quickest lemon tart, a lattice-free linzer (mixed entirely in the food processor), one-bowl French chocolate torte (, imaginative ways with ice cream, chic puddings and mousses to swoon over, and gooey pies with no-fault press-in crusts. Alice Medrich promised you wont need the skills of a professional baker.
Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts [Paperback], (dessert, alice medrich, cookbook, baking, cookies, chocolate, chocolates, bittersweet, chocolate cookbook, cake)
{Cooking and Dining in Medieval England, Peter Brears.} The best book on medieval food I've read so far. It's huge, detailed, filled with the author's illustrations and covers every aspect you can think of. Truly impressive.
Cooking Historical, Sca Food, Medieval England, Peter O'Tool, Medieval Cookbooks, Pottager Recipe, Historical Cooking, Medieval Food, Peter Brear
Over 100 pottage recipes.
{Salt Sugar Smoke, Diana Henry.} One of the most beautiful books I own and a brilliant guide to preserving. I've tried the blackcurrant cordial and apricot & vanilla jam, adapted the strawberry jam and have many more recipes earmarked.
Cooking Book, Preserves Fruit, Diana Henry, Book Worth, Guide To, Sugar Smoke, Salts Sugar, Definition Guide, Jam And Jelly
Salt Sugar Smoke: How to Preserve Fruit, Vegetables, Meat and Fish: The Definitive Guide to Conserving, from Jams and Jellies to Smoking and Curing by Diana Henry
{Cooking in Europe 1650-1850, Ivan Day.} A useful overview of the period. Contains 199 recipes from around Europe translated and explained for the modern cook.
Cooking Book, Canoes Camps, Book Worth, Europe Translation, Century Clothing, 18Th Century, Food Book, 199 Recipe, Europe 1650 1850
{Hoosh, Jason C. Anthony.} An unusual and compelling book about Antarctica and food, ranging from the heroic age of Scott, Amundson and Shackleton (seals, scurvy and starvation) to the past few years of relative luxury.
& Other Stories, Roasted Penguins, Anthony, Heroic Expedit, November 2012, Hoosh, Reading Lists, Nebraska Press, Antarctic Cuisine
Hoosh: Roast Penguin, Scurvy Day, and Other Stories of Antarctic Cuisine - Jason C Anthony (November 2012) $26.95
{Gorgeous Puddings, Annie Bell.} Classic puddings with simple, reliable recipes - I like the chocolate fondants, sticky toffee pudding and crème brûlée. It's a good place to jump off from.
Belle Searchabl, Belle Publishing, Recipe, Book Worth, Cookbooks Wishlist, Annie Belle, Cookbooks Covers, Classic Puddings, Gorgeous Puddings
Gorgeous Puddings by Annie Bell (searchable index of recipes)
{How Baking Works, Paula I. Figoni.} Though I think McGee is generally better for science, it's nice to have a book that focuses on baking. Good for information on ingredients and what they do i.e. fats, sweeteners etc. Has exercises and experiments but I haven't tried them.
Worth Reading, Fundamentals, Book Worth, Food Science, Figoni, Culinary Art, Baking Science, Baking Work, Exploration
how baking works: applying food science to the bakeshop as the essence of baking is chemistry.
How Baking Works: Exploring the Fundamentals of Baking Science: Amazon.co.uk: Paula I. Figoni: Books
§130.226. Culinary Arts C (6:I)The student understands the history of food service and the use of the professional kitchen. The student is expected todemonstrate baking techniques such as yeast breads and rolls, quick breads, and desserts #FS4307
{Ready for Dessert, David Lebovitz.} I'm a big fan of David Lebovitz's recipes. In this book, I've been inspired by the coconut layer cake, absolute best brownies, chocolate chip cookies and fresh fig & raspberry tart with honey.
Best Recipes, Book Worth, Food, Cookbooks Wishlist, Cookbooks Collection, Davidlebovitz, David Lebovitz, Ready, Desserts Cookbooks
Cookbook wishlist!!
Free E-Book Download Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes David Lebovitz foods
Books worth eating. Great cookbook, great bedtime read (except I keep wanting to get up and bake...)
{Ice Cream, Laura B. Weiss.} Another good book from the Edible Series. I learnt a lot about early ice creams, ice houses, gelato, sundaes, soda fountains and the spread of commercial ice cream.
Good Book
{Cooking for Kings, Ian Kelly.} Not so much a biography of Antonin Carême but of his fascinating career as a chef and pâtissier for the rulers of Europe (including Napoleon and the Prince Regent, later George IV). I love how many full or double page pictures are scattered through the book. Includes some of his recipe but I've never tried one.
Book I D, Europe Include, Ian Kelly, Foodies Book, Fascinators Career, Prince Regent, Include Napoleon, Food Book, Antonin Carêm
{Cooking for Kings, Ian Kelly.} Not so much a biography of Antonin Carême but of his fascinating career as a chef and pâtissier for the rulers of Europe including Napoleon and the Prince Regent, later George IV. I love how many full or double page pictures are scattered through the book. Includes some of his recipe but I've never tried one.
{What to Eat?: 10 Chewy Questions About Food, Hattie Ellis.} I read this thought-provoking book last year and today it was nominated for two Guild of Food Writers Awards.
Thoughts Provoking Book, Book Worth, Eating, Food Book
What to Eat?
{Jerusalem, Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi.} A visually stunning, colourful book. All of the recipes have been excellent so far but I love the sweets in particular, including the tahini cookies, chocolate krantz cake, semolina, coconut & marmalade cake and the clementine & almond syrup cake.
Colours Book, Jerusalem, Amazon Co Uk, Favourite Cookbooks, Sami Tamimi, Yotam Ottolenghi, Food Book
{The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, Deb Perelman.} I've loved the 3 recipes I've tried so far - I'm sure many of these will become familiar friends.
Cooking Book, Book Online, Food, Amazon Co Uk, Cookery Book, Cookbooks Wishlist, Kitchens Cookbooks, Bloggers Deb Perelman, Smitten Kitchens
I was deputy editor of The Sunday Times when I was 26 - rather a long time ago in the last century - and people were talking about the death of the book even then. There is a lot more angsting on the subject now, but I find it telling, interesting and ultimately uplifting that a very popular food blog - smitten kitchen - shows its success by being turned into an old-school book.
Booktopia - The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman, 9780224095785. Buy this book online.
{Babette's Feast, Isak Dinesen.} A tender story about kindness, feasting and pleasure, wrapped up into a quiet 50-page-or-so short story.
Dinesen A Tenders, Short Stories, 50 Pages Or So Shorts, Digest Novella, Babette'S Feast, Shorts Stories, Book, Interesting Commentary, Isak Dinesen A
Interesting commentary on Babette's Feast by Truman Madsen. http://ce.byu.edu/cw/womensconference/archive/1999/madsen_truman.htm
Babette's Feast, Isak Dinesen/A tender story @ kindness, feasting & pleasure, wrapped up into a digestible novella.
{Scandilicious Baking, Signe Johansen.} Absolutely gorgeous baking book. The Toscakaka and various buns are my favourites so far.
Worth Reading, Cooking Book, Social Anthropology, Book Worth, Scandilici Baking, Cookbooks Wishlist, Cookery Book, Food, Signs Johansen
Scandilicious Baking - if you've been to Scandinavia and have had a chance to taste the deliciousness, then this is a book that can recreate it at home. Great addition to any cook book library! #cookbook
Scandilicious Baking: Amazon.co.uk: Signe Johansen BA Social Anthropology; MA Anthropology of Food: Books
{The Food of Spain, Claudia Roden.} A huge, beautiful book bursting with stories and recipes. Particularly love Pepa's Fish Soup (so easy! so good!) & Rice with Chicken and Roasted Peppers.
Favorite Cookbooks, Cooking Book, Claudia Roden, Cookbooks Worth, Fantastic Food, Jewish Cooking, Favourite Cookbooks, Healthy Recipe, Spain
Claudia Roden, The Food of Spain
{Swindled: From Poison Sweets to Counterfeit Coffee - The Dark History of the Food Cheats, Bee Wilson.} Topical at the moment with the horse scandal. Brilliant and sometimes stomach-turning.
Bad Food, Food History, Book Worth, Food Cheat, Counterfeit Coffee, Dark History, Bees Wilson, Poison Sweets, Reading Lists
Swindled: From Poison Sweets to Counterfeit Coffee - The Dark History of the Food Cheats: Bee Wilson
Bad food has a history. Swindled tells it. Through a fascinating mixture of cultural and scientific history, food politics, and culinary detective work, Bee Wilson uncovers the many ways swindlers have cheapened, falsified, and even poisoned our food throughout history.
{One Pair of Hands, Monica Dickens.} Thoroughly entertaining book by the great-granddaughter of Dickens about her life as an 'ex-debutante turned cook', published in 1939 when she was 22.
Old Book, Reading, Charms 1930S, Monica Dickens, 1930S Memoirs, Hands, Pairings, Upstairs Downstairs, Dramas Schools
To read. One Pair of Hands by Monica Dickens - the debutante great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens tries her hand at working as a domestic servant (after being thrown out of drama school). This charming memoir is humorous and self-deprecating, but at the end of a long day's work she can return to a comfortable home—while she paints a grim picture of the hard labor and unfair conditions that were facts of life for many young women in the 1930s.
The popularity of Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs has brought interest back to old books like Below Stairs, first published in 1968, and Rose, My Life in Service from 1975, not to mention ol...
One Pair of Hands: From Upstairs to Downstairs, in this charming 1930s memoir by Monica Dickens, http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005TKD7DS/ref=cm_sw_r_pi_dp_iCPBtb083G3WG
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JackieThis has been one of my favourite books since I was a teenager! Hugely enjoyable.
{Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: Fuchsia Dunlop.} Excellent memoir about eating, training as a chef, researching books and living in China and the contrast with the UK.
Cooking Book, Sichuan Peppers, Fuchsia Dunlop, Sharks Fin, Excel Memoirs, Food Book
{The Hive, Bee Wilson.} Captivating.
Hives, Bees Bookshelf, Stories, Book Worth, Bees Wilson, Honeybee, Bees Articles, Honey Bees, Food Book
The Hive: The Story of the Honeybee and Us: Amazon.co.uk: Bee Wilson: Books
{Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain.} As the review goes, 'Elizabeth David written by Quentin Tarantino'.
Book Club, Culinary Underbelly, Worth Reading, Book Worth, Food, Reading Lists, Restaurants, Anthony Bourdain, Kitchens Confidential
What I'm reading for book club this month. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain.
Kitchen Confidential | The Ultimate Summer Reading List: 100 Beach Reads
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain. One of the great books about food and restaurants
{Blood, Bones and Butter, Gabrielle Hamilton.} Honest, gutsy, sharp memoir.
This book was part of my MA dissertation bibliography! What an amazing read :)