Essential British Cookbooks

[offcentre]

I have found an American-based thread, but was hoping for a UK version.

I recently purchased Keep it Simple by Alastair Little, and Canteen Cuisine by Marco Pierre White and love em both.

I would appreciate recommendations. Whats your favourite cookbook?

[Winot]

Keep it Simple is good - lots of content and I like the seasonal organisation. Other good ones:

Moro

Real Cooking (Nigel Slater)

Fish (Sophie Grigson)

I love the look of David Thompson's Thai Cooking but the ingredients are not that user friendly (and I'm London based).

I've just bought The River Cottage Meat book and that looks excellent.

[Dan Ryan]

Keep It Simple is my favourite. Good choice.

For a similarly inspiring book, have a look at Simon Hopkinson's Gammon and Spinach. The Moro cookbook is also full of simple but enthusiastic ideas. And John Campbell's Formulas for Flavour takes a more professional approach that is still interesting and engaging.

[Gareth]

Personal favourites:

­ The Prawn Cocktail Years (Simon Hopkinson/Lindsey Bareham)

­ Moro the Cookbook (Sam and Sam Clarke)

­ Sichuan (How can you resist a book by anyone called Fuschia Dunlop ?)

­ Roast Chicken and Other Stories (Also Simon Hopkinson)

Foods from the Far East (Bruce Cost)

­ A Chef for all Seasons (Gordon Ramsay)

­ Your Place or Mine (J C Novelli – it dares you to go that one step more ambitious !)

As you can see, I’m a sucker for celeb chef’s and glossy photos. But I would also add:

­ Good Housekeeping Cookbook (when all else fails it *will* be in here !)

­ An Omelette and a Glass of Wine (For reading, not cooking from…)

­ Numerous bits of paper scribbled on by family and friends…

And, from childhood, it was something like:

­ My Round the Year Cookbook (Sue Green ??? – dredging the memory here…come to think of it, maybe this is why I turn to the Gordon Ramsay grown up version so much !)

[Truffle]

Lyn Hall's Cookery Course, (forward by Nigel Slater)

crisp, clear, gorgeous photos, friendly and astute, energizing, fun, thoughtful, elegant.

[tony h]

blanc mange

on food & cooking

charlie trotter - first one - also enjoying raw

i love my el bulli cookbook - but haven't tried anything yet

got michael bras book last week - looks good but completely impractical

btw - i threw my copy of moro out - so dull

[Carlovski]

I'd have to second most of the suggestions here, but as well I'd recommend the Conran cookbook, not the newer Classic Conran (Which also looks good) one but one written in conjunction with Simon Hopkinson - good into section with loads of pictures of ingredients, techniques etc.

I also recoomend 'The Independent Cook' by Jeremy round, if you can track down a copy.

Slightly different, but one I enjoyed is 'Cooking like Mummyji' for brit-indian style home cooking (A lot better than the similar Brit-spice)

[curlywurlyfi]

and for an embarrassing 899th time, my vote goes to... the Books For Cooks compendia. Never fail to inspire. They have simply got the knack of distilling any given cookbook down to the two recipes you would actually use and printing them with 50 other similarly excellent ones. eg I can chuck away the first River Cafe Cookbook since BFC has both the lemon polenta cake and the pork braised in vinegar and bay.

Fi

[Jonathan Day]

I'd nominate Formulas for Flavours: How to Cook Restaurant Dishes at Home by John Campbell (Conran Octopus, 2001).

[Carlovski]

and for an embarrassing 899th time, my vote goes to... the Books For Cooks compendia. Never fail to inspire. They have simply got the knack of distilling any given cookbook down to the two recipes you would actually use and printing them with 50 other similarly excellent ones. eg I can chuck away the first River Cafe Cookbook since BFC has both the lemon polenta cake and the pork braised in vinegar and bay.

Fi

Whats the availability of that?

Do I have to get it from Books For Cooks?

Sounds good, might have to make the effort (It's a bit like that How to be incredibly well read in 100 pages book!)

[CheGuevara]

this is a US published book, yet it still deserves mention in this UK thread, if for no other reason than popularising it on this side of the atlantic. jacque pepin's "la technice" and "la methode" - now bundled into one book "complete techniques" is a lifetime cookery course.

-che

[Andy Lynes]

I'd recommend the Conran cookbook

I second that. A copy lives by the side of my computer, along with Larousse Gastronomic, both of which I find invaluable for all things eGulet and beyond.

[YKL]

looking at the lists above suspect I am much more low brow, but still have a lot of fun!

Nigel Slater is probably the cookbook writer whose writing I enjoy most, and his Real Food is my favourite for the way he just concentrates on his eight favourite foods (potatoes, garlic, cheese, chocolate, ice cream, chicken and two more which escape me).

Tamasin Day Lewis's Art of the Tart is pretty luscious too.

I have various Elizabeth David books, and do enjoy dipping into them (especially the essay ones) but probably don't cook from them very often.

However, if anyone happens to be short of her books, then they may wish to visit The Book People website and wander into their cookery section. And in amongst the celebrity chef type books is this excellent set of Penguin cookery books for a tenner - Titles in this set: Real Fast Puddings, Real Fast Food, (Nigel Slater) Italian Food, A Book of Mediterranean Food, Summer Cooking (Elizabeth David), English Food (Jane Grigson), A Celebration of Soup (Lindsay Bareham) and English Seafood Cookery (Rick Stein).

I didn't care that I had most of them - went and bought one anyway!

cheers

Yin

[Janice]

The Times Cookbook by Frances Bissell - out of print but should be fairly easy to find second-hand

A great balance of everyday and more unusual recipes, the thing that really makes it stand out for me is the extent to which it manages to teach you how to think like a cook, adapt recipes and put together menus just by the way it is written rather than by lecturing.

[Suzi Edwards]

i love, in order of how much i love them

1. "Appetite" by Nigel Slater. It's basically how I learned to not need to use recipes. Obviously hasn't worked 100% well though as I still love...

2. Anything by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall because he makes me want to jack it all in and buy a small holding in Devon. In about 10 years time he'll be responsible for all these 21st century "Good Lifers"

3. "The Moro Cookbook" because it's my favourite local restaurant but for every five times we call we don't get in at least twice so I can just look at the pictures at home.

4. "How to Eat" by Nigella Lawson because even though not all of the reciepes need updating or tweaking the way she does, I always get the feeling of having knowledge handed down from one person to another and I don't get that in a culinary sense from my mum or my friends, so she's a surrogate for me.

[MobyP]

Here in the UK we hold a difficult and not all that impressive spot in the culinary publishing world - betweeen the homogonous and mostly worthless wealth of low-end American publishing on the one hand ("1001 diets with your tennis instructor!") - the high end is great btw - and the hard to get/find/translate European specialists on the other. Though in the latter case, every now and then one slips through - the newly translated Ducasse book, the Herme major pastry work, the El Bulli etc. When I was in France recently, there were many mid-range books that I would have killed to have - if only I could speak French. Recently I've been searching for Alain Chapel's book, but with no luck.

Of those which are distinctly English - or rather of the England in which we now reside:

1. The very hard to find The Pudding Club Book by Kieth and Jean Turner (and also their more available but less interesting Summer pudding version). I had to wait several months before one became available - and it's absolutely superb - many mouth-watering and unusual traditional English puds that are more a myth these days than anything else. (Found one of their recipes online at the Saveur site here.)

2. The River Café books - a real wealth of Northern Italian cooking. Off-shoots from these include the Moro book, as well as Jamie Oliver.

3. Anything by Jane Grigson - her charcuterie book especially.

4. Gordon Ramsay - A Passion for Flavour, and A Chef for All Seasons.

5. Pierre Koffman's Memories of Gascony is a treasure.

These are UK books that I've cooked from. I have the MPW White Heat, and the Raymond Blanc Manoir book - where the food looks wonderful, but for some reason unapproachable (and I've cooked a lot from the French Laundry book, so it's not the complexity of the preparations that daunts me. There's just nothing there I'd want to prepare.)

[Carlovski]

I'd recommend the Conran cookbook

I second that. A copy lives by the side of my computer, along with Larousse Gastronomic, both of which I find invaluable for all things eGulet and beyond.

Surprised by that Andy - I think it is a great beginners cookbook (So good for me!), but thought you'd be beyond it. The cross referencing is brilliant in it though.

A similar, and good one is the 'Modern British Cookbook', not quite as good reference wise, but good recipes (Written by Alistair Little and Richard Whittington) - I got a copy for My sister a few years ago. The only problem I have with it is that it is done in conjunction with the Daily Mail. Surprised it has any 'Ethnic' recipes in it at all.......

A slightly more obscure suggestion is any of the little **** Food books published by Murdoch Books (Bowl Food, Cool Food etc) Not a sit down and read type, just lots of recipes, but unusually, pretty full of simple things you might actually want to eat (Some funny australian ingredients though).

I used to have a handy book, I think it was by Anne Willan which was handy too, split by ingredients and cooking techniques lots of pictures of various stages of cooking, comparative 'doneness' and how to rescue dishes when they are overcooked/ undercooked/oversalted etc. Can't remember what it was called though.

[Carlovski]

I have various Elizabeth David books, and do enjoy dipping into them (especially the essay ones) but probably don't cook from them very often.

I know it is bordering on the heretical, but as much as I love reading her prose, I do not find that many of the recipes that appealing. Some of the rice based recipes sound actively nasty.

Good beefy stews though.

Oh and I like vegetables and garnish with my food, despite what she says.

[Andy Lynes]

I'd recommend the Conran cookbook

I second that. A copy lives by the side of my computer, along with Larousse Gastronomic, both of which I find invaluable for all things eGulet and beyond.

Surprised by that Andy - I think it is a great beginners cookbook (So good for me!), but thought you'd be beyond it.

Recipe wise, anything by Simon Hopkinson is worth having and in terms of a reference work, the purchase and preparation of food section is excellent in any number of areas. Great for beginners I agree, but useful to have around whatever level of skill and experience you have attained.

Even better is the Time Life Good Cook series edited by Richard Olney which does a similar job but to much greater depth. Out of print but worth grabbing if

you come across any in second hand shops.

[Hallie]

Nigel Slater is probably the cookbook writer whose writing I enjoy most

I would second this. I love Nigel. I have come to the belief that the world is divided into two types of amateur cooks - those who adhere to Nigel and those who prefer Nigella.

The 30-Minute Cook was the first cookbook I bought when I moved to London eight years ago and was launched into the world of the commuting professional. It totally revolutionized my approach to making meals after spending an hour stuck on the Northern Line. You didn't need lots of fancy-pantsy cordon bleu techniques, just damn good ingredients put together with a bit of individuality. Nigel teaches a genuine appreciation for food, for texture, colour, smell and taste. He taught me that a satisfying meal could be a pot of butter beans cooked with bacon, wine and mustard and served with a beautiful loaf of bread from a local bakery. I am a complete convert.

My old weathered stand-by is also, believe it or not, Delia's 'Complete Cookery Course'. It sits on my shelf of cookery books as a dictionary fits into most people's bookcases of paperbacks. Its always there in case I need to look up something British and basic; steamed pudding, dumpling batter and just yesterday, chilled soup recipes. She's never failed me yet.

[Carlovski]

A cookbooks collection basically needs a mix of the following

An old faithful - something like Delia, things your gran knew how to make but you don't, pastry, puddings etc

A good reference or two - Guides to techniques, ingredients, seasonality etc. Something like Larousse or the aforementioned Conran book.

Inspirational 'Foody' books. Ones which make you hungry - How to Eat, Appetite, anything by Elizabeth David or Simon Hopkinson.

Chef books. Ones where you really do follow the recipe to the letter. The type you break out for dinner parties.

Speciality books - It's very easy to build up a huge stock of these! Things like 'The art of the tart', 'In praise of the potato', baking books as well as books on foreign (And specialised local) cuisines.

[Suzi Edwards]

Things like 'The art of the tart', 'In praise of the potato',

don't forget "a paeon to peas" and "a eulogy to eggs"

[JasonCampbell]

I'd nominate Formulas for Flavours: How to Cook Restaurant Dishes at Home by John Campbell (Conran Octopus, 2001).

I’d second that, it’s the only book (that suggests you can cook restaurant food at home) that I haven’t felt overwhelmed, or disappointed, by. I’ve even had the courage to dust off White Heat now I’m suitably armed.

I thought Ramsey’s Kitchen Heaven was quite good, actually almost like a ‘White Heat Lite’ for the millennium generation.

EDITED TO ADD: 'or disappointed'.

Edited July 29, 2004 by JasonCampbell (log)

[Carlovski]

Things like 'The art of the tart', 'In praise of the potato',

don't forget "a paeon to peas" and "a eulogy to eggs"

I'm waiting for 'Bravo for Bacon' myself

Edited to spell bacon correctly. Doh!

Edited July 29, 2004 by Carlovski (log)

[YKL]

Things like 'The art of the tart', 'In praise of the potato',

don't forget "a paeon to peas" and "a eulogy to eggs"

I'm waiting for 'Bravo for Bcon' myself

almost there - there's a book called Everything tastes better with bacon.

am too stoopid to do a proper amazon link - but it's defintely there

Yin

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