JOANNA'S FOOD: family cooking, from scratch, every day


Sunday, December 27, 2009

Food books of the decade?

The Guardian has made a list of the best food books of the decade. Interesting overview, and, of course, there's always room for a few more decent cookery books (especially if I cull some of the second-rate ones).

Some are staples here ... Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail Eating; Michael Pollan's two food books, In Defence of Food and The Ominivore's Dilemma; Elisabeth Luard. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Meat is much consulted here, although I'm not so keen on Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries. Like Jay Rayner (never thought I'd write that!), I'm more likely to read Moro than cook from it, and wouldn't ever bother with Heston Blumenthal's cookery books, because foam is not my thing (although I like dipping into Harold McGee, who might have started the trend for techno-cooking, or whatever it's really called).

There are a few I own, but which I haven't properly used for one reason or another. These deserve another chance: Culinary Pleasures by Nicola Humble; Salt A World History by Mark Kurlansky; The Taste of Britain, by Laura Mason and Catherine Brown.

These are the books from the list that I don't have that may be hard to resist:

  • British Regional Food by Mark Hix
  • Trifle by Helen Sabiri and Alan Davidson
  • Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen
  • Food in Early Modern England by Joan Thirsk, recommended by Tom Jaine, which makes it doubly alluring
  • The Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook by Fuschia Dunlop



PS just ordered three from Amazon; two of them were cheaper than the postage, which I find irresistible, no wonder my house is so cluttered

3 comments:

colleen said...

Would be good to hear what you bought and what you thought of them. I can always do with inspiration.

If you have a copy of Moro East you may catch sight of our old allotment at Manor Gardens;they are very good looking books.

Enjoy your reading!

tut-tut said...

Interesting; most are not available here. I'm glad to use Amazon UK when I'm feeling flush. I saw the Blumenthal in Barnes & Noble, shrink wrapped so I couldn't look at it. It looked intriguing, until I read several readers' reviews.

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