If you’re friends with a food lover, you’ll be spoilt for choice this festive season when it comes to choosing which cook book to buy to satiate their appetite. From a critically acclaimed food memoir charting the opening of what is arguably America’s most influential restaurant, to some plant-based inspiration for the vegan in your life, to a mouth-watering culinary journey through Tuscany, I’ve rounded up the creme de la creme of books for cooks.
Lagom – Steffi Knowles-Dellner
Lagom’s front cover alone is enough to have you drooling. This beautiful debut book from cookery writer and food stylist Steffi Knowles-Dellner will make the perfect present for anyone wanting to master the art of cooking like a Swede – that is, in tune with ‘lagom’ and embracing food that is good for both the body and soul, unfussy, delicious and sustaining.
15 Minute Vegan – Katy Bescow
Know someone in need of some plant-based foodie inspiration? Katy Bescow’s 15 Minute Vegan will do just the trick. A welcome addition to any vegan’s cook book collection, 15 Minute Vegan is full of easy, flavourful and delicious recipes using the author’s choice of fresh, basic ingredients and covers everything from breakfast and light Bites to mains, essentials and sweet stuff.
Coming to my Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook – Alice Waters
Penned by Alice Louise Waters, an American chef, restaurateur, activist and author who owns Chez Panisse, a Berkeley California restaurant famous for its organic, locally grown ingredients, Coming to My Senses is a long awaited memoir featuring anecdotes, recipes, photographs, and letters, that tells the wonderful tale of Waters’ transition from a rebellious yet impressionable follower to a respected activist who effects social and political change on a global level through the common bond of food.
Catalonia: Recipes from Barcelona and Beyond – Jose Pizarro
Described by Jamie Oliver as a book whose pages ‘are packed with joyful rays of inspiration and utter deliciousness’, Catalonia will surely satisfy foodies far and wide. Filled with culinary fare that is perfect for the home cook, the ingredients are easy to source; and the recipes easy to follow.
Tuscany: Simple Meals and Fabulous Feasts from Italy – Giancarlo and Katie Caldesi
With an elegant monochrome cover, this chic Italian cookbook is the quintessential cookbook for any aspiring chef wanting to try their hand at Italian cooking. In Tuscany, Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi take readers on a culinary journey through a Tuscan day, to discover the delicacies of the region and the stories behind them, from the foundations of Tuscan cooking to the essential stocks, sauces and flavour bases.
The Little Library Cookbook – Kate Young
If you know someone who loves food as much as they do books, The Little Library Cookbook by Kate Young – who writes about literary and culinary exploits on her blog, The Little Library Cafe – will be the perfect festive gift. From Paddington Bear’s marmalade, to a Neopolitan pizza with Elena Ferrante, and afternoon tea at Daphne Du Maurier’s Manderley, The Little Library Cookbook features 100 delicious recipes inspired by the cookery writer’s well-stocked bookshelves. The ultimate present for anyone with a penchant for both books and baking.
Love this post? Click here to subscribe.