Lauraine Jacobs picks the best cookbooks of the year, and we giveaway her top five recommendations.
Bill's Everyday Asian
For anyone who loves food, cookbooks are the perfect present. And here’s a tip: the exchange card from the retailer ensures your gift will be appreciated. Top of the wish list are my five cookbooks of the year, but there are lots of other books, local and international, to delight everyone. One of this year’s gems has been Penguin’s Great Food Series ($13 each), which features selected writings in 20 little books from well-recognised food writers (Calvin Trillin, Elizabeth David, Alice B Toklas, Alice Waters et al). These pocket-sized paperbacks, with their elegant cover artwork, are a perfect stocking filler.
Baking and sugary things always go down a treat, and 2011 has been a sweet year. Two local magazine food editors have chosen the favourite recipes they’ve created and added loads of tips and cooking and baking lessons: Taste Sweet Feast, by Julie Biuso (New Holland, $45), is a beautifully photographed collection of dessert ideas and cakes that mixes the traditional with new twists, supplemented with great “cooking classes” that will be useful to both beginners and experienced cooks. Julie Le Clerc’s Favourite Cakes, by Julie Le Clerc (Penguin, $50), is a collection of mouthwatering cakes – and, hooray, finally here’s a book I can read in the kitchen without resorting to a magnifying glass. Perfect for anyone who loves baking.
For budding junior “MasterChefs” there’s Party Food for Girls, by Alessandra Zecchini & Arantxa Zecchini Dowling (Penguin, $29.99). The mother and 12-year-old daughter team have produced baking and savoury treats that will make every girl’s party a pretty and tasty occasion.
The Twelve Cakes of Christmas: An Evolutionary History, with Recipes, by Helen Leach, Mary Browne & Raelene Inglis (Otago University Press, $40) has arrived in time for the Christmas market. Food history has become an important topic among the foodie set, as we seek to understand more about our culture. This is a fine example of intelligent research and commentary combined with practical and well-tested recipes that a serious cook will not want to be without. In the same vein is What’s for Pudding?, by Alexa Johnston (Penguin, $50), another well-researched collection of retro and nostalgic recipes for those who love lashings of cream and good old-fashioned desserts.
Some well-known New Zealand cooks have produced books for the festive season: The Home-grown Cook: The Dame Alison Holst Story, with Barbara Larson (Hyndman, $39.95), is the story of our most famous family cook. Fleur: The Life and Times of Pioneering Restaurateur Fleur Sullivan, by Fleur Sullivan (Random House, $49.99), is a colourful memoir of one of the most quirky figures on our culinary landscape. In Italia, by Jo Seagar (Random House, $65), this well-loved Canterbury cook ventures away from her Oxford cooking school to share the simple Italian dishes she finds in an Umbrian cook school.
For chefs and accomplished cooks there are also some recent releases to inspire and excite. The Molten Cookbook, by Michael Van de Elzen (Random House, $65), is a collection of the modern, approachable food he creates for Molten, his restaurant in Auckland’s Mt Eden Village. Riverstone Kitchen: Recipes from a Chef’s Garden, by Bevan Smith (HarperCollins, $45), has simple seasonal food from the kitchen garden of this award-winning cafe, 12km north of Oamaru on North Otago’s Waitaki Plains.
Gingerboy: Creative Street Food, by Teage Ezard & Chris Donnellan (HarperCollins, $79.99), is a beautiful, bold compilation of the exciting Asian-styled snacks and dishes of Gingerboy, one of the star restaurants of Melbourne’s inner-city laneways. Cumulus Inc, by Andrew McConnell (Penguin Lantern, $70), includes all the favourites from this popular central Melbourne restaurant. It has clearly written recipes, and the photos of the food and the restaurant’s moody interior capture both the spirit of the food and the people. Made in Sicily, by Giorgio Locatelli (HarperCollins, $69.99), has fabulous recipes and travel and historical tales of this fascinating island. The book offers a deeper understanding of Italian food than I have seen in any recent publication.
Lauraine Jacobs’s top five cookbooks of the year
BILL’S EVERYDAY ASIAN, by Bill Granger (HarperCollins, $59.99). With restaurants in Sydney, Japan and London, Granger has mastered the art of simple, fresh food filled with flavour. His new book is a must for the time-challenged cook who likes to whip up healthy light meals that are packed with punchy Asian aromas. The recipes demystify the sweet, salty, sour and spice of Granger’s food, assisted by the photography and modern styling.
STOKED, by Al Brown (Random House, $70). Brown is well on the way to becoming a modern food legend. He follows his award-winning book, Go Fish, with an even better book about cooking outdoors. His witty tales, with photographs by Kieran Scott, capture the essence of the New Zealand outdoor meal, whether it’s at a hangi, a fire on the beach or a simple backyard barbecue. A great read for blokes, with great recipes for everyone.
THE MODERN PANTRY, by Anna Hansen (Random House, $69.99). Every so often someone produces an inspired book, and this year expat restaurateur and cook Anna Hansen has done just that with her first book. She is well versed in fusion cuisine and garners ingredients from around the world to create her edgy, imaginative food. Hints and flavours of Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean are threaded through this collection of recipes she has cooked in her London cafe.
TASTING INDIA, by Christine Manfield (Penguin Lantern, $120). Without a doubt the most sumptuous food book of the year. It’s a hefty volume with breathtaking photography, fabulous recipes and a narrative that gives the reader a real sense of place. The Sydney restaurateur has visited India frequently over more than 20 years, and shares the culinary traditions and recipes gathered from families, street-food vendors and chefs around the many regions of this diverse and colourful country.
TURKEY: RECIPES AND TALES FROM THE ROAD, by Leanne Kitchen (Murdoch Books, $85). Kitchen, an expat who lives in Sydney, is a gifted cook, skilled photographer and bold traveller, and she brings those skills together in her latest book, which records the colour and flavours of her journeys in Turkey. Filled with unusual treats found in far-flung towns, markets, teahouses and restaurants, and accompanied by tales from the road, this is one book I couldn’t put down. The design stands out, too, for its clarity and large print and illustration.
WIN THE BOOKS
The Listener has a set of Lauraine’s picks of the year’s cookbooks to give away. To enter the competition, write your name and address on the back of an envelope and post it to: Top Cookbooks Giveaway, New Zealand Listener, PO Box 90783, Victoria Street West, Auckland 1142, or email your name and address to giveaways@listener.co.nz with “Top Cookbooks Giveaway” in the subject line. Entries close Friday, December 9, 2011.