My 4 Go-To Cookbooks
When one moves, it is the normal procedure to take your worldly possessions with you. You hire a van or maybe you can squeeze everything into your car then it trundles off to pastures new. As soon as those precious belongings are unpacked and stowed away, your new home feels less ‘new’ and little more ‘you’. Maybe that’s why my move to France never really felt final, a little detached, because most of my worldly possessions are boxed up in my parents’ outhouse in the UK. One day I’ll either ship everything out or I’ll just move back to England, it depends on how long I can cope without it all (and I hear shipping is fairly stressful), but out of those belongings, there is nothing I miss more than my cookbooks.
Luckily, these precious cookbooks are not in the outhouse, they are stacked tidily on bookshelves and whenever I’m home, I pull out three or four at a time, then leaf through the pages and lovingly stroke their spines. They end up piled up on the sofa around me as I work or spread themselves over my bed, sprawling around me like adoring pets.
There are four cookbooks that I reach for more than others, and these four are the ones I have found to be 1) the most informative, 2) the easiest and most engaging to read, and 3) the books that, without fail, I find something I want to make immediately. You probably know some or all of them, and I would love to hear your opinions and whether you love them as much as I do.
So, pull up a chair! Let me introduce you to my four go-to cookbooks:
The Practical Cookbook:
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
By Samin Nosrat
Hand’s up: who has seen this series on Netflix? The show’s host and the book’s author is Samin Nosrat and wow, she is probably the bubbliest, happiest, smiliest person on the planet. I fell in love.
To those who don’t know, the premise of the book and series was to explore the four key components to a delicious dish - salt, fat, acid and heat. The book is divided in half with educational chapters on each component to begin, followed by her recipes that utilise all the book’s lessons. It’s a doorstop of a book which makes it difficult to read in bed as, if you accidently drop it on your face, you’ll probably break your nose, but I love learning something new every time I open it, her simple recipes work which shouldn’t be as rare as it is, and the book is full of beautiful, colourful illustrations instead of photographs.
Plus, I love all the categories (smooth soups, chunky soups, why is that so satisfying?) and recipe variations, again jumping off the message of the book; by stacking these precious four components, making any kitchen staple or meal you could want is possible.
My ear-marked recipes: Slow-Roasted Salmon, Tuscan Bean & Kale Soup
The Sentimental Cookbook:
The Modern Cook’s Year
By Anna Jones
Through my job as an editor, I receive many interesting pieces of work to proofread - some better than others… there has been some honest-to-god disturbing erotica… but one recent essay talked about the associations we hold to objects; for instance, your phone - could it be a useful tool or does it trigger warm-hearted feelings because it was a gift? The Modern Cook’s Year is clearly a tool, but I feel unbounded affection for it as it was given to me by my friend Suzie for a birthday some years ago, her cheeky inscription asking me to cook her something in the front page. Now, I can’t help but think of her every time I take Anna Jones’ book off the shelf. Which has some clear ‘Death of the Author’ connotations, but let’s move on.
This vegetarian cookbook is divided by season (do I just have a thing for categorisation?) so, at this time of year, a particularly frustrating seasonal period, I flick to the start of spring chapter for inspiration. Not only that but Anna interrupts the recipes with ‘Flavour Maps’ for soups and flatbreads and whatnot - you start with options for the base, the herbs, spices, then the body and other flavour profiles, thereby being professionally guided to make something unique and personal.
And I also love that it is an absolute tome of simple, imaginative vegetarian food. Evidently there can be no more excuses that vegetarian dishes are ‘boring’.
Earmarked recipes: Grapefruit & Honey Curd, Charred Spring Onion & Pea Fritters
The Uncomplicated Cookbook:
Ducksoup Cookbook: The Wisdom of Simple Cooking
By Clare Lattin and Tom Hill
Ok the name is unusual but memorable (as is my boyfriend’s name but that’s for another day)! Ducksoup is not a dinner suggestion, it is a restaurant hidden in London’s Soho, yet thanks to it’s reputation for making delicious food, people hunt it out. As a result, it is often packed. The restaurant specialises in small plates, and I couldn’t tell you what I ate there that time back 2018 but it was wonderful, and I since followed them on Instagram and habitually salivate.
The cookbook is a collection of their restaurant’s favourite dishes, and all the food photography is so rustic and casual and calm, it has strong Scandinavian vibes and I wish my photography looked like that. The recipe titles are like shopping lists - ‘Radicchio, Blood Orange, Salted Ricotta, Pistachios’ - and every recipe has a Mediterranean ethos that is about honouring ingredients and keeping everything completely fuss-free which is exactly the aim of the game for me. Keep calm and eat simply.
Earmarked recipes: Gnudi Three Ways, Chargrilled Lamb Leg Three Ways (again with the variations - I’m noticing themes here)
The Inspiring Cookbook:
The Flavour Thesaurus
By Niki Segnit
Technically this isn’t a cookbook but for me, it is a practical life-saver. I bought this book second-hand off Amazon so it arrived a little tattered, but now thanks to me carting it around on private chef jobs it’s faded, the spine is ripped and there’s one post-it sticking out, clinging on for dear life. (Incidentally that post-it is marking ‘Oily Fish’. I’m not sure what that reveals about me on this thesaurus’ roulette wheel, maybe that I need more omega-3?).
If you know and love The Flavour Thesaurus please bear with me while I explain the concept: Niki Segnit took 99 flavours and divided them into 16 categories (Earthy, Mustardy, Woodland etc). She then paired complementary flavours - going back to Oily Fish, there is Oily Fish & Anise, Oily Fish & Avocado etc - encouraging readers to experiment with ingredients they never would have known were kindred spirits. Apparently Parsnip & Banana is a thing? Proceed with caution, although I am so in love with this book, I’d probably put them in a risotto together, no questions asked. A cookbook for creatives, without a doubt. And for category-obsessives.
Earmarked recipes: There are a few recipes allocated for some pairings, including Pesto & Goat’s Cheese Scones and Salmon with Soured Cream & Dill (ah the oily fish)
So, there are my four favourite go-to cookbooks! Do you own any of them? And what are your favourites? Please give me your recommendations by leaving a comment, I’m always happy to buy more recipe books!
I think my four would be Ottolenghi 'Simple', Nigel Slater's 'Appetite', Julia Turshen 'Small Victories' and then....maybe Diana Henry 'From the Oven to the Table' or Peter Gordon's 'Savour'. I just got Molly Baz's book and it has lots of things easy to do in a domestic kitchen.