I’ve started a new page ‘on books’. It seems to make sense to. I am after all one of life’s great book lovers. A copy of the page is below. Just the start of it….

on books

Books have always been one of the big loves in my life. Cook books are just a  part of that, but an important part. Here are some of my favourites. You won’t find any links to buy them online because I like to support independent bookshops. I fear for a future in which there is no place to browse real pages. Here in Wellington, our local bookshop is the fabulous Unity Books.

‘Ottolenghi’ 

It’s just a bit different and a great source of inspiration. If you haven’t discovered it yet (and I only did recently) then I’d recommend you pop into your nearest bookshop and seek it out.

Kitchen Diaries, Nigel Slater

I like everything that Nigel Slater has written and I like his Kitchen Diaries the best of all. He writes well, he cooks well, he makes me hanker for carefree days wandering between the cheesemonger and the fighmonger and the vegetable market to concoct something simple yet fabulous. Nigel, you have my heart on a plate.

Jamie Does…

Jamie is a pretty cool guy. A flavour seeker and frankly a bit of a revolutionary. His travel / cook books are a real treat. Thanks Jamie, but please spend a little more time at home for a while – four kids can be a bit of a handful.

Nourishing Traditions, Sally Fallon

I’m including this amongst my favourites because it’s played quite a significant role in how I think about nutrition recently, although I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with it. It is a truely interesting and eye opening book on many levels, but it’s also just a tad too earnest and frankly, at times, a little intimidating…and absolutely crying out for some photos. I think the world might be a touch healthier if every kitchen had a well thumbed copy of this book to hand, it’s just a shame it all has to be so serious.