From SEED to PLATE

This book is a delight, a little confused but in a really good way, an identity crisis, unsure whether to be a cookbook, a gardening book or a guide to Italy. Greatfully it is all of these things. The best way to get fresh, tasty ingredients is to grow your own. Italians have known this for centuries, and no Italian house, apartment, school or office is complete unless it has a little bit of space in which to grow tomatoes, herbs, salad leaves and whatever else can be crammed in. This book covers that very Italian tradition of growing to cook, using recipes handed down from cook to cook, often through generations. Paolo Arrigo shares his family's practical traditions and 'passione' for food, including the best varieties to grow, offering growing tips and explaining how all the resulting delicious produce should be best prepared, cooked and preserved. It Includes recipes from Paolo's own family, delicatessens, favourite restaurants and chefs such as Georgio Locatelli, Antony Worrall Thompson, Rose Prince, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and many more. This is an excellent book, the recipes are easy to follow and they inspire you to want to grow stuff yourself (rather than simply buy it) just to then eat it - the Italian way.

The PAINTER, the COOK and the ART of CUCINA

This is another wonderful book which I received as a gift from family living in Bari in the beautiful region of Puglia.  I really like the painting of the Red Radicchios on the cover. The Painter, the Cook and the Art of Cucina takes you on a gastronomic journey through the lesser known parts of Italy - Puglia, Piedmont, Veneto, Liguria, Le Marche and Sardinia. The food of these regions is being discovered by visitors and cooks for the first time. In a unique collaboration, Anna Del Conte, the foremost expert on Italian cuisine and leading painter, Val Archer, have travelled around Italy using their eyes, ears and taste buds - this book is the result of their journey. Anna observes how passionate Italians are about the flavour and variety of their foods, seasonality, regional specialties and recipes, local producers and local food customs. In each region there are recipes choosen to represent the best use of the local produce, from restaurants or directly from local cooks. Over 100 rich oil paintings are matched with stories about the food and the recipes from the cooks and food producers. The Italians are, of course, as famous for their music as for their cuisine, and it is the inclusion of information about such composers as Rossini - as well as other fascinating nuggets - that makes the journey such a pleasurable one. At the heart of the book though, of course, are the recipes - and these are straightforward and comprehensible. Perhaps all the ingredients may not be available to us, but there is no doubt that most of the results are achievable with just a little effort.

The FRENCH Kitchen

I first came across this book in France a couple of years ago, always meaning to get it, but delighted to say very recently received it as a birthday present. This book is a delight in which Joanne Harris shares her family recipes, passed down through the generations. From her Grandmother's 'Festival Loaf', to traditional French classics such as 'Moules Mariniere' of 'Boeuf en Daube', The French Kitchen: A Cookbook is a wonderful collection of casseroles, soups, roasts, salads, tarts and sweets. A collaboration between a writer who loves food and a former chef who loves writing about food, this book gathers together simple yet stylish recipes from the heart of a French family. Even to read it takes you into the heart of France, its markets & kitchens. Magnificent.....