Books I am excited about
Some of my favourite recently-released and about-to-be-released books about food
In the world of cookbooks, the song remains the same: there are a lot of incredibly gorgeous, useful and compelling books about food being published and it is incredibly hard to choose between them. That’s a big part of the reason why I have been slow to publish my latest book guide. Anyway, here it is.
Recently published favourites:
Vegetables: Easy and Inventive Vegetarian Suppers by Mark Diacono (aka The Ray Davies of Food Writing) whose writing, recipes, aesthetics and personal values I admire so much. His recipes are frequently inventive (but not for the sake of it), well-tested, and always, always taste great. Some faves: Bubble n Squeak for when you wake up 'feeling regretful, anxious and in need of stabilising after a night where your eyes were bigger than your liver'; Chickpea and Cabbage Soup with Paprika Oil that is prefaced with a poignant reflection about early parenthood's effect on fantasy ambitions; A recipe for 'Spring on Toast' (lettuce and early vegetables); Cucumber Mojito Granita that 'just tastes cold like schoolyard Extra Strong Mints'; Artichoke and Spring Onion Pie in the style of spanakopita; Jansson's Temptation with turnip, miso and seaweed (OMFG you GENIUS); Melanzane al Cioccolato (mad good), and a Basque Sweetcorn Cheesecake ( itself a very clever reference to LatAm cooking where corn and cheese and sweetness are a well-established combination).
BBQ Days, BBQ Nights: Barbecue Recipes For Year-Round Feasting by Helen Graves reminds us that a BBQ can be spontaneous or planned (a vital consideration if you live in the UK!), glamorous or homely, a time to experiment or a way of enlivening old favourites. “The recipes in this book are designed to be generous and accessible, boldly flavoured and satisfying,” she writes and- most importantly- they are adaptable and can be cooked indoors which is super-handy when the weather is shit. Recipes are organised by season and time frame: i.e things you can make ‘Today’ (a gin and grapefruit-based Salty Dog with Basil and Tarragon, Soy Buttered Potatoes, a Turkish Riff on Smacked Cucumbers); ‘Tomorrow’ (Sticky Agrodolce Sausages, Very Moreish Charred Peas, Sticky Toffee Pudding with Smoky Dates and Bourbon); and ‘Next Week’ (Cambodian-Style Beef or Pumpkin Skewers with Frazzled Basil, Curried Crabby Nachos, Fermented Tomato and Gochujang Bloody Marys, and a magnificent Ambassadors Millefeuille).
Korean Made Easy: Simple Recipes to Make From Morning to Midnight by Seji Hong is a perfect book if you’re new to Korean cooking and want to familiarise yourself with the fundamentals yet there’s lots of inspiration for more experienced cooks too. Seji takes you through the components of the ‘Classic Korean Table’ to ‘Seoul Food and Fusion’, tells you about the seven key ingredients and how to use them both traditionally and inventively, and suggests alternatives should you be unable to find them. You’ll learn how to make Cured Pickled Radish, Mashed Tofu and Broccoli, Stirfried Shredded Potatoes, Spicy Sushi Salad Bibimbap, Her Soul Nourishing Chicken Noodle Soup, learn how to do an indoor barbecue Korean-style, make Korean Corn Dogs and a Korean-style Potato Salad, Gochujang Sausage Spaghetti (genius!), and a gorgeous Cucumber Egg Drop Soup.
Georgina Hayden’s latest book Greekish: Everyday Recipes with Greek Roots, feels the most personal: "As a food writer, I have a constant battle between a desire to delve into food with broader cultural roots and collective memories, versus simply writing for the sake of a good meal. It's liberating to write something... just because...Truth be told, when it comes to writing recipes, sometimes hiding behind tradition actually makes life easier. You don't like something? Take it up with my ancestors. But these Greekish dishes are all me. And I think they're some of the best I have written,” she says, giving us a cookbook packed with recipes that refuse to be pigeonholed. Greekish is a new branch on Georgina Hayden's culinary family tree and I adore its vibrant, loving and nourishing heart. Recipes are simplified; her One-Pan Pastitsio being a case in point or - in the case of her Charred Pepper and Olive Strapatsada - an amalgamation of Turkish Menemen (which uses charred peppers), Cypriot Ntomatas me Avga (tomatoes and eggs) and Strapatsada, the Greek version of the latter. A classic Biftekia and Chips is cooked in one pan, an Artichoke Houmous uses pre-cooked chickpeas and deli artichokes, and Roasted Beets with Caramelised Nuts deploys vac-packed beetroot via a quick and easy cheat method that mimics oven-roasting. Her Cretan version of Eton Mess is made with honey, Turkish Delight (loukoumi), rosewater and Greek yoghurt, and there are four recipes inspired by baklava including that cake. Similarly, a section titled SAS: Spanokopita Appreciation Society shows you how to use spinach and feta in three new ways. (I particularly love the Spanokopita Jacket Potatoes.)
Some books I am looking forward to (most of which I have yet to read).
A Gothic Cookbook: Hauntingly Delicious Recipes Inspired by 13 Classic Tales by Ella Buchan and Alessandra Pino, and illustrated by Lee Henry will be published on Oct 4. My blurb: ‘Darkly lustrous, beguiling and intelligent . . . Ella Buchan and Dr Alessandra Pino lay bare the human condition's complex and sublime messiness via sensitive, humane and evocative analysis of the role played by food and appetite in Gothic literature.’
New Scottish Baking by Sue Laurence will be published Aug 1; she is one of my favourite-ever cookbook authors, her recipes are expertly written and tested, they always taste great, and skillfully marry traditional Scottish ingredients, history and techniques to modernity. This tweet shows how much I consult Sue’s books.
If you loved Edgar Castrejon’s Provecho and want to expand your repertoire of Vegetarian and Vegan Mexican recipes, you’ll need Plantas: Modern Vegan Recipes for Traditional Mexican Cooking by Alexa Soto (Aug 29). Her Tlacoyos de Frijol imprinted with fresh squash blossoms are simply beautiful. She’s Mexican-American so her recipes use volume measurements.
I would buy Agak Agak: Everyday Recipes from Singapore by Shu Han Lee for its cover alone. Out on July 4, it has been blurbed by Asma Khan, Helen Goh and Meera Sodha which is reassuring. A recipe for Cucumber, Pineapple and Peanut Rojak with Tamarind Dressing is calling to me.
Fellow devotees of Amish cookbooks will be intrigued by The Cherished Table: Recipes and Stories from an Amish Kitchen by Lovina Eicher, which was published in paperback on June 25.
Chae: Korean Slow Food for a Better Life by Ms Jung Eun Chae is an Australian-published seasonal guide to Korean ‘slow food’ including fermentation. I like publisher Hardie Grant’s championing of diasporic cooks and writers and this cover looks so peaceful. Out August 25.
Good Lookin' Cookin': A Year of Meals - A Lifetime of Family, Friends, and Food by Dolly Parton and Rachel Parton George (published Sept 19) is a no-brainer if you are a Dolly fan or a lover of Southern kitsch. I am keen to know what a ‘Dolly Dollop’ might be. (I must write a guide to Dolly Parton-themed cookbooks soon.)
The Flygerians Cookbook: Over 70 recipes for Nigerian Food That Will Speak to Your Soul & Warm Your Heart by Jess Edun and Jo Edun is to be published September 10 with an endorsement by the Evening Standard’s Jimi Famurewa. I am pleased to see a greater variety of cookbooks and food writing rooted in the food of Africa. it’s about time! A recipe for Mighty Supermalt Wings uses an iconic beverage in Nigeria (and other African countries) and deserves to be featured in every single newspaper food supplement for its clever melding of tradition and innovation.
The extremely clever, witty and eclectic Ken Albala has written Opulent Nosh: A Cookbook (September 15) which will be a must-buy for those of you who adored his Great Gelatin Revival: Savory Aspics, Jiggly Shots, and Outrageous Desserts.
Blurbed by three writers whose opinions I respect (Olia Hercules, Melissa Thompson, and Tara Wigley) The Balkan Kitchen: Recipes and Stories from the Heart of the Balkans by Irina Janakievska (out Aug 22) sounds like a wonderful addition to a genre I described as ‘transnational/transregional’ in a piece for Observer Food Monthly. Irina Janakievska is a London-based Macedonian-British writer and this- then unpublished- book was shortlisted for the Jane Grigson Trust Award in 2023.
Neil Buttery’s A Dark History of Sugar won the Best First Book Award at the Guild of Food Writers Awards 2023. I have high hopes for Knead to Know: A History of Baking which will be published September 12. He’s a great communicator (listen to his podcast on British Food History).
A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy … A Memoir of Sorts by Nigel Slater is out September 26. He is a master at negotiating the line between personal boundaries and disclosure which ensures each page remains a space in which his words can breathe.
I love single-subject cookbooks for their obsessiveness (taken sometimes to an incredibly tenuous degree!) so Grillo's Presents Pickled: 100 Pickle-centric Recipes to Change Your Life by Grillo's Pickles and Raphael Jacob Khutorsky caught my eye. It’s published on August 15 and although the recipes specify Grillo’s jarred pickles as an ingredient, you could improvise with a similar product.
Mortar and Pestle: Classic Indonesian Recipes for the Modern Kitchen by Patricia Tanumihardja and Juliana Evari Suparman (out August 13) uses a mixture of volume, metric and imperial measurements (its authors are Indonesian-American) for what looks like a truly useful blend of modern and traditional Indonesian recipes. I love the sound of Spicy Sheet Pan-Fried Rice!
Sian's Kitchen: Caribbean Comfort Cooking by Sian Anderson (out Aug 22) is packed with delicious-sounding recipes, interviews with people like Big Zuu who discuss their favourite meals over dinner with Sian, and playlists to accompany your meals. I want to make her Burnt Plaintain Sundae.
I’m a sucker for tribute cookbooks, no matter how tenuous the connection but this one is officially licensed and has a foreword by Richard O’Brien. The Rocky Horror Cookbook: 50 Savory, Sweet, and Seductive Recipes from the Cult Musical is written by Kim Laidlaw, an experienced pair of hands.
School Dinner Heaven by Dorothy Spooner is out Sept 26. I hope it has a good recipe for Chocolate Crunch.
Meera Sodha’s new book has been eagerly awaited. Like her other cookbooks, it’s meat-free but focuses on one meal only this time. Dinner: 120 Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes For the Most Important Meal of the Day is out August 1.
Chetna Makan’s Easy Indian Vegetarian: Delicious Recipes for Every Day is out on July 4 and has been endorsed by Nigella. I love Chetna’s recipes, writing and YouTube channel; she’s a brilliant teacher.
Agak-Agak by Sham Hanifa is the 11th release in this collectable series of mini cookbooks published by Blasta Books. Sham Tanifa grew up in Taiping where he ate and cooked food heavily influenced by China, Thailand, India and Malaysia. In 2000 he moved to Ireland and became a restauranteur; Agak-Agak is a distillation of his life experience and culinary heritage.
Love this preview!
Immeasurably excited for Sodha’s new book. I’m also eager to check out your call outs of “vegetables”, “plantas”, and “knead to know” (great name). Thank you for sharing this list!