Nosh, nosh, who’s there? Comforting home cooking from trusted chefs like Jeremy Lee and Angela Hartnett, vibrant recipes from our zeit-geistiest culinary frontiers, from Moorish flavours to cooking frugally, plus a chewy history of pasta.
The Times book of the year
Cooking: Simply and Well, for One or Many by Jeremy Lee
Jeremy Lee, who leads the kitchen at Quo Vadis in London, is probably the best-loved chef working in Britain today. Yes, it’s for his ebullience, his linguistic flourishes and his mellifluous Dundee tones, but mainly it’s for his peerless cooking, which is always rooted in simplicity and restraint. These attributes are on full display in this glorious cookbook where the force of his personality and lyricism draw you irresistibly towards such simple treats as smoked haddock with parsley mash, chicken, leek and tarragon pie or his sublime walnut tart. Tony Turnbull
4th Estate, £30
Buy a copy of Cooking here
The Sunday Times book of the year
Ammu: Indian Home-Cooking to Nourish Your Soul by Asma Khan
Asma Khan, the founder of the all-women restaurant Darjeeling Express, is one of the most articulate, powerful voices in the world of food, and this book is her masterpiece. Ammu is what Khan called her mother while growing up in Calcutta; here she has gathered some of the glorious Bengali recipes her mother prepared for her as a child, from spectacular saffron-scented chicken biryani to simple but tasty vegetable dishes (there’s a spiced cauliflower on p144 that I can’t stop eating). It was the memory of these dishes that sustained Khan during cold, lonely Cambridge winters after she moved to England with her husband. More than a cookbook, this is a meditation on the power of food to nourish and heal, with photographs of Khan and her relatives that make you feel as if you are turning the pages of a treasured family notebook. Bee Wilson
Ebury, £26
Buy a copy of Ammu here
Moro Easy by Sam and Sam Clark
Husband and wife Sam and Sam Clark’s cooking has never been complicated. It was the combination of at the time unfamiliar Spanish and Moorish flavours that made their London restaurant Moro such an instant success 25 years ago, and it is still in every foodie’s top five. Covid lockdowns meant a retreat to domestic cooking and they focused on recreating their trademark style in an even more pared-back way. The resulting book is a gift for home cooks wanting to shake up their repertoire without throwing the kitchen sink at it. Who would have thought just a few well-chosen ingredients could open so many new avenues? TT
Ebury, £30
Buy a copy of Moro Easy here
Breadsong: How Baking Changed Our Lives by Kitty and Al Tait
If you think that making bread is hard you need this book. Aged 14, Kitty Tait suffered from depression so severe that she stopped going to school. Breadsong is the story of how she and her father, Al, took the radical step of setting up their own bakery (the Orange Bakery in Oxfordshire) as a way to help Kitty to feel better. The Taits’ vision of baking as a joyous, life-enhancing thing is infectious and their Miracle Overnight White Loaf is proof that “making bread is magic”. BW
Bloomsbury, £20
Buy a copy of Breadsong here
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A Brief History of Pasta by Luca Cesari
A great stocking filler that sets out the evolution of pasta through some of its most famous dishes, from gnocchi and carbonara to pesto alla Genovese and, of course, spaghetti with tomato sauce. If that sounds a bit dry and academic, fear not. It’s engagingly written and contains plenty of recipes and entertaining anecdotes along the way. Best of all, though, is the revelation that until about 100 years ago, the Italians commonly served their pasta overcooked and as a carb-laden side to meat. So it turns out we Brits aren’t wrong. We’re just a little behind the curve. TT
Profile, £16.99
Buy a copy of A Brief History of Pasta here
Hoppers: The Cookbook: Recipes, Memories and Inspiration from Sri Lankan Homes, Streets and Beyond by Karan Gokani
The Sri Lankan hopper, as Madhur Jaffrey once observed, is like the love child of a crêpe and a crumpet: a beautifully lacy rice pancake that curves up at the edges like a cup. Since 2015 Karan Gokani’s Hoppers restaurants have converted Londoners to the joys of hoppers and other Sri Lankan dishes, from flavoursome curries to fresh and spicy sambols and pickles. As well as being a collection of superb recipes — many of which are time-consuming but repay the effort — this is an introduction to the exciting cuisine of the country. BW
Quadrille, £30
Buy a copy of Hoppers: The Cookbook here
An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler
“Cooking with economy and grace” is how Tamar Adler, a contributing editor to American Vogue, subtitles this neat little kitchen companion, and if you are looking for a contemporary peg, then a focus on frugality is as timely as any. It’s not just about ways to use up scraps and leftovers or elevate humble ingredients into dinner-party-worthy dishes, though. Chapter titles such as How to be Tender or How to Build a Ship (actually about how to fall back in love with cooking) signpost that this is more meditation on cooking and eating than instruction manual. Like Nigella Lawson’s How to Eat, it’s a book to gorge on for its quiet, gentle and uplifting wisdom. TT
Swift, £14.99
Buy a copy of An Everlasting Meal here
Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things by Yotam Ottolenghi and Noor Murad
It is astonishing that after all these years of producing the most inventive cookbooks around, Yotam Ottolenghi never seems to run out of ideas. His secret is partly that he has such a good team behind him: the Ottolenghi Test Kitchen (OTK), a group of chefs and writers who help him to develop his recipes. Unlike many other famous chefs, Ottolenghi is generous enough to acknowledge that he doesn’t work alone. This is the second book he has co-authored with Noor Murad, a young Bahraini chef, and it’s one of the OTK’s best, including a sublimely savoury aubergine and anchovy soup as well as a fresh new take on ful mudammas (the Middle Eastern bean dish), which makes a feast out of a couple of cans of beans. There are two strong contenders here for a vegetarian centrepiece for Christmas dinner: a parmigiana pie and a butternut crunch pie with pickled chillies. With either of those on the table I wouldn’t miss turkey. BW
Ebury, £25
Buy a copy of Ottolenghi Test Kitchen here
The Weekend Cook by Angela Hartnett
There’s more domestic cooking on display from Angela Hartnett. Most of the recipes in The Weekend Cook have about half a dozen ingredients and not once are we instructed to knock up our own pasta. Hartnett is generous in her hosting and in her praise and I especially enjoyed the chapter of dishes provided by her neighbours. But what comes through most is her honesty. There are no cheffy twists and she’s not above petty jealousies either. “I cooked everything for the party except this aubergine dish that Neil [her husband] made. And everyone at the party — and I mean everyone — kept talking about the sodding aubergines.” TT
Bloomsbury Absolute, £26
Buy a copy of The Weekend Cook here
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Mezcla: Recipes to Excite by Ixta Belfrage
This is one of the most refreshing debut cookbooks of recent years. Ixta Belfrage is a brilliant young chef, born to a Brazilian mother and an English father, who grew up in Italy. Her food covers all these influences and more. When you look at her ingredients lists, it can be hard to picture how the dish will taste, but everything I’ve made has been surprising, delicious and easy. Standout recipes include oyster-mushroom noodles with caramelised caraway onions and a dessert of whipped yoghurt with roasted strawberries and peanut-fudge sauce. BW Ebury, £26
Buy a copy of Mezcla here
The Cocktail Edit by Alice Lascelles
Yes, we all enjoy a cocktail or two, but no, we don’t have the cupboard full of recondite bitters and liqueurs that so many mixologists expect of us. So Alice Lascelles has tackled the problem straight-on and produced a neat edit of more than 100 drinks that rely on just a few core ingredients that you’ll largely find in a large supermarket. Most drinks are variations on the same cocktails anyway, she says, so it just takes a few twists to broaden your horizons. Best of all, guess what the most important ingredient in any cocktail is? Ice. And that we can all manage. Let the partying begin. TT
Hardie Grant, £16.99
Buy a copy of The Cocktail Edit here
A Good Day to Bake: Simple Baking Recipes for Every Mood by Benjamina Ebuehi
Whether you are an experimental baker or someone who likes to play it safe, you will find something to please you in this elegant book. Ebuehi’s recipes always seem to work — no easy feat in a baking book. My 13-year-old son made the warm dulce de leche marble cake and it came out perfectly the first time. The bakes range from the very pared-down — a low-effort store-cupboard cake made with cocoa, which Ebuehi devised during the first lockdown of 2020 — to more unusual flavours such as peach and fennel cobbler or friands flavoured with rooibos tea and rosewater. BW
Quadrille, £22
Buy a copy of A Good Day to Bake here
Showstopping Cakes: Mastering the Art and Science of Baking by Rahul Mandal
I’m no baker, but when Rahul Mandal sends in the recipes for his regular Saturday Magazine column, I am in awe. As the title suggests, this is a book for the accomplished cook, but there’s plenty for the less adept to enjoy too, such as a useful section on how to avoid common mistakes (sunken sponge — tick; curdled mix — double tick) and a comprehensive chapter on all the kinds of frosting and buttercream. I can’t promise this book will see you through to the final of The Great British Bake Off, but it certainly will help you to avoid humiliation in round one. TT
Kyle, £26
Buy a copy of Showstopping Cakes here
Butter: A Celebration by Olivia Potts
It takes a certain chutzpah to write an entire cookbook dedicated to butter, but Olivia Potts carries it off. Her devotion to the yellow fat is endearing. In a collection of excellent recipes and essays she makes the case for more buttery delight in our lives. As she explains, butter has the power to transform the flavour and texture of countless dishes, from mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs to lobster rolls and tarte au citron. BW
Headline Home, £26
Buy a copy of Butter: A Celebration here
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Borough Market: The Knowledge by Angela Clutton
https://www.thetimes.com/article/the-best-ways-to-eat-root-vegetables-qf3b0msrf In a landscape dominated by celebrity chefs, it’s easy to forget that the best source of information is often the traders and suppliers themselves. No one knows better how to make the most of their produce. So Angela Clutton’s trawl around London’s celebrated market at Borough winkles out countless tips and unexpected recipes, from the best beef, leek and ale pie to cardamom panna cotta. TT
Hodder & Stoughton, £27
Buy a copy of Borough Market here
Home Food: Recipes to Comfort and Connect by Olia Hercules
You may have come across the Ukrainian cook Olia Hercules in the context of the heroic work she has done this year through #CookforUkraine, a community campaign to support those affected by the conflict, especially children. Hercules is also one of the most inspired recipe writers of our time. Home Food, her fourth book, is partly a meditation on the nature of comfort food, partly a memoir about cooking for young children and partly a collection of Hercules’s favourite dishes, from dumplings with mushroom stew to steamed aubergines with sesame (a revelation — try it). Whenever I make any of her recipes I feel she is teaching me little tricks to help me to be a better cook, and all the more here, because the book includes links to how-to videos showing Hercules explaining the methods step by step. Oh, and the photographs are lovely, taken by her husband, Joe Woodhouse (who is also a cookery writer). BW
Bloomsbury, £26
Buy a copy of Home Food here
The Italian Pantry by Theo Randall
The hallmark of Italian cooking is its simplicity, but even cucina povera can be elevated to sumptuous heights, as the Italophile Theo Randall ably demonstrates in this book that shines as bright as the Mediterranean sun. Taking ten simple ingredients such as breadcrumbs, tomatoes, polenta, parmesan and honey, he crafts 100 recipes that leave me just a tiny bit jealous at how the Italians seem to get everything about good food so right. TT
Quadrille, £26
Buy a copy of The Italian Pantry here
The Philosophy of Curry by Sejal Sukhadwala
To reduce Indian food to the word “curry” is a bit like saying that all British food is nothing more than stew. If you are looking for a thought-provoking little stocking filler, look no further. Sukhadwala examines the many meanings of the word curry and traces its history before and through Anglo-Indian times up to the present day. She shows that in India and beyond curry is a term that some find offensive, while others think it delicious. BW
British Library Publishing, £10
Buy a copy of The Philosophy of Curry here
What was the best food book you read this year? Add your recommendations in the comments.
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Read more: The Times and The Sunday Times best books of 2022
