Hardcover
262 pages
$39.95

Pure Dessert
by Alice Medrich

Award winning cookbook author and dessert doyenne, Alice Medrich, has penned yet another evocative and enticing cookbook, Pure Dessert.

In this beautifully photographed volume, Medrich offers recipes that celebrate simple, uncomplicated flavors. Recipes are grouped by key flavoring ingredients rather than by traditional dessert categories. Innovative sections such as “the Flavors of Herbs and Spices, Flowers and Leaves” and “the Flavors of Wine, Beer and Spirits” challenge one to experiment with non-traditional dessert flavors. While chapters featuring milk and honey and sugar highlight frequently overlooked flavoring elements.

In the Flavors of Fruit chapter, Medrich includes a recipe for a rich, moist dried fruit and nut cake perfect to serve with a cheese tray or afternoon tea. What a wonderful recipe to include dried pears, apricots and plums from the Okanagan and locally grown walnuts from Agassiz.

Recipes are uncomplicated and often require basic pantry ingredients. Although seemingly simple, recipes may be dressed up to impress guests or served unadorned to highlight their pure flavors.

Medrich writes in a friendly, approachable tone and sprinkles helpful tips and explanations throughout the book. Of particular interest are explanations of general baking tips and the importance of quality ingredients.

Pure Dessert is inspiring and innovative enough to entertain experienced bakers and cooks. Yet it is simple and basic enough for the novice home chef. This would be a welcome addition to any dessert lover’s cookbook collection.

Reviewed by Barb Wong

Hardcover
324 pages
$43.95

The inspiration for Vegetable Harvest came to Patricia Wells when she was photographing vegetable side dishes for her ninth cookbook, The Provence Cookbook, at her home in Provence. The vegetables looked “so natural, so perfect” that she knew instantly that “vegetables would be the topic of my next book.”

This happy accident has forever changed the way Wells, a 25-year resident of France, looks at vegetables. Now they’re the stars—she’s tripled their presence on her plate, and meat is the accompaniment.

Her recipes will bring a new appreciation of vegetables to anyone who loves food. In Vegetable Harvest, Wells details dozens of dishes using ingredients from arugula (once banned in convent gardens because of its suspected aphrodisiac qualities) to zucchini, giving several recipes for each. The dishes are healthy too—nutrition info accompanies each and wine recommendations too. Wells writes, “As well as pleasure, food is fuel, so let’s put the best fuel we can into our bodies.”

Featured sections range from appetisers and starters, and season-spanning salads and soups, to breads and desserts. Highlights? Addictive toasted, seasoned pumpkin seeds, cherry tomato and black olive salad, curried beet soup, six-minute fresh cod steamed on a bed of rosemary, sautéed quail with mustard and fennel, pea and mint risotto, eggplant daube, potato gratin, and fresh figs on rosemary skewers are among the recipes on our to-cook list.

A Vegetable Harvest is a must for any modern cook. Note: The gorgeous photos are Wells’ work too.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover
262 pages
$34.50

Not long after I’d moved away to university, I asked my mother for her Christmas fruitcake recipe. She told me to by a fruitcake mix and add lots of dried fruit and nuts. It was then I realized that much of her cooking—except for Sunday roasts was from boxes and cans. It wasn’t half bad and today I still make her much loved chocolate wafer–whipped cream log.

Reading acclaimed California chef (Campanile, La Brea Bakery) Nancy Silverton’s A Twist of the Wrist sparked memories. Silverton, a mom and found herself feeling guilty using already prepared foods like supermarket rotisserie chicken to make quick family suppers after long days on the job but quickly realized that today’s abundance of jarred, canned, bottled foods are far superior to those available a decade or two ago.

Silverton’s goal in A Twist of the Wrist is to show people how to make satisfying and healthy meals with a minimum of time and effort. Not wanting to be dissed by colleagues, she got the likes of Mario Batali, Gale Grand, Ruth Reichl, and others to contribute their favourite not-from-scratch recipes.

In addition to fabulous entrée-sized salads, soups and frittatas, there are full-on short cut meals, appies, and desserts too. The chicken salad—using market rotisserie chicken, would make anyone’s day as would the glorious Niçoise salad, a bacon, onion and Gruyère frittata, lamb meatballs with spicy garbanzo beans, or Ruth Reichl’s blueberry pie.

There’s a great ‘Twist Essentials’ section describing various products, her personal preferences, and other quality tidbits. Mom would approve.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover
234 pages
$35.50

Author Laura Giannatempo has penned a delicious and evocative cookbook memoir of Liguria, the Italian Riviera. Italian-born Giannatempo currently lives in New York City but returns to Bonassola near Cinque Terre where she spent many summers as she was growing up. She comes from a family of very good cooks, learning from her grandmother, mother, and aunts.

In A Ligurian Kitchen: Recipes and Tales from the Italian Riviera, Giannatempo shares her memories of cooking and of Bonassola, which make for a captivating read and tasty eating.

The food of Liguria, shared through these recipes, is like Ligurian life—uncomplicated and infinitely satisfying. And the uncomplicated recipes are a mirror of the land. The book explores antipasti via flavourful dishes like clam, scallop, and oyster crostini, dandelion greens with crescenza cheese pie, and variations of focaccia and farinata (flatbreads). Each recipe has an accompanying anecdote or story, enhancing enjoyment.

Soups and pastas are eminently satisfying: Sylvana’s chunky seafood soup is a must try, ditto seafood risotto with clams, mussels and shrimp, and butter lettuce rolls in warm veal broth. (A useful section details a six-pack of broths.) Seafood recipes dominate with red snapper in parchment, and deep-fried sardines, while meats get their due—lamb fricassee with artichokes, wine-braised rabbit with black olives—and desserts run the gamut form almond cake with fresh figs to a chocolate gelato parfait with fresh summer fruit.

A Ligurian Kitchen will engage and delight cooks and travellers alike with its winsome spirit and very good eating. Buon appetito.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover
292 pages
$34.50

When Westerners think of Asian desserts, the ubiquitous fortune and almond cookies spring to mind or perhaps a sweet red beans soup. Traditionally in Asian culture, dessert’s culinary role is to comfort, excite, and indulge.

In The Sweet Spot: Asian-Inspired Dishes, renowned New York pastry chef Pichet Ong share his recipes for desserts that he’s been making at top city restaurants, and more recently at his own. Be prepared for sensational and exotic taste treats that feature traditional Asian desserts with surprising twists and classic American sweet favourites zinged up with Asian ingredients. Ong uses very little butter and sugar, allowing vibrant fruit flavours to shine.

Ong created his recipes in a home kitchen using supermarket ingredients, using no special equipment, which means that any one can have a go at these treats. Ong prefaces his recipes with sections on equipment and ingredients. His number one tool? His hands; beyond this, it’s simple basic equipment.

From marvelous cakes and cookies to pies, tarts, puddings, candy and frozen treats and drinks, you’ll find much to enjoy like the best ever banana bread (a lucky accident), a fab steamed pandan layer cake, yuzu jelly roll, Grand Marnier tofu cheesecake, the best ever peanut butter cookies, chocolate fortune cookies and a sublime jasmine rice pudding. There are desserts galore to tempt every sweet eater.

Drinks like tapioca (bubble) tea, iced ”dragon eyes” tea, and a creamy avocado milkshake are on the to-do-soon list.

What we love most about The Sweet Spot is that minimum effort produces maximum results. Enjoy.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover
185 pages
$49.00

Author Janni Kyritsis, a former “sparkie” (that’s Oz-talk for electrician), is a self-taught Greek-born cook who learned English by reading cookbooks. He soon deserted his tradesman-lifestyle to learn cooking with a few top Australian chefs. Today he is a celebrated, much–loved chef, currently on hiatus.

Wild Weed Pie: A Lifetime of Recipes is a true delight, and will spark curiosity, creativity and more than a little hunger in anyone who riffles through its pages. Kyritsis hooked me early on when he stated that his favourite tool isn’t his chef’s knife but his indispensable pasta machine that he uses to make filo, grissini, flatbread, pastry, and even Chinese pancakes. This is no ordinary cookbook, no ordinary chef.

Most of his recipes require some time, but they are not above an enthusiastic cook’s level. In typical Oz style, the book is loaded with Asian influences, and global ones too—French and Greek are prominent.

Some recipes that have turned our heads include anchovies deep fried in gremolata crumbs, fasolada, risotto balls with baked green tomatoes, rock lobster lettuce rolls, braised grilled octopus and all of the lamb dishes. Desserts are a must. The gold leaf chocolate pyramid will take patience but is worth the effort; coffee cardamom and hazelnut custards are swoon inducing. Ditto the heavenly passion fruit floating islands.

The gorgeous photography in Wild Weed Pie: A Lifetime of Recipes accents Kyritsis’ recipes. Read. Cook. Eat. Inspiration doesn’t get much better than this.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover
447 pages
$38.95 (marked down from $41.95)

Is his seventh book, Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook, Jamie Oliver’s best cookbook to date? Quite possibly.

It’s an engaging tour through the basics of food, shopping for the best ingredients available and cooking up simple, brightly flavourful dishes. In some ways Cook with Jamie is a return to basics, completely influenced by his experiences with the young people that he’s taught at Fifteen Restaurant.

Never cooked before? (Some adults don’t get started until well into middle age.) Want to master simple, effective cooking techniques, or simply gain a new perspective and put a lot more enjoyment into preparing meals? Jamie’s intent is to impart “some of the basics of modern-day cookery, to encourage you to try something new, to get to grips with a handful of simple techniques, to make informed choices.”

Extras tossed into this easy mix include equally simple food and wine pairing tips, what cooking equipment you’ll need, food safety tips, and handy info on spices and what to do with them. Recipes are approachable and fresh: Dig into a Proper Tomato Salad, Lovely Crab Linguine, Asparagus, Mint, and Lemon Risotto, a brilliant Spatchcocked Chicken, Pan-fried Scallops with Lentils, and an easy-peasy Pear Tarte Tatin.

Cook with Jamie is guaranteed to light fires in new cooks and spark passion in long-time cooks who need a fresh approach. Highly recommended.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

 Hardcover
319 pages
$45.00

Fans of the much lauded and near-legendary Brit, Heston Blumenthal (of internationally acclaimed The Fat Duck resto) will revel in In Search of Perfection: Reinventing Kitchen Classics, devouring every page as they follow this inventive chef in his global quest for the best version of eight everyday dishes.

His journey takes him to many parts of the world in search of the ultimate roast chicken and roast potatoes, the best chocolate, fish and chips, Black Forest cake and more culinary classics.

Blumenthal honours the small producers—artisans all—who have made it their life’s work to make the best sausages, raise the best chickens, and the like. They inspire him to explore ‘food perfection’, which he considers “a dish with history, a meal that means something to us and evokes fond memories.” In the eight Blumenthal’s identified, he exhaustively discusses, tests and refines each recipe and each ingredient until he hits on the “perfect” version of each, in effect distilling “the essence of our culinary heritage” through them. The accompanying photos will put you in the picture as they beautifully illustrate Blumenthal’s quest In Search of Perfection: Reinventing Kitchen Classics. Read, learn, enjoy, cook.

*Bonus: enormously useful conversion tables that intelligently convert mls to ounces to teaspoons to pints, separating volume and weight, liquids and dry ingredients and so on. Simple stuff, but rare to find it laid out precisely so it’s all there at a glance.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover
304 pages
$40.95

In One Spice, Two Spice, Chef Floyd Cardoz of New York’s popular Tabla Restaurant, presents a colourful collection of recipes inspired by food’s intrinsic significance in Indian culture and adds his own unique twist: American food (ingredients), Indian flavours.

Raised in Bombay, Cardoz who spent summers in Goa, a former Portuguese colony, began cooking as child and says that putting different cultures together on a plate (Portuguese and Indian) was "a way of life" for his family and has influenced the way he cooks today.

Cardoz’s innovative recipes marry local ingredients like duck, lamb, and steak with prime Indian spices of cumin, mustard seeds, ginger, chilies, and fenugreek seeds and more with irresistibly delicious results. Recipes are arranged in 10 sections, organized by food type such as soups, condiments (integral in Indian cooking), vegetables, and chicken. Most importantly he demystifies Indian spices explaining how to buy, store and cook them, and grind and dry toast—everything to realize their flavour and potential.

Once you’re acquainted with Cardoz's perspective you’ll easily integrate these new flavours and spice profiles into everyday meals. Imagine if you will, skate with tartar sauce, crisp pan-fried black pepper shrimp, plump sea scallops in a satiny sweet-sour glaze, and duck in an aromatic orange curry—all of which can be made in a trice.

One Spice, Two Spice closes with a detailed glossary that runs the gamut from ajwain and Nigella seeds to tumeric. Strongly recommended for most collections.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

 Hardcover
224 pages
$69.95

Irish chef Liam Tomlin has cooked in singular kitchens in Ireland and Europe and Australia where he opened his own Sydney resto, the highly respected Banc. Here he won numerous awards including Restaurant of the Year, and Best Chef to name a few before moving to South Africa where he’s currently a restaurant consultant and food editor.

Beautifully photographed, Season to Taste celebrates Tomlin’s creativity and philosophy for his style of informed modern French cooking: “to remove rather than to add, concentrating on the importance of ingredients of the highest quality with freshness and flavour intact.”

His recipes are simple and concise and use impeccable ingredients—Tomlin has close ties with and enormous respect for his artisan suppliers (take note and cultivate your own local butcher, fishmonger, greengrocer, etc.).

Season to Taste is a joy to read and to cook from. Ingredient-driven chapters are ranging from Tomatoes and Mushrooms, to Berries and Citrus. Each simple-to-follow recipe—delicious Caramelised Scallops with Sautéed Ceps Mushrooms, Loin of Venison with Braised Red Cabbage and Macerated Figs, and Lime Bavarois with Citrus Salad to name a few, is highlighted by exquisite photography. Bonuses include an excellent conversion chart, a section with 91 basic recipes like blackberry vinegar, tapenade, and flavoured oils, and a section describing basic techniques like making confit, concassée, and more. All in all, Season to Taste is a visual, gustatory, and sensual feast.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Soft cover
240 pages
$35.00

Hard cover
431 pages
$42.00 

Hard cover
440 pages
$59.95

Neil Perry is a highly successful Australian chef: Chef/owner of the 17 year-old, landmark Sydney restaurant, Rockpool; food consultant for Qantas airlines; producer of a fresh food line for Woolworths (the Aussie version of Marks and Spencer); and cookbook author and TV personality. His style is fresh, bold and world-inspired. This, his third book, combines Perry’s style with the impeccable technique that propelled him to chef stardom.

The first notable feature of The Food I Love is its physical beauty. It is chunky and elegantly monochromatic. The quality of its paper is heavy and smooth and the photography is spare, with only the sumptuous, unfussy food providing colour. It’s a book that feels good to hold.

Digging a little deeper reveals some of Perry’s many culinary gifts. His technique descriptions are thorough and comprehensible. His advice on seasoning (probably the most important skill that separates professional from amateur cooks) begins in the introduction and threads throughout the various sections of the book. His recipes are simple and boldly flavoured and most have a list of suggested accompaniments to assist in meal planning.

Although this is an Australian book, the measurements are given in metric, Imperial, and volumetric formats so the issue of conversion does not arise. You will notice, however, that there are some unusual ingredients, especially in the fish and seafood section. Fortunately, Perry has included detailed descriptions of the fish and seafood in his recipe headnotes, simplifying the selection of local substitutes.

The Food I Love is Perry’s magnum opus: the culmination of his many years of cooking, eating and writing. It is truly a book for home cooks, not a chef showing what he can do in a restaurant setting. It is a book to both cook from and read. Indeed, there is some very fine food prose in this volume, some of it explanatory, some informational, and some philosophical. It is one to enliven and refresh your own repertoire, or to give to a novice cook too stylish for The Joy of Cooking or How to Cook Everything.

Reviewed by Adrienne O'Callaghan

Hard cover
288 pages
$45.00 

Off Duty: The World’s Greatest Chefs Cook at Home
By various contributors

Off Duty is a benefit book for The Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation, an organization created by chef David Nicholls to raise money for spinal cord injury research and treatment. Nicholls is the executive chef at London’s Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park Hotel and the father of Daniel who, at the age of 19 in 2003, sustained a broken neck and is paralysed from the arms down. All proceeds from the sale of Off Duty go to the foundation.

This book is David Nicholls’ brainchild and, in order to make it happen, he enlisted the help of forty-seven of his most illustrious colleagues from the UK, the US and Australia. Each chef was asked to give an interview and submit three recipes that they would cook at home: a starter, main course, and sweet. So, including Nicholls’ own submission, we end up with 144 recipes from some of the world’s top culinary minds including Gordon Ramsay, Thomas Keller, Michel Richard and Neil Perry.

I find the interviews as interesting as the recipes, as they give little bursts of insight into what makes these guys tick. Also, the same questions are posed to each chef which makes comparisons easy and fascinating. For instance, several of the chefs when asked about kitchen secrets say they have none; some say they need to share their secrets with staff to run a successful kitchen and some say sharing helps them come up with new ideas. Other recurring themes are the importance of top quality ingredients; sharp knives; the need for simplicity, especially in the home kitchen; and chefs’ widespread affection for fine red wine.

The Roux empire is featured, with brothers Michel and Albert looking rather mature, and their sons Alain and Michel Jr. appearing to capably take up their fathers’ mantles. I laughed when I read that Albert’s favourite junk food is a Big Mac – not one of the other chefs confessed a McDonald’s habit, though Thomas Keller fessed up to Reese’s Peanut Butter cups and Snickers bars.

As expected, the chefs are predominantly male. Rose Grey and Ruth Rogers of London’s River Café, and Angela Hartnett of Angela Hartnett at the Connaught are the only female restaurant chefs. Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith, whose careers have largely been in food writing, are also profiled.

Off Duty is a very fine compilation of chefs’ recipes. It is an excellent read for those interested in the chef psyche, and a grand inspiration for ambitious home cooks. It has an attractive, legible layout, the chef photos are great, and the food shots make me hungry.

Reviewed by Adrienne O'Callaghan

Hard cover
255 pages
$29.95

Well, this is a novel idea for a food book and a neat way to entertain. With Tasting Club, author Dina Cheney gives detailed instructions for hosting ten different tastings, suitable for events on their own or as part of a larger special occasion. Well researched and user friendly, it makes a fine read and a good springboard for gastronomic and social adventure.

The ten tastings range from wine to chocolate, tea, and cured meats. Each chapter is similarly formatted: succinct information on the featured ingredient; sourcing the ingredient; choosing accompaniments for the tasting; menu suggestions and recipes; detailed tips to organize the tasting; instructions for personal tasting; a tasting grid to copy so guests can record impressions of each sample; and an ingredient glossary. Sidebars offer information on ingredient storage, classification and other ingredient-specific details.

On first blush, all this may seem a bit overwhelming, serious and not at all conducive to pleasant social exchange and fun. Cheney, however, is careful to explain her philosophy of tastings early in the book, assuring the reader that professional tasting is something quite apart from her intention. She encourages non-blind tastings where guests know the identity of each sample throughout the event, advising us to leave the blind tastings to the pros. She also has a nice list of suggested events involving tastings: a chocolate tasting for a bridal shower or company team-building session, a beer tasting at a football or poker party, or a combined honey and apple tasting for Rosh Hashanah. Some of the ingredients, such as cheese or wine, would work well in a longer, full-meal, evening format whereas a tea or honey tasting might work better as an afternoon event or as a brief part of a special occasion party.

Tasting Club is a clever, compact reference book of sorts. It’s packed with information and, for bibliography junkies like myself, has a wonderful, ingredient-specific list for further reading. It encourages the exploration of food and palate in a non-threatening, social context, giving us permission to play with our food in a whole new way.

Reviewed by Adrienne O'Callaghan

Soft cover
230 pages
$24.95

Deborah Madison writes really good vegetarian cookbooks. Deservedly, her books have consistently been nominated for and often won awards. Her recipes are simple and spot-on; her background information is well researched and succinctly written; her books are attractive and, especially the more recent ones, beautifully illustrated with inspiring photographs; and, most importantly, her food tastes very, very good.

Her latest, Vegetable Soups, dips into a well-loved and oft-addressed area: soup. As Madison says in her introduction, people respond to the mention of soup with oohs and aahs. There is something eternal and comforting about a bowl of soup, whether it’s a hearty winter chowder, a light broth, or a vibrant chilled puree. In typical fashion, Madison gives her personal touch to a common subject.

The book is organized semi-seasonally. Chapters on broths, bean and lentil soups, bread and grain soups are followed by spring, summer, fall and winter soup sections.  Madison employs a wonderful range of vegetables in her soups, and cooks them in various ways to achieve her desired result. Her autumn chapter, for instance, is all roasted vegetable soups. She is influenced by world cuisine, using ingredients and techniques from Asia, Europe, Mexico and North America. Some of my favourite recipes in this and her other books are inspired by the cuisine of the American Southwest, where Madison has lived for many years.

Though there are many soup books available, and some good vegetarian ones, this one is sure to earn its space on the kitchen shelf, whether you’re looking to use more unusual vegetables, try new grains or beans, or simply eat more healthy soup.

Reviewed by Adrienne O'Callaghan

Hard cover
516 pages
$48.50

Reviewed by Adrienne O'Callaghan

Hard cover
160 pages
$39.95

Reviewed by Adrienne O'Callaghan

  Soft cover
360 pages
$38.95

Author, John Peterson known widely as Farmer John, is a colourful and dedicated lifelong farmer who runs Angelic Organics, one of the largest Community Supported Agriculture farms in the United States. Based in Illinois, Peterson is a leader in community supported farming, sustainability and biodynamics, and is helping to connect people with their food, their farmers, and healthful living.

In Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables, Peterson takes readers out of the supermarkets and into the fields, connecting them to the land, the farm workers and the food itself, and healthier living. The cookbook is packed with seasonal recipes, stories, insights, and excerpts from his newsletters that go out to 1200 ‘shareholders’ (i.e. supporters of the farm who sign on for weekly produce deliveries and occasionally work on the farm). There are also nutritional tips, an Illustrated Vegetable Identification Guide, and tips on long term vegetable and herb storage.

The folksy cookbook’s 225 recipes are grouped by season and by vegetable (more than thirty-five) and is a compilation from his weekly newsletter that accompanies shareholders’ deliveries. There are cooking tips, serving suggestions and plenty of anecdotes strewn throughout that bring farm life ‘home’ to the reader.

With recipes that range from ginger miso soup, sweet potato pancakes, and arugula pesto to asparagus and white bean salad, I know that I’ll be visiting local farmers’ markets with new insights into local producers’ ways of life and to score veggies as they come into season to keep on cooking recipes from Farmer John’s Cookbook.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Soft cover
184 pages
$24.95 

What do you get when you put a pastry chef – Star Spilos together with a farm-raised boy who started working in the restaurant biz with his dad at 11, flew helicopters for Apocalypse Now in Viet Nam, returned to Vancouver to cook and when an opportunity came up to buy Tomato Fresh Food Café in 2001 came up, jumped at it?

You get a marriage, a landmark Vancouver diner, Tomato Fresh Food Café (with roots that go back to 1947) that serves the freshest local food possible, an insight into the producers who raise the veggies, fruit, meat, fish and poultry, eggs and cheese that Gaudreault and Spilos with the assistance of chef James Campbell turn this fab bounty into great bistro fare complete with nightly blue plate specials. And a few years later, this book, As Fresh as it Gets: Everyday Recipes from the Tomato Fresh Food Café.

These simple ingredient-driven recipes run the gamut from flavour-packed tomato, chorizo and Manchego frittata, Christian’s summer salad with corn, arugula and feta, Tomato-style fish and chips, oven-roasted lemon-rosemary chicken (with a sandwich recipe for leftovers) and summer-roasted Roma tomatoes to name a few.

Desserts are obviously a strong point. And I can vouch that recipes for peach blueberry galette and oatmeal raisin scones will soon be staples in almost everyone’s repertoire.

If you don’t feel like cooking or you’re simply looking for inspiration, As Fresh as it Gets: Everyday Recipes from the Tomato Fresh Food Café will have you rethinking that mindset and enjoying every flavourful bite of the results.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

 Hardcover
240 pages
$65.00

“Salt and pepper are the two most important ingredients in my kitchen. A good steak that isn’t seasoned with salt and pepper is just a piece of meat. Seasoned with salt and pepper, cooked to perfection, and then finished with a bit more salt to finish it off, the steak is elevated to a higher level.”

This passage is an integral part of Chef Dan Silverman’s philosophy and cooking style espoused in the very fine Lever House Cookbook. It’s also an insight into the simplicity and purity of Silverman’s recipes. And illustrates the seamless fit between chef and his restaurant that’s housed in an auditorium in the belly of Lever House, an iconic, landmark New York City building that dates to 1952, allegedly one of the greatest buildings of the twentieth century. Lever House Restaurant’s lack of windows enhances the dining experience, turning inward so that the focus is completely on the plate.

Silverman’s recipes are simple and straightforward enough that they’re as suitable for beginners as gourmands. While he’s adamant that you measure carefully to attain the desired results, he welcomes substitutions if required ingredients aren’t at their best … a firmly flexible cook.

Recipes run the gamut from raw recipes like white tuna tartar through appetizers to mains – halibut with roasted baby beets, hangar steak, and pan-seared veal chops, sides and a there’s a delicious section on desserts that includes a delectable chocolate icebox cake, and a sweet corn and peach trifle. The Lever House Cookbook is thoroughly satisfying, inspirational and has a prominent and permanent place in my kitchen.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover

287 pages

$55

By Faith D’Aluisio and Peter Menzel

One of the most striking things about The Hungry Planet: What the World Eats is the table of contents page and its 30 photographs. Each picture shows a family with an entire week’s worth of food. It’s a simple and brilliant introduction to a remarkable book about how people from different cultures and social strata from around the world feed their families, and the similarities and differences. Also explored are the telling influences of geography, climate, industrialization and economics.

Writer Faith D’Aluisio and photojournalist Peter Menzel traveled to 24 countries, observing and photographing these 30 families as they went about their lives, farming, shopping, cooking and eating, giving us a powerful picture of how the world eats. The book is a snapshot in time of a world in transition: As countries’ economies improve, families move from poverty to prosperity, and diets increasingly include more processed foods.

Each family’s story delves into their daily lives and how they cook, and includes treasured recipes. Interspersed are chapters on cooking methods around the world, slow food, street food, and others that address food issues like diabetes, all accompanied by brilliant, expressive photos. Through D’Aluiso’s engaging writing style, we’re given an insightful look at what and how the world eats today.

The Hungry Planet: What the World Eats is a terrific ‘must read’, and deserves a place in our homes and classrooms.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Soft cover

224 pages

$29.95

Marie Claire: Luscious, Simply Delicious Food

By Michele Cranston

“A cookery book has to make you hungry when you look at it” says author Michele Cranston in her latest Marie Claire cookbook Luscious, Simply Delicious Food, the fifth in the series. And this book does from the cover in.

Uncomplicated fresh food that is easy, great tasting and healthy is the premise behind the series and in Luscious, Cranston escapes to a tropical island, seducing readers and cooking with recipes that evoke serenity and idyllic indulgence that we can share through these pages.

Between the pages of Luscious, you’ll find evocative photography and recipes that take you to her island, each bright and flavourful. Chapters run the gamut from fruit – pineapple, coconut, and papaya to leafy vegetables, fish and shellfish to meats and fowl, and grains like rice, pasta and couscous.

Recipes are simple and flavourful, ingredients accessible. Fast favourites include roast pork with lemon grass and mango, mussels in tamarind broth, coconut snapper, crunchy noodle salad, a fragrant peach tart and lemongrass granita to name a few. Luscious, Simply Delicious Food is deliciously inspirational and far away from everyday.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover

304 pages

$45

Cheese, A Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Best

By Max McCalman & David Gibbons

Author Max McCalman and photographer David Gibbons have produced a glorious book – Cheese, A Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Best – that will have cheese lovers alternately swooning and salivating, the instants they part the creamy brie-coloured pages.

Gibbons has lovingly photographed each of his subjects, the book’s stars – more than 200 of the world’s best cheeses – against a cool, regal slab of dark marble.

“May the cheese be with us!” Max McCalman, maître fromager of the renowned New York restaurant, exhorts as he explains his 100-point rating scale that he’s used to qualify his subjects in this definitive reference. There are no stinkers here: the ratings range from 71 to 99 points.

In addition to mouthwatering good looks and tempting photos, each cheese is thoroughly described (they’re listed alphabetically) including type of milk, appearance, prime producers, and taste, and wine pairings are suggested. Simple and useful graphs show quality and strength at a glance.

Whether your tastes run from bleu to brie or you lean more to esoterics like Swiss Stanser Schaf Reblochon and Spanish Monte Enebro, Cheese, A Connoisseur’s Guide to the World’s Best will ensure tasteful explorations for years to come.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Soft cover
132 pages
$29.95

Whitewater Cooks
By Shelley Adams

One of the coolest cookbooks that I’ve had the pleasure of cooking from is Whitewater Cooks, self-published by Shelley Adams, cook/owner of the Fresh Tracks Café at Whitewater Ski Resort that she owns with her husband near Nelson, BC. After years of customers begging and badgering her for recipes that were “as unattainable as a snowflake in July,” Adams has yielded and finally published them.

What’s got the locals and skiers hooked? Lots of over-the-top flavourful, healthy fare to fuel skiers and health-conscious locals alike. With the chops to back her up (movie catering and training at Paris’s famed L’école de Cuisine la Varenne), Adams’ casual gourmet fare is as colourful as it is delicious.

So what’s on the menu (and in Whitewater Cooks)? How about Whiskey Smoked Salmon Chowder, Lemony Lentil Soup, Pad Thai, Sri Lankan Chicken Curry, and a Greek Lamb Burger, plus dips, and even ‘Our Famous Burger Sauce’ that’s worth the price of the book alone. Sweets too from stellar cinnamon buns to Gail’s Famous Chocolate Chip Cookies.

The icing on the cake? Inspiring photos that capture the spirit of Fresh Tracks, Adams’ cooking and the beauty of the region.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover
319 pages
$55.00

Jamie’s Italy
By Jamie Oliver

“You know what? I should have been Italian. The truth is, when I’m in Italy I feel Italian.” Jamie Oliver is enthralled and seriously passionate about the country, its people and their cooking. In Jamie’s Italy, Oliver shares his deep affection for the diversity and regionality of the country and its cooks.
Throughout his career, Oliver has constantly been inspired and influenced by Italian cooking and he recently realized a dream to drive the length and breadth of the country to discover the essence of the cuisine firsthand. In Jamie’s Italy (his sixth book) you’ll find his experiences and many of the recipes.
There’s nothing typical about Jamie’s culinary wanderings as he roams the countryside in an ancient VW van – an off-the-beaten-path eating and touring guide – as he meets, cooks and eats with the regional villagers. While much of it is vegetarian, he has included the realities of villagers’ lives as they share recipes and cooking tips handed down through generations in Sicily, Tuscany, Puglia and more. From antipasti, street food like spaghetti fritters and pizza, chicken cacciatora, a possibly controversial section on meat, and sweets like Young Sara’s Torte.
Insightful, inspiring photos of villagers, their lives and their food illuminate and are at the heart of Jamie’s Italy as much as Oliver’s delight in embracing this often hidden side, the roots of a country’s diverse cuisine.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover
447 pages
$245

Chapeau! Canada, Les Grands Chefs
Anton Fercher, Natalie Dufresne, Publishers/Editors

Quebecois photographer Anton Fercher has conceived and brilliantly executed an iconic portrait of Canadian chefs in Chapeau! Canada, Les Grands Chefs. This self-published book is finding a strong following among chefs, professional and novice, as well as serious foodies.
Fercher chose his subjects carefully and traveled across Canada photographing them in their kitchens and restaurants. He just as carefully sought out a superior roster of cross-Canada writers to compose the literary portraits that successfully capture the essence of our country’s top chefs.
Weighing in at a hefty 10 pounds, the book’s profiles and pictures portray 26 of the country’s top toques from Vancouver to Halifax including Vancouver’s inimitable Tojo, Rob Feenie of Lumiére, C’s Rob Clarke and tattooed Rob Belcham, and West’s David Hawksworth, Toronto’s Susur Lee and Mark McEwan, Halifax’s Maurizio Bertossi and Christrophe Lezeau, and many more. Chapeau! takes us inside their restaurants, and as well provides 200 of the chefs’ recipes, masterfully photographed, all tucked into 446 bilingual pages.
The book is not only a stunning tribute from a top photographer to Canada’s best chefs but it’s a vital snapshot-in-time of culinary Canada.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover

192 pages

$65.00

Great Women Chefs of Europe

By Gilles Pudlowski

Portraits and profiles, recipes and respect – author and journalist Gilles Pudlowski honors 35 talented European women, chefs all, in an affectionate and telling book, Great Women Chefs of Europe.

Including three of the four Italians profiled, 20 of these accomplished women head up Michelin-starred properties.

The chefs are a diverse lot from ten European countries – from Brits Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers to Spain’s Elena Arzak and Olympe of France to name a few – and vary in style from simple country cook to celebrated trailblazers of the 1970s. All are united by passion, conviction and complete commitment to their work; all are enthusiastic and dedicated. One of the youngest women profiled, Chef Hélène Darroze of Parisian restaurant Hélène Darroze says it best as she sums up why these women are making their marks, “We women don’t have the same sensibility men do: we don’t look at things the same way; we don’t feel things the same way, and so our cuisine naturally reflects this … it’s more generous.”

Photographer Maurice Rougement captures the chefs, their restaurants and their culinary creations with insight and aplomb, complementing and enhancing this lively portrait of the Great Women Chefs of Europe. Pudlowski has dedicated a chapter to each chef who has also contributed a signature recipe, plus more in the wrap-up Chefs’ Notebook section.

A vivid and inspirational tribute to these great chefs, the book is also a unique tour of 35 of the best kitchens and restaurants of Europe.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover

240 pages

$64.95

The Accidental Foodie
By Neale Whitaker

Neale Whitaker, a Brit who has been a food editor for magazines in England and Australia, has pulled together a marvelous book – and absolute treat for the literate cook – called The Accidental Foodie.

He’s compiled interviews, anecdotes and recipes from 23 food heroes -- cooks, food writers, chefs and restaurateurs – that have influenced him over the course of his career as a food editor (Vogue Entertaining + Travel, Waitrose Food Illustrated, and ABC delicious) which was an accidental, if serendipitous choice of work (he is the accidental foodie of the book’s title). Whitaker’s ’heroes’ are united by “an extraordinary passion for food and to bring better food within reach for all of us.”

Some of the insightful individuals that he’s included are familiar names and faces like Jamie Oliver, Donna Hay, Terence Conran, Bill Granger, and Jill Dupleix while others like the fierce Cherry Ripe, Stephanie Alexander, the grand dame of Australian cooking, and bad boy Kevin Gould, are equally inspirational and ‘names’ in Australia.

Whitaker’s savoury ‘hero’ tales are accompanied by several personal recipes contributed by each and masterful photographs of the cooks and their dishes. A mouth-watering slashed roast lamb from Jill Dupleix, Cherry Ripe’s duck pho, Maggie Beer’s fig galette, Donna Hay’s simple and delicious studio pasta, and Alastair Hendy’s homey mushrooms on toast, Jamie Oliver’s sidecar and accompanying tales are riveting entertainment and very good eating.

Hardcover

257 pages

$45.00

Hardcover

224 pages

$27.00

Small Bites                             
By Jennifer Joyce

Small Bites: tapas, sushi, mezze, antipasti, and other finger foods is a welcome addition to any busy person’s cookbook shelf. Author Jennifer Joyce Has compiled a collection of stylish and sumptuous dishes that are quick and easy to make, and light and healthy too.

Each recipe is lavishly illustrated with gorgeous photos that make you want to dive in and give a party on the spot. Either that, or cook a few recipes immediately – for testing purposes of course.

Whenever I open Small Bites, the book falls open naturally to the recipe for coconut shrimp with mango mint dipping sauce – simple and delicious and always a hit with guests. Other heavy hitters include the pork and shrimp dumplings with garlic oil, crab and gruyère natchos, sage and lemon meatballs and the chocolate-dipped strawberries and figs.

What’s particularly appealing about Joyce’s book is that each recipe features a ‘prepare ahead’ section and suggests other recipes to partner with it like tandoori chicken thighs, tomato and ginger soup, pea and shrimp samosas and seared cinnamon duck.

Small Bites roams through practically every cuisine on the globe mixing and matching with delicious results. Chapters cover off soups, dips, salads, skewers, meats, fish, vegetables and so on, right through to sweets. And Joyce very smartly suggests a variety of quick nibbles that you simply buy and arrange like sushi, marinated olives, caramelized nuts and the like, and scattered through out are useful tips and short cuts.

Party on.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Hardcover

395 pages

$54.50

The Kitchen Diaries                                               
By Nigel Slater

“Right food, right time, right place…this is the best recipe of all.” So begins Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries.

Slater, one of England’s award-winning and best-loved food writers and columnists, has put a year of his life between the pages of this sublime book. Beginning with New Year’s Day, he embarks on a very real voyage of daily discovery, shopping for ingredients, cooking them as they appear in his rounds of local markets, fishmonger, butcher and baker. His garden plays a part too, as he harvest and eats with the ebb and flow of the seasons. There’s something innately right about eating fresh picked beans or corn in summer, or an intensely flavoured aromatic stew on a blustery wet February evening.

Each chapter is a month and at the outset of each are recipes (over 300 in all) reflecting seasonal ingredients, seasonal cooking. In April when spring is just around the corner, Slater’s recipes are in tandem with the bright anticipation of the season like Thai fish cakes, spaghetti with new garlic, and orange sorbet. Later August bursts with warm ripe flavours in a salad of red mullet with lime and ginger, roast tomato soup with basil, and mozzarella with grilled fennel.

The photographs are lovely, homey and unstyled, and are shot the instant each dish was done, ready to be eaten – which it was – lending a lovely informality, placing it in the now.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer

Softcover
146 pages
$35.00

Feenie’s Brunch – Lunch - Dinner
By Rob Feenie

If you’ve been to Feenie’s, Chef Rob Feenie’s casual bistro next door to flagship Lumiere Restaurant, and liked what you’ve eaten, you’ll be able to recreate many things from the menu with Feenie’s Brunch – Lunch – Dinner. Bonus: the recipes for Rob’s Iron Chef America win over Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto. For Feenie’s Ontario fans, this will give you insight on the soon-to-open Feenie’s in Toronto.

I’ve found this, the third of Chef Feenie’s cookbooks, to be his most accessible. The recipes are simpler, the overall tone more relaxed. There’s a sense of lightness and fun permeating the entire book where you’ll find the famous Feenie’s Weenie as well as the flavourful and fabulous Feenie Burger complete with zingy relish recipe. I like too that Feenie exposes himself a little more in the intros to each recipe, sharing insights and anecdotes.

Besides the promised brunch, lunch and dinner recipes, the book delivers sections on starters, soups and salads, side dishes, and desserts as well as The Basics – stocks, broth, mayo, oils, syrups and doughs.

Some stand out recipes include a simple Portobello Mushroom and Prosciutto Salad, Leek and Goat Cheese Phyllo Tart, savoury Moules et Frites, Maple Glazed Pork Belly, Braised lamb Shank, Green Pea Risotto and sweet treats like Cherry Chocolate Clafoutis and Sticky Toffee Pudding with Pear Compote.

Gorgeous photos do their part to inspire, but this truly is a book to cook from.

Reviewed by Judith Lane, food and wine writer