Back to the books
August 30, 2009
Further to our very satisfying natter about cookbooks a couple of weeks back, I have now obtained the Empress’s informative and amusing cookbook manifesto, first published a few years ago in Good Reading magazine, and it’s available here as a quick PDF file (will also pop it on the Writing on food page for easy access later). It’s a lovely piece of writing about Steph’s favourite books for recipes, travelogues, pictures and entertainment …
A taste:
I’ve never actually cooked anything out of The Taste of France based on a Sunday Times magazine series from 1983 because the food all looks a bit dark and the layout’s confusing. But the photo of a chipped pottery bowl filled with three kinds of wild mushrooms, five eggs still in their shells and an old wooden spoon holding sea salt, ground pepper and garlic cloves is fantastic. It doesn’t immediately make me want to make scrambled eggs with mushrooms but it does make me want to rent an old house in the Auvergne, in October (mushroom season), shop at the markets for my eggs and butter and then make the recipe. It’s just something a white-styled Donna Hay book can’t do.
How to shuck an oyster 
Ohhh… Elizabeth David. If you can get hold of it, I’d recommend ‘An Omelette and a Glass of Wine’, an anthology of her short pieces in the press.
DoctorDi thought I ought to come and look you up – really glad I did! Yoghurt cheese, sounds amazing… 🙂
donna hay is the antichrist of “whack it all together it’ll be allright” cooks.
The Ultimate cookbook as to be the Marie Claire Recipe Journal, with parts written by various authors. My mum uses it, and swears by it. 🙂
http://www.moonlightbooks.com.au/products/Marie-Claire-Recipe-Journal-Hardcover-Book-(Various-Authors).html