Best books of 2011

For Italo-philes
Seasonally attuned, ingredient-conscious and perennially popular, Italian food featured high on the cookery book agenda once again this year. Chef Giorgio Locatelli comes from Lombardy in the north of Italy, but in his second book, Made in Sicily (£30; Harper Collins), he gets to grips with Sicilian cuisine – nominally Italian, yes, but a world apart from what’s found on the mainland. There are recipes for classic island dishes such as arancini, chickpea fritters and Sicilian-style couscous served with chilli-spiked fish stew, while the chapters on seafood and vegetable dishes are where you’ll find the sweet-sour dishes and surprising spices that also characterise Sicilian cooking.

The Silver Spoon (£29.95; Phaidon Press) was first published in English in 2005 and was a massive hit with British readers. This year saw a new edition – this time with colour photographs, plus menus and recipes from contemporary chefs, including Britain’s own Jacob Kenedy. This is real Italian classics territory, with dishes grouped by type, and regional variations – it’s a brilliant source of inspiration, with more than a dozen ways to serve polenta and innumerable ways with pasta.

Vegetables from an Italian Garden: Season-by-Season Recipes (£24.95; Phaidon Press) is about verdure, Italian-style. It’s a real beauty, with gorgeous photographs of seasonal, garden-fresh veg in all their knobbly glory. The tempting recipes (roast chestnuts with brussels sprouts, pumpkin gnocchi with orange butter) will inspire cooks – especially those planning a veg patch – all year round.

For spice lovers
Full of Flavour: How to Think Like a Chef (£19.99; Kyle Books) by the spice-loving chef Maria Elia of Joe’s restaurant in London, is an inspirational whirl through a world of cuisines (what spice lover could resist orange and sumac scented quinoa, or yogurt, rhubarb and almond syrup cake?). Elia has included notes on how to vary the recipes – and there’s a handy section at the back for crafty cooks to experiment and take notes.

Sophie Grigson’s Spices (£20; Quadrille) is a must for cooks for whom a well-stuffed spice cupboard is a badge of honour. Recipes come from countries as far-flung as Lebanon, India, Vietnam and Senegal, with chapters divided up by flavour: hot spices, nutty spices, aromatic spices and warm, sweet and scented spices. The recipes, in true Sophie style, sound appealing and are clearly written.

Just flipping through the pages of John Gregory-Smith’s Mighty Spice Cookbook (£20; Duncan Baird Publishers) is the perfect antidote to a cold northern winter. Its warming, spice-spiked recipes – from the moody flavours of star anise and mustard seeds, to palate-grabbers such as ginger and chillies – were inspired by the author’s travels through the Near and Far East. Chapters on soups and salads (Szechuan chicken and cucumber salad, squid and chorizo salad) and fish and seafood (Malay yellow mussel curry, Indian-spiced fishcakes) are particularly rich in soul-satisfyingly spicy dishes, but there’s plenty more to please.

For chef-followers
Big-name chefs were never far from our TV screens (or bookshop shelves) this year. Jamie was back in a big way with his Channel 4 series and accompanying book, Jamie’s Great Britain (£30; Michael Joseph/Penguin). This time round he concentrates on the cooking of what he calls the ‘magpie nation’ of Great Britain, and the recipes that have their roots in tradition, empire and immigration. So as well as must-makes such as Welsh cakes, Glasgow potato scones and Victoria sponge, there are also recipes for roasted veg vindaloo, jerk-dressed pork and even Yemeni-style lamb cutlets from Bristol’s Yemeni community.

Simon Hopkinson made his telly (but not his literary) debut on BBC One this year and brought out a book of the same name. The Good Cook (£25; BBC Books) is testament to the honesty of Hopkinson’s cooking. It comes over loud and clear in chapter headings such as ‘cheese & wine’ or ‘anchovy & aubergine’, and in wintry recipes such as braised pork shin with saffron mashed potatoes and steamed ginger sponge. You just know these recipes are going to hit the spot.

Aussie émigré Bill Granger is no newcomer to the small screen, and what food-lover doesn’t have at least one Bill book on their shelves? His latest, Best of Bill (£25; Murdoch Books), is a kind of greatest hits, a collection of the most crowd-pleasing all-star recipes from previous titles, from brilliant breakfast dishes to awesome afternoon tea stand-bys and laid-back lunches. We’d all eat to that.

The long-awaited Heston Blumenthal at Home (£30; Bloomsbury) is one for the serious cook on your gift list, with an entire chapter dedicated to sous-vide and vacuum-pack cooking and some out-there dishes such as quinoa sushi. It’s not all food nerdiness though; this handsome tome is packed with useful advice, and the ‘secret’ ingredients and techniques used in Heston’s recipes such as chilli con carne and shepherd’s pie add layered dimensions of flavour. His braised chicken with sherry and cream (see p29) is sublime.
 
For veg venerators
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was banging the drum for the veggie cause with his excellent River Cottage: Veg Every Day! (£25; Bloomsbury). Going without meat, he says, is not about self-denial – and he proves it with this book.

The McCartneys’ Meat Free Monday campaign has been a success. The spin-off Meat Free Monday Cookbook (£19.99; Kyle Books) has an appealing selection of recipes (such as leek, potato and feta pizzetti and pappardelle with cavolo nero) organised by season. For each week, there are recipes for every meal, plus snacks.

Sally Butcher’s Veggiestan: A Vegetable Lover’s Tour of the Middle East (£25; Pavilion Books) had us salivating over Persian-style jewelled rice, Moroccan-style beetroot and orange salad, and Turkish-style yogurt soup with coriander dumplings. Butcher writes like a dream, really knows her Middle Eastern foodstuffs and offers enticing recipes. An absolute must for the vegetarian on your gift list.

...and a couple of new kids on the block
Food blogger Niamh Shields has crossed over into print with Comfort & Spice (£14.99; Quadrille). Niamh has earned much respect in cyberspace for hearty, soul-satisfying dishes such as scallops with bacon jam (see eatlikeagirl.com), and this collection of recipes for brunch, speedy suppers, slow-cooked dishes for long weekends and sweet things will have you heading straight for the kitchen.

Small Adventures in Cooking (£14.99; Quadrille) by James Ramsden is a petite, pragmatic guide to injecting excitement into the kitchen. There’s practical advice on making mayonnaise, white sauce, shortcrust pastry and soufflés – dishes that trip up many a starting-out cook. Recipes are mainly hearty Brit-fare, with influences from the Middle and Far East. Each comes with a tip to tweak it.

The 19th-century food writer Mrs Beeton could hardly be called a ‘new voice’. Mrs Beeton: How to Cook (£25, Weidenfeld & Nicolson), has been published to celebrate the 150th anniversary of her classic Book of Household Management. The 220 recipes have been updated to suit modern tastes and equipment and include the likes of beer-cured bacon, malted soda bread and caraway seed cake – which, despite their age, seem bang up to date. There is lots of timeless advice on preparing meat and fish and making pastry and pickles, too.

For meat lovers
In Hawksmoor at Home (£25; Random House) you’ll find signature dishes, puds, cheese and veg from the world-beating London steakhouse.

For fish lovers
Jake Tilson’s fine collection of recipes, stories, photographs and drawings, In at the Deep End (£20; Quadrille), would be coveted by any piscophile.

and not forgetting…
Lucas Hollweg’s Good Things To Eat (£20; Collins) is one of our favourite books of the year and a classic in the making. (See his fish pie on p30.)