Smash hit

MEMORIES OF PHILIPPINE KITCHENS by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan
Stewart, Tabori & Chang £19.95

In this globalised age, how many truly unknown cuisines remain? In Britain, we still know next to nothing about Filipino food. This beautiful and informative book is a compelling argument for why this should change. Besa and Dorotan run Cendrillon, a popular Filipino restaurant in Manhattan. They have distilled their happiest food memories into this book, drawing out the many connections in the kitchens of the Philippines – with Spain (paella made with coconut milk), with Mexico (empanadas) and with America (banana chiffon pie). Most remarkable of all, though, are the indigenous dishes such as lumpia – delicate purple spring rolls filled with vegetables; and chicken adobo, a casserole simmered with vinegar, garlic and chilli. As well as being an outstanding recipe book, this is also a gorgeous travelogue, which makes you yearn to visit the Philippines.

WEEK IN WEEK OUT: 52 Seasonal Stories by Simon Hopkinson
Quadrille £20

Two years ago, Hopkinson’s Roast Chicken and Other Stories became a sudden, much-loved bestseller after Waitrose Food Illustrated named it the most useful cookery book of all time. This new collection will please fans of his ambrosially rich cuisine – chicken liver pâté, tomatoes in cream, roast quails with butter and lemon – and spirited prose style.

EATING FOR VICTORY: Healthy Home Front Cooking on War Rations, foreword by Jill Norman
M O’Mara £9.99

During the second world war, the ministry of food issued a series of leaflets – What’s Left in the Larder, Making the Most of the Fat Ration etc. They are published here for the first time in glorious colour facsimile. Most of the recipes are of period interest only (cabbage and mince scramble, cornflour mould, butter extender No 2) but they still make for absorbing reading.

COOK SIMPLE: Effortless Cooking Every Day by Diana Henry
Mitchell Beazley £20

You should thrust this book into the hands of anyone who thinks they “can’t cook”. Like an early Nigel Slater, the author has a great eye for recipes that are easier than ready meals, but which taste 100 times better: Greek roast lamb on rice and spinach, Italian sausages with purple-sprouting broccoli, chilli and penne, all-in-one chocolate cake. (I should declare an interest here: Henry and I have columns in the same newspaper, but I promise this is not why I am recommending her book.) Henry devised her effortless way of cooking out of necessity after having a baby, but it will appeal to anyone who feels time-starved and underconfident in the kitchen. If you are contemplating buying Nigella Express, get this instead.

THE RIVER COTTAGE FISH BOOK by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Nick Fisher
Bloomsbury £30

Nobody does this sort of thing better than Fearnley-Whittingstall. A worthy companion to The River Cottage Meat Book, this enormous slab of a volume brings together sound advice on which species of fish it is actually ethical to eat nowadays (not many), and classic ways to cook them once you have finished wrestling with your conscience.

CITRUS: A History by Pierre Laszlo
Chicago UP £14

In the mould of Cod by Mark Kurlansky, here is a scholarly and stimulating monograph. Laszlo, a retired French chemist, takes us on a journey from the orangeries of Versailles, via the limes of the Royal Navy to the citriculture of modern Florida. It was only in the 1920s, he tells us, that orange juice became “an integral part of the American breakfast”, after the great flu epidemic of 1918-19. Laszlo shows that the citrus fruit “is a treasure trove of chemicals that are highly useful to humankind” – which also happens to taste wonderful.

BESTSELLERS

1 Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver
(M Joseph) 247,060

2 Nigella Express by Nigella Lawson
(Chatto) 218,780

3 Gordon Ramsay’s Fast Food by Gordon Ramsay
(Quadrille) 174,720

4 Rick Stein’s Mediterranean Escapes by Rick Stein
(BBC) 92,815

5 Cook with Jamie by Jamie Oliver
(M Joseph) 74,285

Bestsellers list prepared by The Bookseller using data supplied by and copyright to Nielsen BookScan taken from the TCM 02/01/07-10/11/07

Available at Sunday Times Books First prices (including p&p) on 0870 165 8585

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