As days lengthen, the sun shows its face, and coats are cast off, thoughts turn to outdoor cooking, to lighting the grill and revelling in the taste of food cooked over fire and seasoned with fresh air. We’ve got three books newly live on ckbk to inspire your grill cookery throughout the outdoor season.
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Cooking and television have a long association, with viewers enjoying the opportunity to see techniques and dishes demonstrated with flair. TV chefs are welcome culinary guides, whose familiarity encourages us when we approach their cookbooks. Little wonder that when it comes to recipes, those by TV chefs are often among our favorites.
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‘You’re going to get the secret to several incredible bowls of noodles, but you’re also going to get a story about immigrants leaving a place called home and creating a new one, both in China and in the United States. You’re going to get recipes that showcase the malleable language of food, the transformations that take place through time and through space, and the magical powers familiar flavors have in unfamiliar environments.’ Jason Wang
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‘I made a conscious decision when I started writing cookbooks not to make it into a science or an education. I wanted to stay on a level with the readers of my books, who mostly didn’t go to culinary school’. Trish Deseine
Kicking off our St Patrick’s Day celebrations we have three books from hugely popular Irish-French food writer Trish Deseine, newly added to ckbk.
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From March 3 to 9 it is British Pie Week, an annual opportunity to indulge in a British national obsession, the pie. There is a long history of pies in Great Britain. They have been around since the Middle Ages, with the first recorded recipes appearing in the 1300s. Originally a way to preserve meats for longer by encasing them in a paste crust, once hot-water pastry was developed the pie became a vehicle for elaborate shaping, and decoration fit for a banquet table. As ovens became more widespread, they also became part of more ordinary mealtimes. And after the arrival of the potato in Europe in the 16th century, the main meal staple ‘pie and mash’ was born.
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‘If I knew you were coming I’d have baked a cake…’ As the song says, sometimes a cake is the very thing. A cake says celebration like few other foods, and baking a cake for someone always says something special. Which is why we can never have enough cake books, and are extremely excited to get baking from World’s Best Cakes: 250 Great Cakes from Raspberry Genoise to Chocolate Kugelhopf—by Roger Pizey and newly added to ckbk.
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One of two authors featured in this week’s newsletter, bestselling author and chronicler of rural and regional Australian food and community histories, Liz Harfull learned to cook from recipes gathered together from family and neighbours. Whether created informally and organically, or through organised collaboration, community cookbooks are at the heart of cooking culture and recipes in the South Australia that Liz grew up in.
Meanwhile, esteemed professional bread instructor Michael Kalanty honed his teaching methods over years teaching students at the artisan bread course he designed at the California Culinary Academy, and we are delighted to add a new and updated edition of his book How to Bake Sourdough Bread to ckbk.
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‘My straightforward recipes take you through breakfast basics, show-stopper sevencolour Sunday lunches, heart-warming soups and stews, sweet cheats and even traditional African favourites, just like Gogo used to make them…I hope that The Lazy Makoti’s Guide to the Kitchen will become your trusted guide to easy, unpretentious and delicious cooking – just what a cookbook was meant to be.’ Mogau Seshoene
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Just in time for Valentine's Day, four titles by Antonio Carluccio are added to ckbk this week. We take a look back at Carluccio’s remarkable journey – from the son of a stationmaster in a small Italian village to the UK's cherished "Godfather of Italian food.” Plus we offer suggestions for cooking with Salsify, sometimes called the "oyster plant" for its subtle, slightly briny flavor.
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Discover Jo Pratt’s family friendly cooking in her bestselling cookbooks, or take a leap into the culinary unknown with The Curious Cookbook, a compilation of unusual recipes from across the ages, published by The British Library.
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In our latest feature, influential Scottish chef and restaurateur Shirley Spear goes behind the cookbook on both her books—The Three Chimneys: Recipes & Reflections, and The Three Chimneys Marmalade Bible.
Plus we introduce molecular biologist turned cookbook author Nik Sharma’s latest offering, Veg-table: Recipe, Techniques, and Plant Science for Big-Flavored, Vegetable-Focused Meals.
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“Recipes are stories. They are tales that travel through time—gifts shared with us by witnesses of bygone eras, preserving memories of times spent with family and friends.” Bruno Feldeisen
Recipes are indeed stories, and what better way to explore the world, than through the stories so generously shared by its chefs. We are thrilled to have a quartet of Canadian books newly added to ckbk, each with a generous offering of Canadian goodies to share.
Chef and cookbook author Julie Jones has always baked. It was the thing she did with her mum, standing on a stool at her side, and it was the thing that helped her manage her days and emotions when her mum was diagnosed with dementia, and then later taken into care. This deeply personal journey touched others when she began to document it and share what she was going through and what she was baking. She is eloquent on the therapeutic space baking gave her:
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The festivities are over, and if you are in the Northern hemisphere there is a long stretch of winter still ahead. Wherever you are, the sparkles of Christmas and New Year are put away now. This is the perfect time to revel in a period of retreat, in taking care of yourself, in repair and restoration. And of course, food is a precious and wonderful part of that. Key are comfort and healing.
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What is better than a delicious home-cooked feast? All that wonderful food, when you haven’t only just finished slaving for hours creating it. Leftovers are the cook’s joy, a day-after-the-party treat. So, enjoy, and with a little extra love—no more slaving, we promise—you can make even more of them.
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As you limber up for the big day, and anticipation mounts for that all-important Christmas lunch, here is a little extra inspiration and guidance to ensure that festive feast is all you want it to be.
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We are halfway to Christmas Eve—how did that happen? It is time to plan the food shopping, and what to make when, and while we can’t do your shopping or organise your diary for you, we can certainly make sure that you have all the ideas, recipes, and ingredient lists you could possibly need. Christmas ckbk-style is a tempting proposition!
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Born near Frankfurt in Germany, Heidrun Metzler’s childhood was gloriously flavored by the delicious baking of her mother, aunt and grandmother. Traditional German baking, recipes handed down through generations, and with a careful balance of sweetness, of nuts and dried fruits and buttery goodness, were a constant and a joy. After she moved to the US in 1978, and began her journey to becoming a food writer and educator, recreating those bakes, and helping others to understand and achieve fine results with her recipes, became central to her work
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For those of us longing to be festive, we officially announce that Christmas prep is on! In Great Britain the last Sunday before advent is Stir Up Sunday—November 24 this year. A Victorian tradition, this is the day to make those Christmas treats that need to be made well ahead—such as Christmas pudding, fruitcake, and the mincemeat for mince pies. Several weeks of maturing and being ‘fed’ regularly with spirits ensures they are at their tip top best when the time to serve them comes around.
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Everybody loves chocolate – we couldn’t agree more! In her new book Everybody Loves Chocolate: Delicious Recipes from Around the World, Australia-born food writer Jennifer Donovan takes an enthusiastic journey through Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas, the Middle East and Africa, gathering chocolate goodness along the way. There is a chocolate recipe here for every person and every mood.
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