I cannot pass a bookshop. I have to go in and make a bee-line for the cookery section; I rarely re-emerge on the pavement empty handed. I am obsessed with cookbooks. I read them in bed; I read them when I'm working. I read them when I'm not working and now I have a storage problem along with an interesting menu. I am passionate about food, my particular interests in my pub being both traditional English fare and the methods used for preserving food and enhancing its flavour. Many of the techniques used in England in the past have all but died out, but are still practised abroad, particularly in rural communities. Hence this collection - which left me agonising for hours - covers food from many parts of the world. Currently there is a growing desire in this country for organic foods and a growth in the number of farmers' markets which bring fresh, local produce. It is with this move back to old ways in mind that I have chosen the following 10 books.
1 Spice, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen by Elizabeth David
(Grub Street Press, £12.99)
The doyen of post-war cookery is top of the list and takes us back to a time when English cookery was universally praised. Written in 1970, the author lists and describes all common spices and then gives detailed recipes for meat, vegetables, fish and the curing, salting, pickling and smoking while frequently quoting from books written as early as the fifteenth century. David covers the sort of food I want to cook.
2 English Food by Jane Grigson
(Penguin, £7.99)
Written in 1974, this is similar in concept to the book above. Jane Grigson observes that English food descends more from the domestic tradition and she warns against freezing, preferring instead to eat fresh food . The recipes have a delightfully rustic quality.
3 The River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
(HarperCollins, £19.99)
Having enjoyed the excellent Channel 4 television series, I bought this book as soon as it hit the shops. Hugh (above) describes growing vegetables and rearing animals, as well as cooking them, in an unpretentious manner. He also includes fish, and 'hedgerow' or wild food, which includes rook and grey squirrel .
4 Preserving by Oded Schwartz
(Dorling Kindersley, £14.99)
A mine of information. Everything from smoking and drying to pickling and bottling is detailed. I regularly use the recipes for pastrami, smoked salmon and cured ham.
5 Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management
(Cassell, £6.99)
The original 1861 version has recently been published in facsimile. Its 1,112 pages are bursting with information on everything, from boiling an egg to writing a will.
6 Smoke and Spice by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison
(Harvard Common Press, £14.50)
I love smoked and spicy food and this is the very best book on it. Barbecuing in America is long, slow cooking over smokey hardwood embers and Chris Schlesinger, chef and proprietor of the East Coast Grill in Boston, Massachusetts writes the introduction. Having eaten there this endorsement is significant to me.
7 Homegrown Louisiana Cookin' by Justin Wilson
(Macmillan £16.95)
Two of my favourite foods are moist, juicy and succulent deep-fried turkey and spicy gumbo. After deep-fried turkey no other will do. This is the book for it.
8 The Little Gumbo Book by Gwen McKee
(Quail Ridge Press, £6.21)
Gumbo - half soup and half stew - is based on a roux and innumerable combinations of fish, meat and vegetables. This gives 27 authentic recipes and is one of those books that every person who is serious about food should get hold of.
9 Culinaria: European Specialities edited by Andre Domine and Michael Ditter
(Ludwig Konemann $39)
One of a series of books on cooking worldwide, this one has everything you need to know about the regional specialities of Europe.
10 Food Lover's Companion by Sharon Tyler
(Barron's Educational Series £10.99)
My chefs and I use this almost daily, and a friend who won Young Chef of the Year this year had to have one when he saw mine. It lists everything from abalone and abacchio to zuppa inglese.
Do you agree? Tell us, in not more than 50 words, your top 10 cookbooks - a selection of which will be published next month. Write on a postcard to Top 10 Cookbooks, OFM, The Observer, 119 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3ER or email us: food.monthly@observer.co.uk.
· Nick Abbott is the owner of the Bull and Butcher in Turville, Oxon.
