The attention-grabbing books this season will be Nigella Lawson's Feast: Food that Celebrates Life (Chatto and Windus, £25) and Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners (Michael Joseph, £20). Nigella focuses on how we use food to celebrate different occasions, with recipes that range from Thanksgiving to Passover. Jamie reckons this is his most accessible book yet, getting back to the basics of how to get the best out of your kitchen and cooking without tears.
Paul Waddington's Seasonal Food: a Guide to What's in Season, When and Why (Eden Project Books, £10.99) concentrates on British food (particularly as so many crops, such as strawberries, asparagus and apples, are now produced here year round) and what to do with it. We've become unaccustomed to dealing with things like crab apples, damsons and elderberries - all featured here along with some handy tips on cooking grey squirrel.
Trattoria: Italian Food for Family and Friends (Mitchell Beazley, £20) is a mouth-watering collection of recipes up to Ursula Ferrigno's usual high standards. Dishes are drawn from all regions - mozzarella-stuffed veal cutlets from Milan, scallops with bay and rosemary oil from Naples - all with glorious pictures.
The pictures above speak for themselves for Alastair Hendy's ). The seven years Alastair Hendy has spent travelling and hunting down recipes for his Food and Travels: Asia (Mitchell Beazley, £25) have resulted in a mouth-watering collection.
The attention-grabbing books this season will be Nigella Lawson's Feast: Food that Celebrates Life (Chatto and Windus, £25) and Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Dinners (Michael Joseph, £20). Nigella focuses on how we use food to celebrate different occasions, with recipes that range from Thanksgiving to Passover. Jamie reckons this is his most accessible book yet, getting back to the basics of how to get the best out of your kitchen and cooking without tears.
Paul Waddington's Seasonal Food: a Guide to What's in Season, When and Why (Eden Project Books, £10.99) concentrates on British food (particularly as so many crops, such as strawberries, asparagus and apples, are now produced here year round) and what to do with it. We've become unaccustomed to dealing with things like crab apples, damsons and elderberries - all featured here along with some handy tips on cooking grey squirrel. Trattoria: Italian Food for Family and Friends (Mitchell Beazley, £20) is a mouth-watering collection of recipes up to Ursula Ferrigno's usual high standards. Dishes are drawn from all regions - mozzarella-stuffed veal cutlets from Milan, scallops with bay and rosemary oil from Naples - all with glorious pictures.
The pictures above speak for themselves for Alastair Hendy's Food and Travels: Asia (Mitchell Beazley, £25). The seven years he spent travelling and hunting down recipes have resulted in a mouth-watering collection.
Chef Ed Baines (Randall and Aubin) has put together a good range of recipes in Entertain (Kyle Cathie, £14.99). There are ideas for a lazy Sunday brunch, like bruschetta with ratatouille and Camembert, a great layered fajita for picnics, and lots of polenta ideas.
The Fresh and Wild Cookbook (Thorsons, £10) is not really an option unless you're near one of their branches or have a pretty good health shop near you. Ysanne Spevack has collected some interesting and very healthy recipes. Persist, because the book is very text-dense, there are no pictures and you will need to do quite a bit of restocking.
There are tons of great puddings in 100 Great Desserts by Mandy Wagstaff (Kyle Cathie, £14.99), from rhubarb filo parcels to a fabulous flour-free chocolate gateau.
Another pudding fan, Phil Vickery, includes jam roly-poly in his Proof of the Pudding cookbook (Simon and Schuster, £12.99). This mouth-watering collection includes such unusual puds as rhubarb tiramisu, loads of different cheesecakes, ice creams and souffles and some great sauces.
Recipes for Disasters (White Ladder Press, £7.99) is a handy book for kitchen newcomers. Roni Jay has divided the book into sensible sections - it won't turn out; it won't set; it's burnt; it's curdled - and covers pretty much everything that has happened to all of us (not enough food to go round, you've forgotten an ingredient, et cetera).
Ruth Binney started collecting interesting snippets 30 years ago, and her excellent pot-pourri of household tips, Wise Words and Country Ways (David & Charles, £9.99), is out this month. It's rather like an updated version of that Victorian classic Enquire Within, with food, garden and cleaning tips. A perfect Christmas present for any domestic god or goddess.
Lindsey Bareham is a master of the straight-forward recipe, and her Just One Pot (Cassell, £20) is exactly that. The range of what she has cooked in a pot is astonishing: Moroccan meatballs with peas, prawn laksa and green beans, and a fantastic vegetarian section. This would be the perfect book for a slobby student.
· To order any of these books at a discounted price plus p&p, call the Observer book service on 0870 836 0885.
