My Favourite English Cookbooks

Forget Nigella. After her latest book, she´s out: it is only a compilation of her recipies taken out of her former books and meddled with a bit. I have read all her books and have cooked some of her food, nice, but then not really mindblowing. And I do not like to get served the same aahs and oohs 54 times again and again.

My children can´t stand her any more - and they are avid viewers of "The Great British Menu" - we all sit religiously  every day in front of the telly and watch this 30 minutes - already in our 3rd season.We have favourites and we can judge. Can´t wait, that it starts again - now, in April? Will have to look it up. I even dare to come 5 minutes late for the choir rehearsals in April and May....

As I have already promised, I will be kind and share with you my really really favourite cookbooks - this time the english ones - basically there are three authors and their works. Sorry to say, that they are all women:  Anna del Conte, Elizabeth David and Diana Henry.
But this woman thing is pure coincidence. What all three of them have in common is this:

•  recipes are simple, never a too difficult ingredient, no need to weigh 12,7 grams of those rare chinese mushrooms you get only in a special market in New York. Here, things are what they are and mostly not too many ingredients are needed.
• all three of them are a tremendous read - best of all, of course, Elizabeth David. I am happy with a cookbook on my lap instead of a newspaper on a lazy saturday morning. Not so many dead people and catastrophies...
• the pictures are lovely and so appetizing, that you would like to throw yourself in your kitchen, put this sleeves up and and get going this instant
• the food is simple, clear, appetizing and do-able, even for such a terribly lazy cook like me.
•  the food looks truly beautiful - important for me in any case: it makes want to eat it all!
•  no TV shows, not celebrity humdrum about those three ladies - long live the understated professional.

Elizabeth David I discovered in a turkish bookshop in Ankara, 10 years ago, in a box with used old books. It was "A Book of Mediterranean Food" and I enjoyed it so much, that I in time got all her books and have read all of them.  I have even read her biography, "Writing at the Kitchen Table" - what an interesting character and what an adventuress she was. What I adore in reading her, is her ability to chat to you - never being pedantic, never tell you what to do, always suggesting and never being too precise on the ingredients - this is possible, and that. No difficult measurements and no fuss. And she loves wine. What else do I need?
Recently there is a compilation of "Her very best everyday recipes" under the title "At Elizabeth David´s Table" - have a look at it, the photographs are delightful and of course, it is again a Penguin Book.

Anna del Conte is italian but has been living in England for most of her life. She writes with so much heart about her memories and love of italian food, that you want to hug her. This is for me the ultimate italian cookbook: "Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes, The Best of Anna del Conte" - alone the title is a hit. No pictures here to wet your appetite, but it is so well written, you learn so much, that it is one of my favourites by far. Cosy and lovable, delicious, most inviting and never ever boring. A great italian Mama.

The youngest of those three Ladies is Diana Henry. The first book I bought from her was a wintery cookbook - "Roast figs sugar snow - food to warm the soul" - and this is exactly what you get. I ordered it simply because the cover was so beautiful - and what a nice surprise it was!! Her cooking is again not haute cuisine, but feasable good food, looking good and tasting even better. I then bought "Cook Simple" and there is a new one, which I have not yet studied, called "Food from Plenty". She is different from the others, as she marries very different sources together - food from Georgia, from the old Austrian Empire, very european indeed, very relaxed.

Good food should be no stress, but a joy. This is a manifesto that more people should write behind their ears...