If you are after an instant impression of American food as a whole, you should also consider The Dean & Deluca Cookbook by David Rosengarten with Joel Dean and Giorgio Deluca, Ebury Press, pounds 25. Beautifully presented, Waters has divided the book alphabetically into home-grown vegetables. Her latest offering, Chez Panisse Vegetables, is also excellent. A book to return to again and again.Chez Panisse Vegetablesby Alice WatersHarperCollins, pounds 30 (US import)Alice Waters is the Elizabeth David of America. In 1971, inspired by her travels to the South of France and David’s writing, she opened her restaurant, Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California.
It was an immediate success and books followed, the most famous being The Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook (HarperCollins), currently out of print. Waters’s books have led chefs from all over the States to source their own ingredients and challenge the preconceptions as to what constituted modern American food. This captures the essence of Californian cooking through a succession of inspirational seasonal menus. Intense lime- and chilli-flavoured prawn salad, aromatic red beef curry or baked custard squares made with coconut milk, are all equally delicious.
Having dealt with the “fundamentals”, she gives a selection of Thai menus before launching into the recipe chapters which begin with starters, and snacks, and end with drinks All the recipes are clear and easy to follow. Nor would your trust be misplaced, for her recipes taste superb. Small and densely written, there is not a glossy photograph in sight and worse still, its author is American not Thai. Nevertheless, Jennifer Brennan’s evocative writing allows the reader to smell, hear and see Thailand. You cannot help but trust her as she describes her experience of living there and her efforts to recreate Thai food in California. Many of the recipes, such as sake-simmered mackerel or foil-cooked enokitake mushrooms, can be easily integrated into a western diet.Thai Cookingby Jennifer BrennanWarner, pounds 4.99At first glance, Thai Cooking, first published in 1981, does not fill one with confidence. You know your tempura is going to taste superb and success brings confidence to experiment further.
As soon as you start to read the first chapter explaining The Japanese Meal, you know that you are in the hands of a writer who makes everything sound simple, attainable and delicious. Every aspect of Japanese cooking is explained and where you might be in any doubt, line drawings are added for further clarity. The book is divided into two; the first part begins with Japanese ingredients, utensils, knives and basic cutting methods, before going on to each Japanese technique such as simmering, deep-frying or making sushi Each is accompanied by dozens of recipes In the second part, the recipes are more advanced. In true Jaffrey style, the text is coloured by her warm, romantic love of the country, but that does not stop her from being suitably practical.
As always, she includes notes on ingredients at the end of the book.Japanese Cooking: a Simple Artby Shizuo TsujiKodansha, pounds 29.99First published in 1980, this is the bible of Japanese cooking for western chefs. There are lots of photographs of India, Indian art and food, just in case your enthusiasm wavers. She divides the book into the different gastronomic regions, each chapter begins with an evocative introduction and follows with typical indigenous recipes, such as chickpea flour stew with dumplings from Delhi or Kashmiri spinach. Chapters are divided into the components of a meal: antipasta or salads, for example.