Cookery nookery
Jennifer Paterson
Next in size is Marco Pierre White's White Heat (Pyramid, £16.95, pp.128), with photographs in simple colour for the food and black and white for glorious Marco with his streaming locks and mad moody looks. This man's food, cooking and receipts are so good that they are worth any amount of trouble and expense for a treat. There are also perfectly reason- able dishes and excellent advice on the cooking of vegetables, though I would not use a food-processor for pureeing potatoes, as they turn into glue, but I spoke to him about this and he says he uses a spud called B17 or something like that which works; but for us mortals I would use the mouli.
If you hanker for the East we have Ken Hom's The Taste of China (Pavilion, £20, pp.192 — wow). A very good range of dishes, from simple vegetable family fare to grand banquet food as cooked in different regions. Fascinating photographs taken on location, as well as of the set dishes, by Leong Ka Tai. The photographers seem to be taking over the cook books. It must be " great fun for them. Cooking Japanese-style (Martin Books, Simon & Schuster, £9.95, pp.128) is a combined effort from Mark Gregory and Yuzaburo Mogi. Style is the operative word here, not the real macoy but some very good ideas to combine with European cooking. Favourite Indian Food by Diane Seed (Rosendale Press, £9.95, pp.128) is an authentic, fairly simple book of regional receipts, most charmingly illus- trated by Robert Budwig. Lots of good stuff for vegetarians.
A very good present for any old sahibs or colonels 'who took to pig-sticking in quite the wrong way' is Curries and Bugles: A Cookbook of the British Raj by Jennifer Brennan (Viking Press, £16.99, pp.250). A fascinating collection of receipts, travels and splendid Thirties photographs. Frances Bissell's Oriental Flavours (Pavi- lion, £16.99, pp.192) 'is not a Chinese cook-
'I have problem hair.' ery book' but Chinese food cooked in England with local, available ingredients. Mouthwatering dishes, clearly set out with her usual flare for flavours and making you want to rush to the stove. Try the Chinese turkey this Christmas served with fried ginger sprouts, garlic wild rice and braised celery. That should make the folks sit up.
Now let us return to Europe. I very much fancy Cuisine Grand-Mere by Marie- Pierre Moine (Barrie & Jenkins, £14.99, pp.160). This is good old traditional French cooking as it was before nouvelle cuisine, delicious hearty dishes learnt by the author at her mother's knee who learnt them from her mother's well-staffed kitch- en in the Loire Valley. I particularly like the difference in 'Family Fish Loaf to `Posh Fish Loaf' for guests. Very pretty illustrations of old labels from food pack- ages. Another book on the same lines but garnered more from favourite chefs and their favourite dishes in the small neigh- bourhood restaurants of France is Bistro Cooking by Patricia Wells who lives in Paris (Kyle Cathie, £14.99, pp.291). Apart from the succulent receipts and useful tips (how to get sand out of cockles) there is a good list of her favourite small bistros all over France — very handy for the traveller. I can't wait to do the Smoked Haddock and crisp Spinach Salad with tiny new potatoes. Just my cuppa. Simple French Cuisine by Jenny Baker (Faber, £14.99, pp.256) is a collection of dishes from Provence and Languedoc, even in- cluding baked hedgehog in eau-de-vie fla- voured clay which she swears she has never tried. Good things to do with boar, hare and rabbit, lovely vegetables and fruit mixtures and many etceteras of delectable value.
To sum up the whole of Europe we have Elizabeth Luard's European Festival Food (Bantam Press, £14.99, pp.454), very much after my own heart with all its feast days and fast days. I shall probably quote from it endlessly in the future. A magnificent follow-up to her European Peasant Cook- ery, to be kept and cherished for every party occasion when you can't think what to do for a change.
For strictly British food, in this case Scottish, Claire Macdonald has produced Scotland (Bullfinch Press, £17.95, pp.160) from her hotel on the Isle of Skye. Expen- sive and glossy but full of first-class receipts for trad Scottish scoff. The English whop- per is Annette Hope's Londoner's Larder (Mainstream, £14.99, pp.288), an intri- guing account of food and menus from the time of Geoffrey Chaucer through Shakespeare, Pepys, Dickens, Wilde, Vir- ginia Woolf and others. Great fun and interesting, with some very original or very old-fashioned ideas for the kitchen.
Paperbacks: Le Manoir Aux Quat' Suisons by Raymond Blanc, (Macdonald, £10.95, pp.280). Wonderful book, better than the hardback — better print. Super Foods by Barbara Griggs and Michael van Straten (Dorling Kindersley, £8.99, pp.224). Healthy food for happy hypochondriacs. Nasty paper. A Table in Provence (Penguin, £8.99, pp.180). Classic food from the South of France, collected, written and illustrated by the gifted Leslie Forbes, following her Table in Tuscany. Claudia Roden's The Food of Italy (Arrow Books, £9.99, pp.218) and The Nouvelle Cuisine of Jean & Pierre Troisgros (Mac- millan, £9.99, pp.300). Both worthwhile reprints. As my grandfather used to say after the gospel about weeping and gnashing of teeth, 'let 'em gnash 'em as has 'em.'
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