Lola's List of Favourite Cookery Books

Having just written a 'Blog at Bardies' post about building a 'biblioteque' at Bardies, I was minded to embellish my cursory references to our collection of cookery books. Strictly speaking, rather a large number of them are in the kitchen or on the dresser in the 'salle a manger', rather than on the library bookshelves. They are, nevertheless, part of my grand project. If guests are going to have a go at cooking 'chez nous', they need inspiration. And, anyway, so many cookery books nowadays are beautiful things to treasure, as well as drool over.

I have always wanted to have a little cookery school at Bardies, running maybe half a dozen short courses each year, where clients hone their new skills sharing in the food preparation and cooking of our legendary long lunches and dinners - team spirit and all that. I still dream of a suitable space, especially as the budgets for the restoration of our huge barn have scaled even greater heights. 'Il y a le reve et la realite!' Perhaps, I will brave it and go for a small, select group of guinea pigs under the tutelage of someone more professional than me, ideally a patissier or charcutier, and see how we go. But I digress.....

Compiling this list took days, not least because I kept changing the criteria upon which it was based. 'Favourites' was a favourite, followed by 'most used', 'best read' and 'prettiest pictures'. The world of cookery book publishing has changed so much since my mother-in-law first starting buying them for me for fear that I might fail to live up to her exacting standards. For one thing, few of them had pictures and those that did looked as though someone had taken them with a Box Brownie. Our first 'dinner parties' were created with recipes from Robert Carrier's, 'Cooking for You' [1973] and Marguerite Patten's, 'International Cookery in Colour' [1973], which were illustrated, and Julia Child et al's, 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' [1961], Elizabeth David's, 'French Provincial Cooking' [1960] and Jane Grigson's 'Good Things' [1971], which were not.

Amazon has revolutionised our book buying habits and it is no coincidence that so many books on my list have been published relatively recently. The rise and rise of the so-called celebrity chef has also altered the way we buy cookery books. I have to nail my colours to the mast here and say that I am seldom impressed with hastily published books designed to tie in with a massively hyped TV show. I don't want a recipe compilation with a famous name on the cover. There is not very much that is new in food that I would have the inclination to cook. I'd rather save up and go to 'The Fat Duck', 'El Bulli' or 'Noma' since, after all, for the famous chefs that run them, it's as much about theatre as food. No, I just want a good read, and some lovely photographs. So, here, goes:

'French Provincial Cooking' [Elisabeth David [1960]
'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' [Julia Child, Simone Beck, Louise Bertholle [1961]
'Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery' [Jane Grigson [1967]
'The French Menu Cookbook' [Richard Olney [1970]
'The Observer French Cookery School' [Anne Willan and Jane Grigson [1980]
'European Peasant Cookery [Elizabeth Luard, 1986]
'I Risotti' [Anna del Conti [1993]
'Tamarind and Saffron' [Claudia Roden [2000]
'How to be a Domestic Goddess' [Nigella Lawson [2000]
'A Celebration of Soup' [Lindsey Bareham [2001]
'Moro, The Cookbook' [Sam and Sam Clark [2001]
'Second Helpings of Roast Chicken' [Simon Hopkinson [2001]
'Seafood' [Rick Stein [2001]
'Pasta Cooking' [Diana Seed [2002]
'The Art of the Tart' [Tamasin Day Lewis [2003]
'Goosefat and Garlic' [Jeanne Strang [2003]
'Ultimate Curry Bible' [Madhur Jaffrey, 2003]
'The Handmade Loaf' [Dan Lepard [2004]
'Falling Cloudberries' [Tessa Kiros [2004]
'The River Cottage Meatbook' [Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall [2004]
'My Cookbook' [Gerard Depardieu [2005]
'The Oxford Companion to Food' [Alan Davidson, 2006]
'The River Cafe, Puddings, Cakes and Ice Creams' [Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers [2006]
'The Concise Larousse Gastronomique' [2007]
'Ballymaloe Cookery School' [Darina Allen [2007]
'Citrus and Spice' [Sybil Kapoor [2008]
'Terrines and Verrines' [Franck Pontais [2008]
'Warm Bread and Honey Cake' [Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra [2009]
'Tender' [Nigel Slater [2009]
'Plenty' [Yotam Ottolenghi [2010]

I could put them in a different order, but that would require an even greater degree of subjectivity. It is not, I hope, a pretentious list, but rather, a list of exceedingly useful books in which to delve for inspiration. I apologise for the lack of books on oriental food, which I love too, but seldom cook at Bardies - I leave that to my darling friends over at Rieucaze! I love everything by Elisabeth David, Elisabeth Luard, Jane Grigson, Anna del Conti, Diana Seed, Claudia Roden, Nigel Slater and Nigella, and could have selected different choices if my mood on the day had been different.

Right now, if I had to choose just one book, it would be 'Plenty', because Yotam embodies everything that has moved on since I first began to cook in 1973. He is a genius and a cultural icon, and I love everything he stands for. Tomorrow? Who knows? Doubtless, many people will have better lists, but this one is mine.....and it's for Bardies. C'est tout!