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Risotto with Nettles: A Memoir with Food

Author: Anna Del Conte
Hardback: 336 pages
Publisher: Chatto & Windus (July 2009)
Price: approx. 14 Euro

For those who know her books, Anna del Conte is the doyenne of Italian cookery writing. Arriving in Britain in the 50s, she inspired a new generation of cooks with the different tastes, smells and manners she brought with her from her native Italy. Now in her Eighties, she has written an honest and personal memoir that, in the beginning, recollects life under Mussolini and imprisonment for anti-fascism. When war came to Italy everything changed dramatically. Her family had to leave their apartment in Milan for the countryside, where  the peasants still ate well, but life was also tense. Anna del Conte’s story is informed and enlivened by her memories of food - from lemon granita in childhood winters to wartime risotto with nettles, from vitello tonnato to pastas and porcini. She writes of the local tradition to open their houses and offer “foreigners” a warm welcome in the shape of food and wine. “It was always at the tables of the locals that we had the best meals in Tuscany”, she recalls. “For example chunks of local salame with focaccia, hare cooked Tuscan style in a sweet and sour sauce”. She left Italy in 1949, married an Englishman and stayed on. Much of Britain was a culinary wasteland then, and Anna del Contes’s memories of the time are vividly preserved – from the joys of un-rationed horse meat to tomato soup at Lyons Corner House.  Each chapter is rounded off with recipes.

Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey

Author: AnnRick Stein
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: BBC Books (July 2009)
Price: approx. 28 Euro

Far Eastern Odyssey is an epic culinary journey that  takes the reader along rivers, through jungles and around coastlines to explore the diverse food cultures of South East Asia. Along the way, Rick Stein visits traditional family-run restaurants, street vendors, floating markets, night markets, fishing villages, and the local cinnamon and rice farmers. In Cambodia, he discovers the joys of freshly caught swimmer crabs cooked with green peppercorns. He learns how to cook the most famous dish in the country, fish amok, made with lemongrass and coconut, and he samples Lok Lak, a popular and delicious dish made with stir-fried strips of marinated beef.  In Vietnam he is shown the best recipe for Pho Bo, a Vietnamese beef noodle soup. In Thailand, he tries Geng Leuong Sai Gung Lai Sai Bua, a yellow curry made with prawns and lotus shoots that is impossible to find outside the country. The book includes over 150 recipes from Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Bali,  each complemented by Rick Stein's colourful anecdotes from the trip and beautiful on-location photography. He brings to life the stories which surround each dish and explains the cultural significance and tastes in such an evocative way you feel as though you are sharing a meal with the author.

Creative Space: Urban Homes of Artists and Innovators

Author: Francesca Gavin
Hardback: 208 pages
Publisher: Laurence King (May 2009)
Price: 22 Euro

Creative Space looks at the homes of  designers, stylists, writers and artists who have attempted to push the boundaries of contemporary culture. These are interiors created by people who love the cult shop “Colette” in Paris, live on the Lower East Side in New York and know the best stores in Tokyo. Filled with post-modern pop collectables, vintage junk finds, graffiti, clothing and toy collections, contemporary art resting in bookshelves and crammed onto walls, these homes strongly reflect pop culture and are an antidote to the sterility of minimalism. The book goes through the interiors city by city. Among the 30 interiors featured  are those of Barcelona architect Juan Redon, Paris artist Artus de la Villeon, New York graphic designer Corliss Elizabeth Williams, Berlin gallerist Johann Heahling von Lanzenauer and Tokyo's cult photographer Yasumusa Yonehara and artist Aya Takano. Each is at the forefront of the creative world, and the spaces they inhabit and work in give a real image of today’s avantgarde.

Homemade: Gorgeous things to make with love

Author: Ros Badger and Elspeth Thompson
Hardback: 288 pages
Publisher: Collins (April 2009)
Price: 22 Euro

Once upon a time “homemade’’ was shorthand for dowdiness and drudgery, with shopping the preferred national pastime and making your own seen as second best. Not so nowadays. Creating things – whether sewing, cooking from scratch, or making clothes – is firmly in fashion, with celebrities as keen to be snapped with their knitting as they were with a yoga mat. This book encourages readers to develop a new mindset: To use what they already have, to begin saving fabric and buttons from favourite old clothes and ribbon from unwrapped presents, to keep a button box, to squirrel away wrapping paper and upmarket carrier bags. And whether to cook chutney, make cushion covers or decorate a Christmas tree - there are over a hundred ways of adding individuality to your home and to the things you give as presents. Many of the ideas are incredibly simple and can be done in minutes; some are more of a labour of love; all have clear instructions and accompanying photographs. “Our homes become havens in times of global uncertainty”, comment the two authors. “Knowing we have the skills and resources to make things of use and beauty  – without costing the earth – can be a source of comfort and pleasure”.
Here’s to Homemade.