Over the next few weeks, we’ll be compiling a host of gift guides to help you with your Christmas shopping.

Here, our food and gardening columnist Chris Gordon shares a quick and handy guide as to what to gift foodies this festive Christmas.

For a cookbook that will sing Melbourne…

Are you looking to buy a cookbook for an out-of-towner and want to send a very clear message that you live in the foodie capital of Australia (if not the…

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Every year our staff vote for their favourite books, albums, films and TV shows of the past 12 months. Here are our top 10 food and gardening books of the year, voted for by Readings’ staff, and displayed in no particular order.

(You can find all our best picks for books, CDs & DVDs of 2018 here.)

Family by Hetty McKinnon

Hetty McKinnon is back with another cookbook bound to be used every single day and that rejoices in…

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Special Guest by Annabel Crabb & Wendy Sharpe

If, as I do, you love a good, solid cookbook with a sense of humour and exuberance, then Special Guest is the pick of this month’s cookbook bunch. Annabel Crabb and Wendy Sharpe share recipes perfect for the home cook who is juggling an enormous range of activities but still wants to share a home-cooked meal that caters to all needs. Each dish comes from the heart and is practical and delicious!

…

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Earlier this week we tested out a selection of recipes from Silvia Colloca’s delicious and joy-filled new cookbook, Love, Laugh, Bake!, and we invited Silvia to come in and select the best one! Here are the results…

Bronte Coates made ‘Parmesan and sesame seed spelt diamonds’ (pg. 222):

If you’ve ever imagined what it would be like to forego filling and simply eat the crust of a pie – these are the biscuits are for you. A decadent combination…

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Our resident foodie Chris Gordon selects eight new cookbooks to inspire you in the kitchen this month.

The Cook’s Apprentice: Tips, Techniques and Recipes for New Foodies by Stephanie Alexander

This informative book is full to the brim with everything new ‘foodies’ need to know to become relaxed and confident in the kitchen. I would buy this book for kids who are watching food shows, smelling lime leaves and questioning what type of tofu you are buying. Not only are…

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Ottolenghi SIMPLE by Yotam Ottolenghi (available 7 September)

Every recipe in this gorgeous new book has fewer than 10 ingredients, will take fewer than 30 minutes to prepare, and will be so delicious and beautiful that you will find yourself returning to it time and time again. Ottolenghi SIMPLE is his best cookbook yet, and it’s perfect for anyone who wants cooking flair, but doesn’t actually have a lot of time. This wonderful cookbook feels like it’s been written especially…

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Earlier this week we roadtested different recipes from Hetty McKinnon’s brand-new cookbook, Family, which featuring simple, mouthwatering recipes passed down through generations and shared among family and friends.

We invited Hetty to come in and select the best one! Here are the results…

Ellen Cregan made ‘Sushi Salad’ (pg. 68):

This recipe appealed to me because it uses edamame and avocado, two of my favourite things in the whole world. This recipe was easy to make up – the…

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Family by Hetty McKinnon

Drum roll please: wonderful Hetty McKinnon is back with another soon-to-be-used-every-single-week cookbook that rejoices in gatherings and innovative, simple recipes. There are pastas to make, soups to comfort, salads that scream for crowds to enjoy and all with that familiar sense of warmth, colour and delicious tastes. There is something very liberating about McKinnon’s cookbooks and I think it’s because she understands the way families move through the week. This is a wonderful, big-hearted collection of…

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This month, our food and gardening columnist Chris Gordon recommends two cookbooks that celebrate the versatility of cauliflower and nachos, as well as a gorgeous new edition of a classic.

The Margaret Fulton Cookbook: 50th Anniversary Edition by Margaret Fulton

Our Margaret once said that she thought her recipes were so popular because ‘part of the thing that women liked about my recipes was that I would get them doing the maddest things’. Join me in celebrating the wonderful work…

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Our food and gardening columnist Chris Gordon chats with acclaimed chef and author Nancy Singleton Hachisu about her stunning new cookbook, Japan: The Cookbook.

First, congratulations on the success of your beautiful new cookbook. What a treat it is. Did it really take you three years to write and research? Was that because you wanted to include every possible part of Japanese cuisine?

Yes, it did take about three years from planning to editing: planning from Nov 2014 to…

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