What your cookbook collection says about you
Let our resident cooking enthusiast Chris Gordon walk you through what your cookbook collection says about you or perhaps find some inspiration for what it could.
You are part of the Melbourne culture collective ...
Chinese-ish by Rosheen Kaul and Joanna Hu
Chinese-ish celebrates the confident blending of culture and identity through food: take what you love and reject what doesn’t work for you.
In these pages you’ll find a bounty of inauthentic Chinese-influenced dishes from all over Southeast Asia, including the best rice and noodle dishes, wontons and dumplings, classic Chinese mains and even a Sichuan Sausage Sanga that would sit proudly at any backyard barbecue. There are also plenty of tips and shortcuts to demystify any tricky-sounding techniques, and reassuring advice on unfamiliar ingredients and where to find them.
Mabu Mabu by Nornie Bero
In Mabu Mabu, charismatic First Nations chef Nornie Bero champions the tastes of native flavours in everyday cooking by unlocking the secrets of Australian herbs, spices, vegetables and fruits.
Mabu Mabu reflects Nornie’s approach to cooking: simple, accessible, delicious, and colourful! Her native pantry (explored in a comprehensive glossary of native ingredients) includes seeds, succulents, nuts, plants and herbs, and her recipes range from Pumpkin and Wattleseed dampers (for which she is known) to Kangaroo Tail Bourguignon to Saltbush Butter, Quandong Relish, Pickled Karkalla and Pulled Wild Boar.
You purchase cookbooks for the pure pleasure of armchair travelling throughout the world ...
Cinnamon and Salt by Emiko Davies
Cinnamon and Salt is a collection of recipes, stories and photographs that invites you to beautiful Venice through its beloved cicchetti.
Cicchetti (pronounced chi-ke-tee) are little morsels; think of them as appetisers, aperitivo or hors d'oeuvres - but cicchetti are undeniably, distinctly Venetian and a delicious nod to Venice’s casual way of life.
In Cinnamon and Salt, Italy-based food writer Emiko Davies delves into the rich, multicultural history of Venice and its unique cuisine, detailing more than sixty classic and modern recipes, from fried to sweet and from small plates to drinks.
Milk, Spice and Curry Leaves by Ruwanmali Samarakoon-Amunugama
In Milk, Spice and Curry Leaves, Ruwan shares the rustic, tropical flavours of her Sri Lankan visits - sweet pineapple and mango, bitter gourd, toothsome cashews, spicy chili pepper, tart lime, and many more - in recipes designed with home cooks in mind.
She introduces the three pillars of Sri Lankan cuisine- coconut milk, rice, and spice, and walks readers through the steps to make the two foundational Sri Lankan curry powders (roasted and unroasted).
Your television watching inspires your cookbook collection ...
Tonight's Dinner 2 by Adam Liaw
Australia’s favourite cook Adam Liaw is back with Tonight’s Dinner 2, the sequel to his bestselling recipe collection of mighty meals for every day featuring 80 all-new recipes inspired by Adam’s hit SBS series, The Cook Up.
Tonight’s Dinner 2 provides simple, satisfying meal ideas and captures what Australians want to eat now, served with a side of Adam’s signature wit and expert advice. For everyone from busy singles to on-the-go families, this delicious and original collection takes the grind out of midweek cooking with nutritious meals that are quick and affordable.
What I Cook When Nobody's Watching by Poh Ling Yeow
Poh Ling Yeow believes that the simpler we eat, the happier we are, and in this book she shares all the things she cooks when nobody’s watching.
Reconnect with the simple pleasure of cooking for yourself and others with proper quickies, nourishing bowl food, comfort combos and crowd-pleasing feasts that take everyday ingredients to new and delicious places. Poh also shares hard-won wisdom, musings on the garden and cheeky household tips.
Your Instagram watching inspires your cookbook collection ...
Recipetin Eats: Dinner by Nagi Maehashi
150 dinner recipes. Fail-proof. Delicious. Addictive. The food you want to cook, eat and share, night after night.
Through her phenomenally popular online food site, RecipeTin Eats, Nagi Maehashi talks to millions of people a year who tell her about the food they love. Now, in her first cookbook, Nagi brings us the ultimate curation of new and favourite RecipeTin Eats recipes - from comfort food (yes, cheese galore), to fast and easy food for weeknights, Mexican favourites, hearty dinner salads, Asian soups and noodles, and special treats for festive occasions.
Around the table by Julia Busuttil Nishimura
Beloved home cook Julia Busuttil Nishimura always knows the right dish for the occasion, weather or time of day. She also understands the power food has to bring people together, whether that’s to prepare a meal or enjoy the delicious results.
With recipes ranging from quick, flavourful meals for busy weeknights to simple indulgences for summer feasts, Around the Table perfectly matches dishes to time and place.
You are an aspirational baker more than a chef. It’s your therapy ...
Lune by Kate Reid
Lune Croissanterie is one of the most talked about bakeries in the world. Customers are queuing quite literally around the block from the early hours to eat Lune’s pastries, but what makes this book so special is how Kate Reid elevates croissant pastry from a classic breakfast staple to a refined vehicle for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
With step-by-step techniques for rolling and shaping croissants, this is the ultimate guide to baking the world’s best-loved pastry.
Beatrix Bakes by Natalie Paull
For Natalie Paull, baking is a gift. It’s also a powerful elixir of pleasure, connection, generosity and joy. In Beatrix Bakes, Natalie indulges in baking’s sweetest moments with more than seventy recipes inspiring bakers of all kinds to mix and match to make recipes their own.
Sparkling with Natalie’s distinct voice, and packaged with full-colour photography, illustrations and rock-solid tips for a perfect bake, Beatrix Bakes also includes ‘Adaptrix’ suggestions and is peppered with infographics to help them follow their baking heart.
Your table is inclusive and your meals are resourceful ...
Vegan With Bite by Shannon Martinez
In Vegan With Bite, Australia’s number one vegan chef, Shannon Martinez, presents more than 80 thoughtful but easy meals (complete with shopping tips and cheffy hacks) that are guaranteed to take the meal beyond the meat-and-dairy-free predictable. It is all part of Shannon’s mission to show readers that generous, delicious and environmentally sustainable food is entirely achievable - regardless of budget.
Vegan With Bite is everything you wouldn’t expect of a book presenting winning meals on a shoestring.
The Food Saver's A-Z by Alex Elliot-Howery and Jaimee Edwards
What have you got that needs using up? Open your fridge or pantry, check what’s in your fruit bowl, then dive into these pages to turn whatever ingredients are on hand into delicious meals, side dishes, condiments and baked goods.
This timeless resource is packed with ideas and advice for reducing food waste and making great meals with what you already have, whether that’s half a jar of tomato paste, a handful of green beans that have seen better days or a whole cauliflower that looked beautiful at the shops but now gives you the guilts.
You collect stories more than recipes ...
Salamati by Hamed Allahyari
Hamed Allahyari cooks to connect - for that joyful moment you can say salamati (Persian for ‘health’ and ‘cheers’) around the table.
A restaurateur in Iran, it was natural for Hamed to gravitate to food after a long and perilous journey to settlement in Melbourne. He road-tested his dishes at hundreds of cooking classes, eventually launching his heartfelt cafe and SalamaTea restaurant. Hamed shines a light on his past in his native Tehran and continues to build an optimistic Australian future.
Beggars Belief by Gerald Diffey and Max Allen
Beggars Belief is a collection of funny, poignant, insightful and just plain ludicrous stories from Gerald’s life in kitchens and behind bars - his formative years in the UK, memories of food and family; tales and tips from forty years of service; journeys and meals, people and places, from lunch on the side of a volcano in Sicily to dinner on a beach in East Timor; stories and recipes and drinks suggestions from North Carlton and San Sebastian; vignettes, slices of life, observations.
Beggars Belief is a collection of funny, poignant, insightful and just plain ludicrous stories from Gerald’s life in kitchens and behind bars.
For the love of peace, you just want new ideas to keep the family at the table ...
Tenderheart by Hetty Lui McKinnon
In this masterwork from Australia’s most respected vegetable-loving food writer, Hetty Lui McKinnon takes readers on a vegetable-by-vegetable journey, packed with clever and inventive ways to combine ingredients, flavours and texture. With practicality, accessibility and economy in mind, Hetty devotes one chapter to each of her 22 favourite everyday vegetables, from Asian greens to zucchini. As is Hetty’s signature, the flavours are globally inspired, with an emphasis on simple yet inventive weeknight cooking.
The Joy of Better Cooking by Alice Zaslavsky
Let Alice Zaslavsky, bestselling author of In Praise of Veg, lead you on a journey to confident, intuitive cooking. This vibrant kitchen manual contains stacks of veg-forward recipes that you’ll want to cook on a weekly basis, but the real gold lies in the handy kitchen skills and know-how that will help build the foundations for a lifetime of better cooking.
The Joy of Better Cooking has all the inspiration, hand-holding and cheerleading you need to relax into the rhythm and truly enjoy cooking for your family and friends.
Feeding people is your love language ...
First, Cream the Butter and Sugar by Emelia Jackson
Make baking your happy place. It’s not so much a science; it’s practice plus play, which becomes instinct and then art. And even the failures are delicious.
Welcome to First, Cream the Butter and Sugar - the ultimate guide for everyone who loves cake. Whether you’re here for the only choc chip cookie recipe you’ll ever need, or you’re setting your sights on conquering an opera cake, a raspberry passionfruit tart or becoming a choux-master, Emelia Jackson has done the homework on behalf of us all.
COOK by Karen Martini
In COOK: The Only Book You Need in the Kitchen, acclaimed chef Karen Martini shares a lifetime of cooking, eating and learning about food. This is an essential collection of more than 1000 recipes, from old favourites to brilliant new dishes.
Karen has inspired generations of home cooks, and with this milestone book she brings us a generous breadth of cuisines and ingredients, celebrating vibrant flavours from a uniquely Australian perspective. Karen won’t just show you what to cook, she will teach you how to cook, with everything you need to prepare effortlessly delicious meals.
There is no other way to say it: you are a bit of a lush ...
The Cocktail Cabinet by Zoe Burgess
In The Cocktail Cabinet flavour expert Zoe Burgess demystifies cocktails, explaining and exploring the structures, flavour profiles and techniques used. In the first part of the book Zoe helps you understand why cocktails work, looking at the five basic tastes and other elements, including the flavour profiles of key spirits. She pulls apart classic recipes to explore their structure and explains why certain ingredients work together. Understanding these elements allows you to understand and build on your personal taste preferences, opening up a vast palette of options - including those of your own creation.
Halliday Wine Companion 2023 by James Halliday
When you think of Australian wine, you think of James Halliday. For almost 40 years, the legendary winemaker and critic has been the most trusted name in the industry, and his celebrated Halliday Wine Companion is the final word in what to drink now.
This bestselling annual sets the benchmark for winemakers, collectors and wine lovers alike, and the 2023 edition has been revised and updated over 760 pages, featuring all new scores, notes, wineries and the lastest information on ‘exceptional’, ‘outstanding’ and ‘highly recommended’ wines.