We love a good book. More than that, we love a good book that knows how to weave great writing with explorations of and musings on food in all its shades. Here, we’ve rounded up five we’ve especially enjoyed over the years -- perfect summer reads to lose yourself in and, why not, inspire you to cook.
A Half Baked Idea
This recipe-filled memoir by the brilliant Olivia Potts is full of love, cake and resilience. In it, Potts tells the story of how the sudden death of her mother led her to give up her law career to train as pastry chef, fall in love, and learn to deal with grief through baking really, really good puddings.
Interspersed with recipes ranging from passionfruit pavlova to her mother's shepherd's pie, it is both heart-breaking and hilarious, life-affirming and incredibly touching.
Bookshop | Kindle | Hive
The Comfort Food Diaries
Emily Nunn's road trip-meets-food memoir about heartbreak, love and the quest for perfect food chronicles her journey to heal old wounds and find comfort in the face of loss through travel, home-cooked dishes, and the company of friends and family.
Ultimately, this is a story about finding home -- with lots of brilliant recipes along the way.
Bookshop | Kindle | Hive | Waterstones
The Gastronomical Me
A brilliant collection of essays by the even more brilliant M.K. Fisher, The Gastronomical Me centres around food but really it’s about life, stretching from the author’s childhood to her life in France, the beginning of World War II, the dissolution of her first marriage and the death of her second husband. A must-read for anyone who loves foodie-type books.
Bookshop | Kindle | Hive
Always Home
A cookbook and culinary memoir by Fanny Singer about growing up as the daughter of revered chef/restaurateur Alice Waters, this is a story of food, family, and the need for beauty in all aspects of life -- and of course, a love letter to her brilliant mother.
Waterstones | Kindle | Hive
Midnight Chicken (& Other Recipes Worth Living For)
Roast garlic and tomato soup, uplifting chilli-lemon spaghetti, charred leek lasagne, squash skillet pie, spicy fish finger sandwiches and burnt-butter brownies are just some of the recipes in Midnight Kitchen that’ll make you want to head to the kitchen and pick up a pan. But beyond its mouthwatering dishes, what we most love about this tender book by Ella Risbridger is that it’s a manifesto of moments worth living for, and a cookbook to make you fall in love with the world again.