Food & Drink: Stars and Stinkers

A cookbook is always on the present list of any self-respecting foodie, but which are the real gems? Richard Ehrlich and his Cooking Guinea Pigs sort out the good, bad and incomprehensible

Looking for a cookbook to give someone as a Christmas present? Step right this way to CtB's round-up of recent, ancient and middle-aged. Some of these volumes will be given a fuller treatment - perhaps less respectful than mine - in our regular Cooking the Books column. In the meantime I've got three featured books, a handful of quicker mentions, and the winner of my Turkey of the Year Award.

Some cookbooks contain an unwritten subtext which reads: "You couldn't cook this stuff in a million years, but you've bought the book so what do I care?" The subtext in Nigel Slater's Real Cooking (Michael Joseph pounds 18.99), as in all his books, goes like this: "Anyone can cook what I cook if they buy decent ingredients and pay attention to what they're doing." Slater manages simultaneously to really teach something about cooking while conveying a sense of personality, and hedonistic pleasure. What's more, he shares plates of asparagus with his cat. The photographs which are by Georgia Glynn Smith combine pot'n'plate shots with candids of Nigel in the kitchen. I'm not 100 per cent convinced by the approach, but I like their avoidance of both the Chef-as-Action-Man style and gastroporn titillation. A truly excellent book for people who love food, rather than the glamour of food, and also good for beginners.

A welcome reissue comes from Grub Street, one of the cookery leaders, which has a handsome paperback of Colman Andrew's well regarded Catalan Cuisine: Europe's Last Great Culinary Secret (pounds 14.99). Catalans are crazy about food, and their cuisine - similar in some ways to Spain and France, but identical to neither - positively seethes with lively, bold and pungent flavours. Both the enthusiasm and the quality of the cuisine are forcefully conveyed in this excellent book, which makes for both good cooking and good reading. Highly recommended even if you've never set foot in Catalonia.

In the days when I wrote a weekly cookery column, an acquaintance praised my recipes by saying: "they all seem to have three ingredients." She was exaggerating in my case, but she wouldn't be if she were talking about Rozanne Gold's Recipes 1-2- 3 (Prion pounds 20). Each recipe in this fascinating book has precisely three ingredients, not counting salt and pepper. If you think that makes for dullness, you're wrong. I've cooked from the US edition, and while the recipes may need tweaking a little, they are essentially sound. What's more, the idea is amazingly appealing to cooks in a hurry. It may even change your whole view of what constitutes "serious" cooking.

Marcella Hazan's Italian cookbooks make most others redundant, and her new one, Marcella Cucina (Macmillan pounds 25), has apparently received the largest advance in the history of cookery publishing. I've seen the US edition and it looks nice, but at this price, I don't think it's great value. If you want something Italian, any of Hazan's other books, especially Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (Macmillan Paperbacks pounds 14.99), is a much better bet.

If you know someone who doesn't own all of Elizabeth David's books, and therefore needs an introduction to this uniquely important figure, South Wind Through the Kitchen (Michael Joseph pounds 20) is a fine place to start.

Friends and admirers of Elizabeth David have chosen favourite passages and recipes, adding comments of their own, to make a pleasantly varied compilation ranging over all of David's numerous areas of passionate expertise. A delightful book.

Marguerite Patten has written over 160 books. Her latest is called simply Soups (Bloomsbury pounds 9.99), and while there have been a few essays on this subject in recent years, this really is one of the most enticing. Stocking stuffer par excellence.

Another one for the stocking: David Burton's Savouring the East: Feasts and Stories from Istanbul to Bali (Faber pounds 9.99). This was shortlisted for a couple of prizes when published in hardback last year, and is now available in a paperback edition. Ethnic variety, informative mini-essays introducing recipes, and a user-friendly structure all make for enjoyable reading.

Cooks in pursuit of knowledge, rather than of just a good meal, should explore Claudia Roden's The Book of Jewish Food (Viking pounds 20). Some people think this illustrious author has never done anything that even approaches the quality of her ground-breaking Book of Middle Eastern Food. They had a point, until she produced this one. Learned, evocative, very well written - and eye-opening to anyone who thinks of Jewish food as salt beef sandwiches and chicken soup.

Finally, the Turkey of the Year. East West Food (Hamlyn pounds 18.99) takes a trendy topic (Pacific Rim cooking by 10 hip chefs) and turns it into a book of truly breathtaking awfulness. The prose reads like a bad translation into English "As a continent, Asia has, in the last 20 years, seen people take a great deal more interest in it." Or: "Having structured the book by influence, this arrangement is augmented by the recipes and thoughts that have come from the chefs." Good photographs are used badly to pad out a very small number of recipes. The recipes themselves range from Fine but Unexceptional (Crab Spring Rolls) to Totally Incomp-rehensible (Blue Cheese, Avocado and Prawn Sushi). This book did not need to exist. I wish it didn't.

COOKING THE BOOKS CHRISTMAS ROUND-UP

HERE ARE A FEW WE COOKED EARLIER

This year's CtB crop has thrown up some stars and a few stinkers. Here's a quick summary, courtesy of the Cooking Guinea Pigs who evaluate the books for us. Our CGP gave Tamasin Day-Lewis's West of Ireland Summers (Weidenfeld & Nicolson pounds 18.99) top marks (10 out of 10) for its accessible cooking and well-written text. The autobiographical narratives made her eager to cook the recipes, and while the book is not for people seeking the cutting edge of culinary originality, recipes that appeal to the eye - and work - are much more important than ostensibly novel effects. The Claire Macdonald Cookbook (Bantam Press pounds 25) got just seven out of 10 because of reservations about certain points of instruction and measurement, but much of the food was well received and with several hundred recipes it is exceptional value. Middle Eastern Cooking by Christine Osborne (Prion pounds 12.99) was evaluated by an expert in these cuisines who said she "liked it rather than loved it" but who gave it seven marks and called the book "a good introduction for someone new to cooking from this region." Linda Collister's Flavoured Breads, part of her "Baking Series" (Ryland Peters and Small, all pounds 7.99), got eight marks and high praise from a CGP who's a dedicated home baker. "Excellent value", she said. "With Christmas coming up this would be a good present for a keen cook." Take the hint?

Chef's books continue to emerge from eagerly competing publishers, with varying degrees of success. 150 Recipes From the Teahouse by Vivienne and Jenny Lo (Faber pounds 16.99) got only five out of 10: it's not a terrible book, and the selection of recipes is generous, but there are better sources for the cuisines of China and Southeast Asia. The Sugar Club Cookbook by Peter Gordon (Hodder & Stoughton pounds 20) did better, described by our CGP as "not a book just for the coffee table" but "a great dinner party cookbook". She gave it seven out of 10, though I had my doubts. The book makes stern demands on time and waistline and some ingredients are rare and costly. The Sugar Club is for special occasions and experienced cooks only. And even in an age of sloppy cookbook editing, the sloppiness of this one was depressing. But it was miles better than Hot Food by Paul and Jeanne Rankin (Mitchell Beazley pounds 9.99). "Even at pounds 9.99 people will expect more content, less hype," said our CGP. Lack of clarity in the recipes, messy design, impractical handling - all these earned Hot Food just three marks. "I've proved to myself that the recipes work for me, but I wouldn't buy it." Nor would I, and nor should you.