Tuesday 4 February 2014

Three Favourite Food Books.

I used to commute for four hours a day, so would get through a lot of books, slightly less so now I work from home. One of my favourite things to do is to put a good ten hours in on the beach on holiday with a good book. I normally prefer none fiction (usually travel) or autobiography and even better if the book somehow relates to where I am, so reading Captain Corelli's Mandolin on a hot Greek beach works perfectly for me.

Naturally food (not recipe books) feature heavily in my suitcase and here are three recent favourites;
Blood, Bones and Butter: The inadvertent education of a reluctant chef by Gabrielle Hamilton. Almost brutal in it's raw honesty, this book totally blew me away, in fact I devoured it in pretty much one sitting. Profound, moving and truthful. The memoir of a chef but so much more than that.
Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain.
I recently re-read this and it was as good as I remembered it. Hugely popular and telling the real and eye opening story of Anthony Bourdain's work in the kitchens and lifting the lid on 'sex, drugs, bad behaviour and haute cuisine'. This book made him into a TV star but he writes beautifully too. Also recommended, the follow up 'A Cook's Tour'.
The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season at el Bulli.  Lisa Abend. The fascinating story of the apprentices who worked without pay for a season at the world's most famous restaurant. Sadly for some it was to be a disappointment but it makes for a wonderful narrative reading about people's lives and you end up really caring about what happens to them. It also gives you a real insight into the incredible attention to detail that must be observed in a professional kitchen at the highest level. Soon to be a film.
Reading an Island in Greece on a Greek island; perfect.


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