Best 20 Cookbooks of 2004

[Ishbel]

Clarissa's shop - The Cooks' Bookshop in Edinburgh's Grassmarket is a veritable treasure-trove of all kinds of books to do with food. CDW is often there if she is in the city.

She has recently brought out a new book about Game cooking - the book is the result of a BBC TV series starring her and an old friend of hers, Johnny or Tommy someone.... Amazing old duffers, who stride about Scotland in all weathers, hunting, shooting and fishing...!

[mudbug]

I hope that series comes to US television. Loved her and Jennifer Paterson on the Fat Lady series (bit of an anglophile here). I do so enjoy your recipes, Ishbel!

[Ishbel]

Here's a little more from the BBC website about 2 of the series from last winter.... CDW's and the Friends for dinner programme. The CDW programme has her doing a little cooking as well as looking at the countryside and how food is produced in the UK. Maybe BBCAmerica may show them?

------------------------------------------------------------------
Friends For Dinner brings top name chefs Jamie Oliver, Rick Stein and Gary Rhodes to the homes of ordinary people to help them as they prepare a meal for a special occasion … fine whilst Jamie and co are there, less fine when the guests are due and Jamie has long since gone!

And cook Clarissa Dickson Wright is also back - this time pursuing a different passion, as she sets about covering country matters in Clarissa and The Countryman. Teamed with new screen partner and friend of 40 years, Johnny Scott, they travel the length and breadth of the UK to take a very personal look at all things rural - from lambing and conservation to farming.
___________________________
I'm glad you like my recipes - many of them have been handed down in my family for over nearly 200 years - my 'receipt book' has entries from 1816 - and the handwriting is beautiful script!

[kyles]

I notice Toast by Nigel Slater is on the list, it's an autobiography, and it's wonderful, funny, a bit shocking and very entertaining. I bought Feast by Nigella Lawson, and adore it.

Ishbel, Clarissa's bookshop is no more, she is declaring bankrupt and has been shedding assets (she has done this before) and liquidated the shop, didn't sell it as a going concern. She hasn't ruled out opening another one some time, but unfortunately, it's gone. I never got to go there.

Interesting that Fergus Henderson's book "the Whole beast" is renamed in America. In England it is published as Nose to Tail Eating!!!

I am reading Nigel Slater's Appetite, which is a cookbook unlike his autobiography which doesn't have a recipe in it, and am enjoying that just as much!!!

[Ishbel]

Goodness, Kyles, I can't believe the shop didn't make money! It was always so crowded when I was in there! I bought lots of books from the shop, but have realised that I haven't been near the Grassmarket since before the beginning of the tourist season... The crowds just do my head in... Perhaps that was the trouble - too many tourists who obviously don't want to buy heavy books to have to declare as excess baggage on their way home - and the 'natives' avoiding the centre of the city like the plague between Easter and October!

[Catseye]

Originally Posted by buckytom

ishbel, i loved the 2 fat ladies. they cooked such good stuff, and their shows were fun. i loved the way they described the dishes they were serving near the end of the shows.

Roger that! I loved watching their prep (and their often hilarious exchanges), I loved watching the diners tuck in with such great enjoyment, and of course, no show was complete without some shots of the famous Fat Ladies Motorsickle. :)

[Catseye]

Originally Posted by PA Baker

Just posted on Leite's Culinaria:

http://www.leitesculinaria.com/features/best_2004.html

Oh, I want 'em all. It's been too long since I've bought [/i]any, and I'm like the bull in the starting chute, buying-cookbook-wise.

I especially want Indian Home Cooking and Marcella Says .... And being an art deco phreak, I'm totally loving the cover of Bouchon.

Why do you suppose Pepin's Fast Food My Way didn't make the cut?

Thanks for the post, PABaker!

[kyles]

I think the shop was fine, Clarissa has lost money on other ventures, and to declare bankrupt you have to get rid of all your assets, she is either very dumb or exceedingly clever. I was very disappointed, as I have never been there, and was going to make a special trip on the train last summer.

[Ishbel]

Kyles
When she still lived in London (prior to her 2FLs programmes) she worked at the Books for Cooks shop - she could be SCARY......

I attended a couple of cookery courses there when I lived down South for a while. They were usually held on a Sunday with chefs/cooks, including Sonia Stevenson (I've got her Saucery book, excellent!)

Here's a little bit of info re their 'restaurant' (fancy name for a small space!)
http://www.london-eating.co.uk/2490.htm