If I could, I would probably compulsively buy every cookbook or any type of food-related piece of literature ever published. Luckily, they need to be paid for with real money and since that doesn’t grow on trees, I just practise restraint. It’s a good thing they invented Wishlists, because I add everything there, ponder for a couple of months, end up making a selection and finally, a subsequent purchase.

I’ve made a list of great books I’ve recently bought or received and another of those currently in my Wishlist.

HAVE

SWEET TOOTH – This book is amazing simply because Lili Vanili (writer, baker extraordinaire and owner of eponymous bakery) is amazing. She is such an inspiration, a home-cook with no professional training, who has managed, in a very short time, to become a sensation with her impressive cake decorating skills and creativity. This book is a gem, I highly recommend it for both the amateur and the expert baker, it’s filled with great recipes, as well as tips, not to mention it’s beautifully designed and a pleasure to leaf through. And if you’re ever in London, go to her bakery, it’s great.

MY BERLIN KITCHEN: A Love Story (With Recipes)

A great memoir and a good read, filled with recipes that stem from the author’s life and the many different places she’s lived in and travelled to. There’s pizza as made by the author’s Sicillian uncle, Pflaumenkuchen evoquant of her childhood spent in Berlin or Braised Endives, a tale of young love in Paris. If you’re looking for a book that’s hard to put down, look no further.

WHISTLER’S MOTHER’S COOK BOOK or “The Bible” as her son called it, is in fact Whistler’s Mother’s recipe collection that she wrote and prepared dishes by. The first part of the book is an account of their life together, as well as Whistler’s famous breakfast parties, where such dishes were served as Potage au homard, Biftec à la Parisienne, Poulet à la Baltimore, Compote de Poires or Omelettes au Rhum. The menus were boldly signed and hand-written by Whistler himself. The second part of the book contains Whistler’s Mom’s delicious and sometimes weird Victorian recipes.

WANT

LIFE IS MEALS – A 365 day calendar worth of recipes, or as stated on the back-cover, “a book rich with culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors’ own stories of their triumphs – and catastrophes – in the kitchen.”

EAT DRINK NAP – This is probably the Remodelista book version of cookbooks – a sort of manual for considered entertaining, with beautiful photographs and recipes from the famous Soho House included.

CHOP, SIZZLE, WOW: The Silver Spoon Comic Cookbook – A cookbook and a comic book all in one? Yes, please.

  Photos courtesy of www.amazon.co.uk