Welcome the first monthly roundup of the best upcoming and recently published food and drink books. This month we have established and exciting new voices; a breakfast-related travelogue and books filled with recipes that evoke a sense of home and of faraway places.
First published as Wine, A Life Uncorked in 2005, this is a new edition of Johnson’s “memoir written with a corkscrew”. It has been “modestly edited and gently updated,” as Eric Asimov writes in the Foreword, and Johnson’s lucid, evocative prose shines as brightly as ever.
Early chapters cover his emergence from Cambridge, where his passion for wine was sparked, his rise through the ranks as a young journalist and his steady evolution into a leading wine and gardening writer. Later chapters take the reader on a ride through the decades, from classic Bordeaux and Burgundy vineyards, through Europe and across to California and Australia, leaving them with a newfound (or reaffirmed) appreciation of wine’s incomparable subtleties and complexities.
Price: £30; academieduvinlibrary.com (out 27 June)
First published as Wine, A Life Uncorked in 2005, this is a new edition of Johnson’s “memoir written with a corkscrew”. It has been “modestly edited and gently updated,” as Eric Asimov writes in the Foreword, and Johnson’s lucid, evocative prose shines as brightly as ever. Early chapters cover his emergence from Cambridge, where his passion for wine was sparked, his rise through the ranks as a young journalist and his steady evolution into a leading wine and gardening writer. Later chapters take the reader on a ride through the decades, from classic Bordeaux and Burgundy vineyards, through Europe and across to California and Australia, leaving them with a newfound (or reaffirmed) appreciation of wine’s incomparable subtleties and complexities.
Price: £30, academieduvinlibrary.com (out now).
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is not just a tourist attraction: it’s an important international scientific organisation conducting research into sustainability, conservation and plant diversity. Proceeds from the sales of this book will help support Kew’s work – including to help identify the food crops that hold the most potential to feed a hungry world experiencing climate change.
Enjoying cooking with vegetables and fungi, and expanding and celebrating their diversity, is the book’s theme. Edited by London-based food writer Jenny Linford, the 67 meat-free recipes have been gleaned from influential food writers such as Elisabeth Luard, Chetna Makan and Meera Sodha.
Price: £20, Kew Publishing (out now).
Ottolenghi acolyte Ixta Belfrage has family roots in Brazil, Mexico and Italy (she happens to be the daughter of Bronx-born wine writer Nicholas Belfrage MW). The influences of those countries account for the brave, bold flavours that characterise her cooking. Ixta worked for Ottolenghi Test Kitchen for five years and, with Yotam, co-authored Flavour in 2020.
Her first solo cookbook, Mezcla, is a glorious mash-up of tastes and textures, bright colours and bold flavours. Ingredients such as Brazilian azeite de dendê (red palm fruit oil), Calabrian chilli paste, miso and maple syrup come together on the same plate – and it really works. There’s an emphasis on vegetable-first recipes and cooking instructions are kept short, too.
Price: £26, Ebury Press (out 7 July).
A collection of foodie essays and recipes from Telegraph columnist Debora Robertson – written before she made the life-changing move from north London to the south of France.
Robertson writes like a dream and it’s easy to get lose track of an hour or two reading her musings on everything from ‘Why everyone hates picnics’ to ‘How living in Soviet Russia taught me to cook’. Her recipes are for the sorts of things that people really, really want to eat: Cheddar, Chive and Marmite Scones, Duck Parmentier, Halva Ice Cream with Sesame Brittle…
Price: £26, Michael Joseph (out 7 July).
In the follow-up to One Croissant for the Road, the Guardian columnist Felicity Cloake sets out on a two-wheeled gastro-adventure, munching her way across the UK, from South Wales to the Scottish Highlands.
Cloake’s writing is wry, wise and sharply well-observed. This writer can really tell a story. That storytelling cleverly wraps its way around some of Britain’s top breakfast-time produce (black pudding, butter, honey…) and the text is peppered with best-meal-of-the-day favourites such as Omelette Arnold Bennett, Buttermilk Pikelets and Marmalade. It’s a great yarn, carefully researched and funny too.
Price: £16.99, Mudlark (out now).
Ukrainian-born Olia Hercules’s fourth cookbook is her most personal and heartfelt yet. Written during Covid lockdown, when staying at home wasn’t so much a choice as a (legally enforced) necessity, it’s full of pleasingly simple family recipes and beautifully written essays. To make it in, the recipes had to pass Hercules’ two vital tests: ‘the test of universal deliciousness’ and ‘the cooking enjoyment factor’. That it was photographed by Joe Woodhouse, Hercules’ husband (and also a food writer) makes it even more intimate.
Trickier techniques from recipes such as Sardinian Ravioli and Walnut Esterhazy Tart have clever QR codes that bring them to life through short videos you can watch on your smartphone. A warm bath of a book.
Price: £26, Bloomsbury Publishing (out 7 July).
