Kerstin Rodgers

I love Richard Bertinet’s approach to bread. I’ve baked most of the recipes in this book and considering that most cookbooks have at most one recipe cooked from them, this is the biggest compliment I can give. All the recipes work. Whenever I read his instructions, I do it in a French accent in my head. Great photography by Jean Cazals also.

I’m always interested in female chefs and Skye Gyngell is one of the best. While her food is beautifully presented it’s not the anally retentive control freakery with tweezers and droplets that you see in male chefs food. It’s organically plated, using odd numbers, height and deceptive casualness. Her flavours and ingredients are fresh, vibrant, creative and innovative.

Nigella’s intimate, warm and humorous voice shines through in her writing. I love the fact that she so clearly loves eating. None of your Scarlet O’hara ladies don’t eat in public, have an appetite like a bird fastidiousness here. I’ve cooked extensively from this book. She’s a writer as well as a cook. Food is just the tool she uses to comment on what’s going on.

Whenever I feel uninspired, I love to turn to the same date in Nigel Slater’s Kitchen Diaries and cook something similar. All of his recipes work. He has exquisite food instincts and a down to earth, seasonal approach.

Of course Claudia Roden is one of the great poet travellers of food writing, with fantastically detailed etymological research. Plus her recipes all work. If I aspire to be anyone it’s her but I’m much more badly behaved. She’s so elegant!

Sally Butcher’s Middle eastern books have been slightly overshadowed by younger, more telegenic cookbook authors of late. But Sally is a true character, a red haired fiery whirlwind of energy, who spreads the word about great Middle Eastern food from the depths of urban Peckham. She’s a shopkeeper as well as a chef and writer and does all of them equally well. She’s funny too.

I discovered Trish Deseine’s classic chocolate book while living in France with my daughter. I was having health problems at the time and was in and out of hospital regularly which was difficult for my daughter as I’m a single parent. We gained comfort from the delicious, homely, original recipes in Trish’s book. My daughter and I would cook the recipes together, I’m sure it helped me get better.

Now fermentation is all the rage but I’ve been banging on about it for at least six years. I love a pickle, I like the taste of rotted foods, the sourness. Sandor Ellix Katz is an HIV survivor, he bristles with vim and vigour in part due to his pioneering proselytising about fermentation and its health benefits. He’s revolutionary and counter culture - after my own heart.

If you want to get a handle on how to cook an authentic curry, get this book. I’ve learnt so much from it and consider myself now to be a brilliant curry maker for an Englishwoman. She’ll explain the ingredients, the tempering of spices, the onion base, the mix of whole and ground spices, the use of kashmiri chillies which aren’t very hot but add depth of flavour. This is your handbook for curry making.

This book by the great lion-maned French chef Michel Roux Senior is brilliant like all of his series on eggs, sauces etc. The recipes are back to first principles of pastry, reliable and true with clear instructions.