Mark Mardell

Redolent of a past when olive oil was exotic and French provincial restaurants could be relied on to provide brilliant food, the point, beyond the sparkling prose from another era, is that the recipes always work. The highest praise for any cookbook author - however unlikely the technique or ingredients it works.

My wife, long before she was,saw me reading this in the office of a long dead company and we bonded over Italian food. I only occasionally consult this and its successor these days but her vibrant Italian dishes are now bred in my bone.

Fuchsia Dunlop My first experiments in cooking were with Chinese food, and it is still my default setting. Any of her books would do really but I love the spicy tingle of this cuisine and have fond memories of squatting on plastic chairs with all the family eating street food there. Fuchsia used to work for the BBC world service, and I remember being thrilled ringing from some assignment and her answering the phone - a bit like booking a satellite truck though Elizabeth David.

An erudite doorstopper in a vibrant pink cover, much stained now, teaches you the balance of Thai food. Worth simplifying some dishes but essential

Bought on a whim from a long defunct bargain bookshop in Clapham – it still has the £4.99 sticker on the front. Good stories, god recipes and lots and lots of that magic ingredient, Kimchi.

Or any of the Pok Pok books – great stories of traveling & eating his way around Thailand and regional, different take on this now familiar cuisine.

Over 20 years old now it was once cutting edge fusion – and the chilli jam and scallops is still a firm favourite.

Perhaps my favourite region of France – duck, prunes in Armagnac, more duck. Complex recipes which inspire me rather than bind me to following every last letter.

Marvellous Indonesian food, a newish acquisition, which I am steadily cooking my way through, pestle and motar in hand.

A 2020 Christmas present. This book of ‘proudly inauthentic recipes from an immigrant kitchen’ is a new friend – a glorious mix of Indian, African, British & Asian influences.