Sybil Kapoor

This book always inspires me, despite the fact that I never actually use her recipes. Dorothy Hartley gives you a sense of how food tasted in an older, more rural England. Her recipes are interspersed with fascinating facts and her own quirky illustrations.

You want to cook every recipe in this book from pickled grapes to Zuni Roast chicken with bread salad. However, what makes this book remarkable is the depth of information that Judy Rodgers gave in her cooking instructions. It's a wonderful cookbook.

I have to put this out-of-print book at number 3 because I use it all the time. Chowdhary's recipes are classic, authentic Punjabi dishes and they all work beautifully from pakoras to samosas.

Still reads as fresh as when I started cooking from it in 1986. It remains a source of inspiration with her exquisite seasonal menus and I still use many of the recipes - a true test of a great book.

Still surprises me with Roden's dreamy recollections and delicious and reliable recipes. I return to it again and again.

I use an unabridged facsimile published by Southover Press Beautifully written, I always return to this book when I want to regain a sense of the simplicity and beauty of British cooking. Her recipes work, but you can just use it for ideas.

This book is filled with wonderful family recipes from preserves to picnics, but like all my favourite books, it also conveys a sense of the authors with its commentary.

I taught myself to cook with this now forgotten book. Carrier covers everything from how to crack an egg to explaining the different cuts of meat. The chapters are in order of difficulty, starting with simple starters and ending with baking with yeast. The majority of his recipes remain classics.

Remains the best book on Persian food. It is beautifully written and takes you to another place even before you've tried the first of many delicious recipes.

I have cooked my way through this book and still return to it for both information and inspiration. It is often cited in the bibliographies of other British Chinese cookbooks, but is worth studying in its own right.