Tom Parker Bowles

The greatest work on Thai food in the English language, this is filled with scholarship, wit, erudition and near exhaustive regional recipes.

All of the food of Sichuan is here, with history, technique and ingredients thrown in alongside the clasisc recipes. Emminently readable, elegantly written and a true taste of one of China's great regions.

Clear, precise and written in straightforward, no-nonsense prose, Hartley guides us through all aspects of English food and cookery. Good recipes and wonderful drawings too

From African to Russia, with everywhere in between, this lavishly illustrated set of books on national foods had contributions from MFK Fisher, James Beard, Julia Child and Craig Claiborne. They started in the late 60s and ran through to the 70s and give an elegant, if occasionally dated, overview of each major world cusine. Sumptous, techicoloured photograpahs as well as seperate ring bound recipe booklets. A great work of publishing and culinary scholarship

Hopkinson's prose is every bit the equal of his culinary skills, and I read this book again and again. He's a traditional cook, and has little time for erraneous modern fiddles and embellishments. But the recipes are suberb, and his words have a soft lyrical charm. He's a good mate, but that makes no difference. This is a great British classic.

THE seminal tome on the food of the American South, Egerton combines scholarship with rather lovely prose. We follow him, salivating, as he eats his way around over 200 restaurants in 11 Southern states, taking in barbeque, meat and 3, soul, creole, cajun and everything in between. Plus a big section of brilliant recipes too. A true taste of the South

If you're going to kill the animal it seems only polite to use the whole thing." Henderson is a modest master, and although the prose is as minamilist as the white walls of his Smithfield restaurant, they are filled with warmth and wit. Jason Lowe's photography is not only brilliant but quietly revolutionary too, showing hands, and half empty bowls. Then there are the recipes, for everything from bone marrow on toast to shrimps and cabbage to those magnficent madeleines. The book that put British cookery back on the world's table.

The first food book I ever bought. Those glowering snaps of MPW both scared and thrilled me. The original genius chef, swearing and smoking and saucing with equal passion. Powerful photographs and timeless recipes, this book proably did more to start the cult of the celebrity chef than any other.

There's a delicious irony in the fact that it took a British lady to help preserve many of the great regional recipes of Mexico, but it's true. Kennedy is a true hero, tramping the dusty roads and byways of Mexico to gather the recipes of the real country, those held sacred in the home kitchens across the land. They were in genune danger of dying out. She writes well, with authority and precision, and her recipes are brilliant. This tome combines her first three book and is the essential tome on real Mexican cookery.

This collection is every bit as rich and resounding as the great actor's famous baritone. Travelling around the world with his wife on endless film shoots, he visits all the great restaurants of the 60 (Sardi's, Harry's Bar, The Four Seasons etc) and includes their finest recipes. Plus hotdogs from Dodger Stadium. He's one hell of a cook, the photographs are drenched in lurid 60s colour and the book is clad in a wipe clean, faux leather binding. Magnificent.