British Cheese on Toast: Over 100 Recipes with Farmhouse Cheeses, Steven Parker

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Cheese on toast - a cheap and cheerful meal and the perfect comfort food for a cold winter’s day. In this book Parker elevates this humble favourite into whole new realms. The recipes are varied and offer alternative cheeses to use that can be picked up in most supermarkets (it can get pricey buying all the cheeses featured!). Split into cheese types you can head straight for your favourite or flick through until a combination catches your eye. The descriptions contain information on whether or not the cheese is vegetarian, and the index also helpfully labels them such so you can easily identify them. 

Parker’s recipes range from simple store cupboard ingredients to the more elaborate (one recipe calls for a bottle of sparkling wine!) but there’s such great variety there’ll be a recipe for every cheese lover. I’ve gone for a mix of the recommended farmhouse cheeses and supermarket bought but all recipes have been delicious. My favourite so far has to be truffle cheddar with chopped roasted hazelnuts and a little honey. 

If you can drag your eyes away from all the tempting recipes for long enough there’s also some additional information about the types of cheese and the history of cheesemaking. A recipe book exclusively consisting of cheese on toast recipes might not sound like the most inspired option, but the recipes in this book are so creative and tempting you’ll soon realise the versatility of this simple, much loved meal.

Pick up a copy:
Bookshop
Foyles
Waterstones

Doing Without Delia: Tales of Triumph and Disaster in a French Kitchen / Sacré Cordon Bleu, Michael Booth

When Michael Booth decides it’s time he learns to cook without the guidance of his favourite celebrity chefs he doesn’t take the decision lightly. Starting with a bonfire of the cookbooks he has accumulated over the years he moves his family to Paris and enrolls in Le Cordon Bleu in what he describes as ‘as noble a way of jeopardizing the security and well-being of my family as I could think of.’ Despite commenting on how not child-friendly Paris is the family seem to settle in and other than piling on a few pounds from all the rich food he brings home they don’t seem to suffer too much for the upheaval.

Despite the prestige and eye-wateringly expensive tuition fees Le Cordon Bleu is somewhat run down and offers fairly rudimentary equipment. Their tutors however, eccentric as they are, have such depth of knowledge that the experience proves to be absolutely worth it. Despite a disastrous first practical in which he slices his hand open, Booth flourishes. He doesn’t agree with all that is taught – the use of pre-grated cheese constantly niggles at him and turning vegetables never seems necessary. However, he does learn to cook without the need for recipes and in reading this book you’ll pick up tricks and tips that you likely didn’t know before.

There are recipes littered throughout, none of which I have yet tried – French cooking is not known for being vegetarian friendly, but I am intrigued by the idea of a chocolate risotto. There are some gruesome descriptions of having to decapitate live crabs and lobsters, for which he feels bad, but the taste of the final dish seems to negate any guilt he may have felt.

This is a humorous account of the author’s journey through French cooking, the camaraderie and competition with his fellow students, and at its heart a love of good food. A treat of a read for foodies and Francophiles alike.