| A cookbook judge reveals her top 5 cookbooks
What makes a good recipe? Kathleen Griffin should know – she ploughed her way through piles of them before settling on the Guild of Food Writers Cookbook of the Year The phone rings. It’s Caroline Yates from the Guild of Food Writers. I’ve been asked to be a judge in the awards for the cookery book of the year. I’m frantically busy in the pre-Christmas rush but judging won’t start until January and it sounds like great fun. Back from the post-Christmas break to discover piles of books waiting for me. We five judges are to establish an initial shortlist of about twenty books with sixty books to choose from. Not as difficult as it sounds, though – there is a clear division between culinary sheep and goats. So how can you tell? The duffers have clearly been thought up by committee, driven by fashion. This year: Mediterranean books, stir-fry and vegetarian, with an amazing number from Australia. Impossible ingredients are another clue. My cupboard is well stocked with herbs, spices and all sorts of unusual ingredients. So there is nothing more infuriating when looking at a recipe to find you are missing five of the ingredients. Or instructions like ‘use your own home-made reduced stock’. Not in this lifetime, pal. Celebrity chef books are tricky – chefs tend to forget that not everyone has fifteen eager assistants longing to chop, reduce sauces and wash up every item in the kitchen. Another rule of thumb – if you have to use more than six kitchen utensils, the book hits the ‘no’ pile with a firm thud. The cult of the celebrity is another personal no-no. I want my cookery books to be about cooking and I’m not hugely interested if Gary Rhodes’ ‘stomach gets upset if I can’t eat a good rice pudding.’ Sorry Gary. Then there’s cliché central. Ainsley Harriot’s ‘if you like a bit on the side’ as an introduction to a recipe for chutney. Plus photos of Ainsley Harriot reading the paper in a trendy café. Sorry, Ainsley. When you know about food, you can read a recipe like a map. That’s where the excellent books stand out. It looks great, the layout is easy on the eye and the writing makes you want to put your apron on. By the time I’ve taken out the duffers, I’m left with about thirty books, some of which are there just because they are a bit quirky. There’s Noshe Djan, a book about Afghan cooking. I really like this one because the author, Helen Saberi, is clearly passionate about Afghan food, has done a lot of research and the recipes look real. It goes on the ‘yes’ list for enthusiasm. Next page: the shortlist Time for the first shortlist. I email my list of twenty to Caroline, the chair of the award, wondering if my list will be completely different from the others. We have decided not to meet unless absolutely necessary; it seems fairer to do the judging by email. Two days later the shortlist comes back. There are six books that are clear favourites with four and five votes. Caroline suggests we eliminate all those that have two votes and less, so out goes one of my votes, The Art of the Tart by Tamasin Day-Lewis. Shame, because it already feels like an old friend in my kitchen. Now the cooking begins. I’ve decided I will recipe-test by cooking a recipe I know well and one I’ve never done before. I ring friends to invite tasters, my answer machine is suddenly full of volunteers. Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess is very good. I make the fairy cakes and they are fabulous; grown ups and children licking the icing off first with a dreamy look in their eye. Saffron and Sunshine by Elizabeth Luard is another strong contender – her chocolate mousse is a revelation – no sugar but a little orange juice and the guests that night had to be physically restrained from licking their plates. I really like the look of Flavours, a book from Marie Claire. A lot of thought has gone into the recipes laid out by prime ingredients – garlic, lemon and lime, vanilla etc. It’s full of useful information and tips. I’m a little disappointed when I cook the warm chicken and lemon couscous salad. It’s rather dry and less exciting than it looked on the page. But another recipe the pork, ginger and lime stir-fry is fabulous, as are the various chocolate cakes, with guests begging for doggy bags. I send in the next shortlist – my top three being Saffron and Sunshine, Flavours and How to be a Domestic Goddess, in no particular order. The new shortlist returns and all three of my books have made it. Now what do I do? I spend more fun hours testing recipes and finally plump for Saffron and Sunshine. It has everything I like in a cookbook; it’s well laid out, the recipes work and most importantly, they make your mouth water on the page and on the plate. But I wouldn't mind if the other two won – they are both excellent. Final email from Caroline arrives – I’ve been outvoted. Flavours will be announced as the winner at the Guild of Food Writers awards on the 12th March. So Flavours it is – fabulous layout, brilliant photography, a reader-friendly approach to ingredients and succulent recipes. Kathleen’s top five
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