Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

$27.99 AUD

Category: Writing/Reference/Essays | Reading Level: good

"Homer called it a divine substance. Plato described it as especially dear to the gods. As Mark Kurlansky so brilliantly relates here, salt has shaped civilization from the beginning, and its story is a glittering often surprising part of the history of mankind. So valuable that it has often served as c urrency and still does in places today, salt inspired the earliest trade routes across unknown oceans and the remotest deserts. Wars have been fought over salt, and while salt taxes secured empires across Europe and Asia, they have also inspired revolution - Gandhi's salt march in 1930 began the overthrow of British rule in India. From the rural Sichuan province where the last home-made soya sauce is made to the Cheshire brine springs that supplied salt around the globe, Mark Kurlansky has produced a kaleidoscope of world history, a multilayered masterpiece that blends political, commercial, scientific, religious and culinary records into a rich and memorable tale." ...Show more

Thinking and Eating by The School The School of Life

$45.00 AUD

Category: Writing/Reference/Essays

Examining the psychological impact of the way we prepare and eat food, this thought provoking book explores nutrition for the mind and body.

Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World ( Rene Redzepi ) by Jeff Gordinier

$35.00 AUD

Category: Writing/Reference/Essays | Reading Level: 5 Cooking

A food critic chronicles four years spent traveling with René Redzepi, the renowned chef of Noma, in search of the most tantalizing flavors the world has to offer. "Gordinier takes us into the fabulously obsessive realm of the world's most fascinating chef--and he does it with the voice of a poet."--Ruth Reichl, author of Save Me the Plums Hungry is a book about not only the hunger for food, but for risk, for reinvention, for creative breakthroughs, and for connection. Feeling stuck in his work and home life, writer Jeff Gordinier happened into a fateful meeting with Danish chef René Redzepi, whose restaurant, Noma, has been called the best in the world. A restless perfectionist, Redzepi was at the top of his game but was looking to tear it all down, to shutter his restaurant and set out for new places, flavors, and recipes. This is the story of the subsequent four years of globe-trotting culinary adventure, with Gordinier joining Redzepi as his Sancho Panza. In the jungle of the Yucatán peninsula, Redzepi and his comrades go off-road in search of the perfect taco. In Sydney, they forage for sea rocket and sandpaper figs in suburban parks and on surf-lashed beaches. On a boat in the Arctic Circle, a lone fisherman guides them to what may or may not be his secret cache of the world's finest sea urchins. And back in Copenhagen, the quiet canal-lined city where Redzepi started it all, he plans the resurrection of his restaurant on the unlikely site of a garbage-filled lot. Along the way, readers meet Redzepi's merry band of friends and collaborators, including acclaimed chefs such as Danny Bowien, Kylie Kwong, Rosio Sánchez, David Chang, and Enrique Olvera.   Hungry is a memoir, a travelogue, a portrait of a chef, and a chronicle of the moment when daredevil cooking became the most exciting and groundbreaking form of artistry. Praise for Hungry "In Hungry, Gordinier invokes such playful and lush prose that the scents of mole, chiles and even lingonberry juice waft off the page."--Time "This wonderful book is really about the adventures of two men: a great chef and a great journalist. Hungry is a feast for the senses, filled with complex passion and joy, bursting with life. Not only did Jeff Gordinier make me want to jump on the next flight (to Mexico, Copenhagen, Sydney) in search of the perfect meal, but he also reminded me to stop and savor the ride."- Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance ...Show more

The 2019 Good Food Guide by Myffy Rigby

$29.99 AUD

Category: Gift & Humour

The 2019 edition of this acclaimed, highly trusted national guide - the home of the hats - reviews 500 restaurants around Australia and award the best eateries from Darwin to Hobart, Melbourne to Perth, and Sydney to Brisbane. The Age Good Food Guide was launched in 1979 and The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide followed five years later. With the addition of The Brisbane Times, The Canberra Times and WA Today, the Good Food Guide is Australia's most trusted restaurant guide, compiled and edited by respected, independent critics. Reviewers arrive unannounced, pay for their own meals and are stringent judges, looking at service, ambiance, the X factor and, of course, the food. Hats are awarded to the best of the best. To achieve a hat is a pinnacle of a chef's career and a restaurant's history, and the term 'hatted' has become part of the Australian lexicon.   ...Show more

Lateral Cooking by Niki Segnit

$45.00 AUD

Category: Writing/Reference/Essays | Reading Level: 5 Cooking

'Book of the decade, if you ask me... Every cook should have it' Elisabeth Luard'What makes this book really special, just like The Flavour Thesaurus, aside from Niki's impressive expertise, is her humour and personality. It's a joy to read' OlivemagazineA ground-breaking book, designed to help creative cooks develop their own recipes, from the bestselling author of The Flavour Thesaurus. One dish leads to another...Lateral Cookingis, in a sense, the 'method' companion to its bestselling predecessor, The Flavour Thesaurus- and is just as useful, ingeniously organised and enjoyable to read.The book is divided into 12 chapters, each covering a basic culinary category, such as 'Bread', 'Sauces' or 'Custard'. The recipes in each chapter are then arranged on a continuum, the transition from one recipe to another generally amounting to a tweak or two in the method or ingredients. Which is to say, one dish leads to another: once you've got the hang of flatbreads, for instance, then its neighbouring dishes on the continuum (crackers, soda bread, scones) will involve the easiest and most intuitive adjustment. The result is greater creativity in the kitchen: Lateral Cookingencourages improvisation, resourcefulness, and, ultimately, the knowledge and confidence to cook by heart.Lateral Cookingis essentially a practical book, but like The Flavour Thesaurusit's also a highly enjoyable read. The 'Flavours & Variations' sections, for example, draw widely on culinary science, history, ideas from professional kitchens, observations by renowned food writers and personal recollection. Entertaining, opinionated and inspirational, Lateral Cookingwill have you torn between donning your apron and settling back in a comfortable chair. ...Show more

Foodist: Using Real Food and Real Science to Lose Weight Without Dieting by Rose Darya Pino

$29.99 AUD

Category: Writing/Reference/Essays

First, Catch: Notes on a Spring Meal by Thom Eagle

$24.99 AUD

Category: Writing/Reference/Essays

‘The thing to do is just begin. The question, of course, is where?’ So opens Thom Eagle’s hymn to a singular early spring meal. A cookbook without recipes, this is an invitation to journey through the mind of a chef as they work. Stand next to Thom in the kitchen as he muses on the ver y best way to coax flavour out of an onion (slowly, and with more care than you might expect), or considers the crucial role of salt in the creation of the perfect assembly for early green shoots and leaves. In an era when we are so distracted that we eat almost without realising what we’ve just put in our mouth, this is food and writing to savour, gently steering the cook back towards simplicity, confidence and, above all, taste. ...Show more

Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery World by Alice Waters Alice Waters Giles Coren

$44.99 AUD

Category: Writing/Reference/Essays

Of all the qualities that distinguish a truly outstanding restaurant or food experience, perhaps truth, love and care are the most important: a passion for creating food that is so good that it will never be forgotten; an environment that makes that extraordinary food taste even better; and a care for t he ground or water from which that food is derived and the community in which it is served. Truth, Love & Clean Cutlery identifies truly exemplary restaurants and food experiences, offering a new, kinder way of choosing where to eat. It recognises the enormous efforts our most caring restaurateurs, chefs and cooks are making to reduce carbon emissions, support their communities, and make the world a better place - plate by plate. Restaurants that care about these things aren't just good... they're good. ...Show more

The Grammar of Spice by Caz Hildebrand

$39.99 AUD

Category: Writing/Reference/Essays

Even the most enthusiastic cooks and food lovers have jars of dusty powders inhabiting kitchen cabinets long past their expiration dates. We often don't know much about them, where they come from, or how to use them. And yet, spices can elevate the everyday act of making and consuming food to a higher p lane of experience. Spices have played an intrinsic part in the human story, running through history, geography, anthropology, politics, religion, culture, art, and design. From alligator pepper seeds, which in the Yoruba culture are given to newborn babies to taste a few minutes after birth, to charoli seeds, which are used in traditional Indian desserts eaten during the festival of Holi, and caraway seeds, which were added to medieval love potions, each spice has its own significance in the lives of the people who use it. The Grammar of Spice is a practical resource for cooks that also changes the way we understand the role spices play in defining not only our food but also our place in the world. Featuring custom illustrations for each of the more than sixty spices featured here--inspired by the work of Owen Jones, one of the great designers and travelers of his time--this beautiful, informative book celebrates the world of flavors that spices open up to us. ...Show more

Summer's Lease - How to Cook Without Heat by Thom Eagle

$39.95 AUD

Category: Writing/Reference/Essays

From the author of the Fortnum & Mason Debut Food Book of 2019, Summer's Lease looks at the cooking techniques we use instead of heat which, in letting us step away from the stove, lend themselves perfectly to summer eating: breaking, salting, souring and ageing. The long dog days of a ti ring summer are no time to be a cook. A few charred sardines are of course a wonderful thing, but there the grill sits, pouring out heat into the already-hot kitchen; anyone with any sense who wants charred sardines is somewhere close to the seaside.... It is a time when you might, if you weren't so hot, wonder what it means to cook at all. Is there cooking without fire...? We understand that when we say something is cooked, we mean it has been heated; but we also understand that a cook does much more than just cooking. The chopping, the beating, the marinating, the dressing ... What cooks do is best defined not by the word 'cooking', but by the idea of metamorphosis. Cooks transform ingredients.   Through recipes and meanderings, award-winning food writer Thom Eagle explores what it means to create dishes without a reliance on fire and flame, and offers a unique and tantalising glimpse inside the mind of a chef.        ...Show more

Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste by Luke Barr

$24.99 AUD

Category: Writing/Reference/Essays

Provence, 1970 is about a singular historic moment. In the winter of that year, more or less coincidentally, the iconic culinary figures James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones found themselves together in the South of France. They cooked and ate, talked and argued, about the future of food in America, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery. Without quite realizing it, they were shaping today's tastes and culture, the way we eat now. The conversations among this group were chronicled by M.F.K. Fisher in journals and letters-some of which were later discovered by Luke Barr, her great-nephew. In Provence, 1970, he captures this seminal season, set against a stunning backdrop in cinematic scope-complete with gossip, drama, and contemporary relevance. ...Show more

Lucky Peach Issue 16 by David Chang

$22.99 AUD

Category: Writing/Reference/Essays

"Lucky Peach" is a quarterly journal of food and writing. Each issue focuses on a single theme, and explores that theme through essays, art, photography, and recipes.