What's cooking: best new cookbooks 2017
We love cookbooks and 2017 has served a wonderful crop, which means we're spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing those we'd like to give and receive this Christmas. Coming up in our selection of the best: find out why Nigella loves Turkish Eggs; learn how to garden and cook from plot to plate; delve inside Claridge's kitchen and make mille-feuille to die-for; cook recipes inspired by your favourite novels; make Sunday supper a treat to look forward to; and enjoy a vegan cook book that's got 500 recipes from 150 countries.
Click through the gallery to see them all.
Exquisite from its eau de nil cover to the remarkable detail about the history and scale of cooking at this most glamorous of hotels where they serve 150,000 scones alone: it's not only a beautiful behind-the-scenes window into Claridge's but a volume full of eloquent recipes with the most gorgeous anecdotes.
There are chapters on breakfast (from 3 pages of detailed croissant preparation to coconut and lime protein bars), elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, those cocktails, dinner and Christmas too – including their ultimate Christmas pudding that all the staff stir.
The burnished chicken pie that is never off the menu is there, alongside lobster Wellington, as well as a definitive guide to preparing souffles and scrambled eggs. Although many of chef Martyn Nail's recipes are complex, the photography and illustration is so exquisite that it is an absolute joy to gloat over. There are some simpler recipes too, from supergreen juice to lemon drizzle cake.
Or, for those who've ever wondered, two pages are given to 'How to host dinner for 100 (or more'.
It's a book we'd happily cosy up on the sofa and luxuriate over for hours – almost as good as a stay at the hotel itself.
