Favourite recipe books

[Richard Tarleton]

I seem to recall that there is a recipe in Moro 1 for a splendiferous mushroom soup calling for sherry - yum!

Chickpeas with spinach (garbanzos con espinaccas) a staple hereabouts!

[Barbirollians]

Chickpeas with spinach (garbanzos con espinaccas) a staple hereabouts!

The fish tagine !

[teamsaint]

Chickpeas with spinach (garbanzos con espinaccas) a staple hereabouts!

that sounds jolly yummy indeed.

[amateur51]

Sorry to say that these days I just google it.....

That makes me a bad person, probably.

But Jamie Oliver is killing publishing single handedly.

Can you say a bit more about the Jamie Oliver effect please teams?

[teamsaint]

Can you say a bit more about the Jamie Oliver effect please teams?

Well the "problem", if there is one, and I think most people in publishing would say that there is, is that books such as Jamie Olivers' tend to overly dominate the market in a number of damaging ways. (and I have nothing against JO or his books).

Problem is that blockbuster books such as his are placed in all the largest outlets, both at massively discounted prices, and having had the space paid for. (and believe me, the rates are not just a few hundred quid , they are i the many tens of thousands for that kind of title.
So, for example, if you go into Waterstones, the front table space on which JO/Nigella/Sharon Osbornes books sit will have been subject to a very substantial fee, for that space. Of course, its the market, but the effect is to massively squeeze the space available for other excellent books. The discounting is also an issue for all the other booksellers retailers. If WHS/ Waterstones are retailing a big colour hardback title at £10, you can be certain that your local bookseller will be lucky if they can buy it at that price. So what is happening, in effect, is that big publishers are buying market share,and it really is detrimental to other players in the market, a market that is skewed in favour of those able to pay up from for the best retail space. Publishers Sales directors are probably guilty of short termism here, being interested in this years sales above the longer term needs of the market.

I can go on, but hopefully you get the picture.
Incidentally, there probably IS a place for discounted books of this type, to drive business into the book stores, but at the moment these kinds of titles dominate to a damaging extent.

Edit: to show that the sort of marketing practices i have mentioned above are not really in the public interest : you might be very surprised to see how cover prices can fall if print runs are increased by quite modest amounts. We can probably drop the RRP £2.00 by adding 500 copies to a print run.
And a sale of even 500 extra copies on a new hardback gives us really quite a lot of cash to re invest in better researchde books, better quality finish etc etc.

[gurnemanz]

The classic Italian cookbook is "Il cucchiaio d'argento", available in English as "The Silver Spoon". It is compendious and full of ideas. We use it a lot, e.g. a fresh mackerel recipe last night.

[vinteuil]

Mme V mainly uses a large ring-binder full of recipes collected over many years. But we also use Elizabeth David, Claudia Roden, Simon Hopkinson, Jane Grigson.

Reliable info also in 'Leith's Cookery Bible' (Prue Leith and Caroline Waldegrave), and 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' (Simone Beck, Louisette Bertholle, Julia Child).

A nice little book : 'Leaves from our Tuscan Kitchen' (Janet Ross and Michael Waterfield) "full of vegetable dishes in the Italian manner... compact, comprehensive and well-catalogued with exciting, surprisingly simple recipes..."

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1904943624

[french frank]

Problem is that blockbuster books such as his are placed in all the largest outlets, both at massively discounted prices, and having had the space paid for. (and believe me, the rates are not just a few hundred quid , they are i the many tens of thousands for that kind of title.
So, for example, if you go into Waterstones, the front table space on which JO/Nigella/Sharon Osbornes books sit will have been subject to a very substantial fee, for that space.

I was somewhat sobered on a recent post-war visit to the still relatively grim Sarajevo to find the display window of the largest bookshop there crammed with the latest Jamie Oliver (and Harry Potter) offering.

[Barbirollians]

The classic Italian cookbook is "Il cucchiaio d'argento", available in English as "The Silver Spoon". It is compendious and full of ideas. We use it a lot, e.g. a fresh mackerel recipe last night.

Not sure i agree about that - I know some Italians who think it is rubbish.

[gurnemanz]

Not sure i agree about that - I know some Italians who think it is rubbish.

We bought it after an enthusiastic recommendation in a Sunday paper, but we have formed a judgement on it not on the basis of what some people say about but by actually using it. My reason for mentioning it is that has a lot recipe ideas that have appealed to us ..... enough for us to want cook them again.

[MrGongGong]

Jack Santa Maria's: "Indian Vegetarian Cookery" is a good basic and much used in our house
(and it's a good contrast to Fergus )

[amateur51]

Well the "problem", if there is one, and I think most people in publishing would say that there is, is that books such as Jamie Olivers' tend to overly dominate the market in a number of damaging ways. (and I have nothing against JO or his books).

Problem is that blockbuster books such as his are placed in all the largest outlets, both at massively discounted prices, and having had the space paid for. (and believe me, the rates are not just a few hundred quid , they are i the many tens of thousands for that kind of title.
So, for example, if you go into Waterstones, the front table space on which JO/Nigella/Sharon Osbornes books sit will have been subject to a very substantial fee, for that space. Of course, its the market, but the effect is to massively squeeze the space available for other excellent books. The discounting is also an issue for all the other booksellers retailers. If WHS/ Waterstones are retailing a big colour hardback title at £10, you can be certain that your local bookseller will be lucky if they can buy it at that price. So what is happening, in effect, is that big publishers are buying market share,and it really is detrimental to other players in the market, a market that is skewed in favour of those able to pay up from for the best retail space. Publishers Sales directors are probably guilty of short termism here, being interested in this years sales above the longer term needs of the market.

I can go on, but hopefully you get the picture.
Incidentally, there probably IS a place for discounted books of this type, to drive business into the book stores, but at the moment these kinds of titles dominate to a damaging extent.

Edit: to show that the sort of marketing practices i have mentioned above are not really in the public interest : you might be very surprised to see how cover prices can fall if print runs are increased by quite modest amounts. We can probably drop the RRP £2.00 by adding 500 copies to a print run.
And a sale of even 500 extra copies on a new hardback gives us really quite a lot of cash to re invest in better researchde books, better quality finish etc etc.

Very sobering insights, teams - many thanks (I think)

[BBMmk2]

My wife nis my favourite recipe book! She collects some quite good ones!

[teamsaint]

Very sobering insights, teams - many thanks (I think)

Some sort of a record for typos too, although it was done in a rush on a working day. !!

As of today, Save with Jamie, RRP £26, is £9.99 at Amazon, £16.00 at Watersones, £12 at Tesco.

I would think that your local indie, if they ordered perhaps 50 might get them at around £12 net. That is an educated guess. So it would be £2 cheaper for them to buy at Amazon than from the publisher !!

Also a guess, but I had a look at a copy today, I would guess that the basic print cost of that book, even with the gigantic print run, is probably around the £3 mark.

Somebody is going to say" What about The Book People".......

[MrGongGong]

This book

http://www.cookingwithpoo.com/cook-book.html

Is highly recommended by a friend of mine (seriously )