It's bonanza time for cookery book publishers. To make sure your gift is appreciated, match the book with the cook, writes Marie-Claire Digby
More cookery books will be bought in the next four weeks than at any other time of the year. Some of them will become splattered, tattered heirlooms, relied on for inspiration and information and regularly dragged off the shelf. Others will remain pristine and largely unread, destined to gather dust.
All keen cooks have their favourites - books they cook from repeatedly and consult when in doubt. My desert island cookbook would be Nigella Lawson's How To Eat: The pleasures and principles of good food (Chatto and Windus, £18.50 in paperback), which has been my first point of reference for tasks as diverse as dealing with a brace of skinny little game birds, species unknown, at least to me (disappointing result; should have left them in the freezer until it was reasonable to dump them), to finding a use for a glut of oranges (clementine cake: ace).
Matching the book with the cook is where the skill lives in giving cookery books as gifts. There are so many on the market, and it's all too easy to plump for the latest TV tie-in and find it is neither a satisfying read nor a useful title that you might actually cook something from.
BOOKS OF THE YEAR: A three-way tie here as nothing could separate Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries (Fourth Estate, £25); Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Fizz Carr's The River Cottage Family Cookbook (Hodder & Stoughton, £20), and Darina Allen's Easy Entertaining (Kyle Cathie, £25).
Slater's intimate account of what he bought, what he cooked and with whom he ate it, over a period of 12 months, is a gorgeous book that is as visually appealing as it is beautifully written. It's an honest account, too. Who could resist a cookery book that contains the following passage: "March 3: In my smug haze of good housekeeping from yesterday's baking session, not to mention my arch disdain for factory-produced foods, I fail to notice there is bugger all to eat in the house. At seven-thirty I dash to the corner shop, returning with a tin of baked beans, a bag of oven chips and some beers."
The River Cottage Family Cookbook is a triumph. Designed as a book that "everyone in the family can pick up and use", the cartoon strip-style picture layouts will grab the attention of younger readers, and the range of recipes is broad enough to interest more seasoned cooks, too.
Despite competition from her daughter-in-law, Rachel Allen (Rachel's Favourite Food For Friends, published by Gill & Macmillan, €19.99), Darina Allen shows just who's the master with her latest book, Easy Entertaining (Kyle Cathie, £25), which goes much further than its title suggests and is a bright, user-friendly book that you'll consult repeatedly, and not just for party ideas.
TV TIE-INS Follow Rick Stein's journey by barge along the Canal du Midi, from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean in Rick Stein's French Odyssey (BBC Books, £20); Discover what happened when John Burton-Race brought his family home from self-imposed exile in France to renovate a restaurant, The New Angel in Dartmouth, in Coming Home (Ebury Press, €20). It's almost impossible to turn on the TV these days without catching a Gordon Ramsay programme, and his prolific output for the year also included a book, Gordon Ramsay makes it Easy (Quadrille, £19.99), in which the taskmaster relaxes a little and adapts his food to the home. Also on the home front, you can be ahead of the posse by picking up a copy of Antrim writer Jenny Bristow's Taste of Sunshine (Beeline, £9.99) in advance of the series starting on UTV on December 15th.
EASTERN COOKERY BOOK OF THE YEAR Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon by Claudia Roden (Michael Joseph, £25). This is armchair cookery at its best. Roden writes about how cooking in these countries has evolved since she introduced us to them in the 1960s, and pairs contemporary recipes with fascinating historical background.
SURPRISE HIT OF THE YEAR Although not a new book, Roast Chicken and Other Stories by Simon Hopkinson, with Lindsey Bareham, (Ebury paperback, £12), first published in 1994, hit the bestseller lists again when it was voted most useful cookery book ever, by a panel of chefs, cookery writers and restaurant owners. If you like Hopkinson's style, check out Gammon, Spinach and Other Recipes (Pan, £6.99), a collection of recipes from his food column in The Independent.
IRISH BOOKS OF THE YEAR In addition to the Allen dynasty, several other well-regarded Irish chefs brought out books this year. Paul Flynn's witty and original writing shines out from Second Helpings: Further Irish Adventures with Food (The Collins Press, €27.99), and Kevin Dundon's Full On Irish: Creative Contemporary Cooking (Epicure Press, €25) is the other Irish-published must-have of the year. The most popular recipes his three previous books have been incorporated into Neven Maguire's Cookery Collection (Poolbeg, €19.99).
DISAPPOINTMENT OF THE YEAR Jamie's Italy (Michael Joseph, £20). Far too many full-page photographs of Jamie posing moodily, Jamie talking Italian, and Jamie charming the grannies. Not enough original recipes that his loyal followers will actually cook. Leave this one on the shelf and instead pick up The Silver Spoon (Phaidon Press, £24.95), the bible of Italian cookery, first published in 1950 and now available in English. The only Italian cookery book you'll ever need.
BOOK IT FOR A GOOD CAUSE Charity begins at home, so pick up a copy of Real Food for Real People, a collection of favourite recipes and glorious photographs from residents of the Wicklow community of Moneystown, published to raise money for their school building fund. (A bargain at just €10 from Wicklow bookshop or www.moneystowncookbook.com).