FOOD WRITING

Tender (2009) tells the story of Nigel Slater's love affair with his garden in Islington and the many seedlings he has raised in his box-hedged vegetable patches. It’s a magnificent volume, like a medieval knightly treatise with pictures of his Eden, its produce and many of the recipes he has created from them.

For me, there is an exact parallel between writing and cooking. Allowing what is already there to emerge. With simplicity, clarity and profound impact.

Learning to cook isn't about recipes. It's acquiring an instinct for food. And sometimes how to get out of trouble in the kitchen when it all goes wrong.

In 1980 Elizabeth David wrote a delightfully perverse and typically judicious article called 'The Besprinkling of a Rosemary Branch'. She finds it an overbearingly fragrant and frankly undeservedly ubiquitous herb.

An introduction to some paisos Catalan food prepared for a wedding banquet in Barcelona. Local dishes such as Escalivada, Xatonada with Romesco sauce, butifarra and faves.

Under this year's Christmas tree was F-W's River Cottage Fish Book. Like his previous Meat, respect for ingredients comes first. In the knowledge that many of us are looking down at the scales right now, fish is the answer for healthy, lean eating.

It's easy to dismiss offal.I haven't got a big repertoire. But I do like kidneys. Mounted on a couple of rounds of toasted brioche on your most beautiful plates, they are fit for a king's birthday.