bunyip's Reviews
Cookbook Reviews
106 books reviewed. Showing 1 to 50Sort by: Rating | Title 
50 Fabulous Chocolate Cakes
By Rita Erlich
Anne O'Donovan - 1995
A little gem! No doubt long out of print and worth squillions despite the smeared pages. Most of the recipes were originally printed in 'The Age'. Each recipe is attributed to an author and haa a little story attached.
The Age Epicure: Winter
By Stephanie Alexander, Brigitte Hafner, Jill Dupleix
Fairfax Books - 2006
Another replacement for yellowing newspaper cuttings.
Arabella Boxer's Book of English Food: A Rediscovery of British Food From Before the War
By Arabella Boxer
Penguin - 2012
Revised version of the original 1991 edition. This wonderful book is part history, part memoir and part recipe book. Her anecdotal style is like that of Nigel Slater, but all the recipes are sourced from books of the period.
Boxer's thesis is that English food's generally poor reputation is unfair. After the First World War there was a shift away from stodgy Edwardian cuisine, driven by shortage of servants and the introduction of modern cooking equipment. The momentum was lost, and not recovered until very recently, with the vogue for successive foreign cuisines that began after the Second World War.
Arabesque: Modern Middle Eastern Food
By Greg Malouf, Lucy Malouf
Hardie Grant Books - 2002
Malouf pioneered Middle Eastern fusion food in this country, and this was his first cookbook. Recipes are arranged by ingredient, with a preliminary commentary in the style we now associate with Stephanie Alexander.
Australian Bread Book
By Doris Brett
Pitman - 1984
Brett is actually a psychologist who writes poetry and novels, but she certainly has a grasp of baking.
Includes recipes that accommodate allergies to wheat, milk, eggs and yeast.
Beef: And Other Bovine Matters
By John Torode, Michelle Bretl, Jason Lowe
Taunton Press - 2009
Torode is originally Australian and has a breezy tone which he apparently employs to good effect on TV. He certainly has a comprehensive knowledge of beef and various accompaniments.
One for the carnivores!
THE BEST OF BEVERLEY SUTHERLAND SMITH FROM THE AGE
By Beverley Sutherland Smith
LANSDOWNE - 1982
A collection of recipes originally published in The Age newspaper. Arranged by season, each subsection includes several recipesand a little commentary.
THE BEVERLEY SUTHERLAND SMITH COLLECTOR'S EDITION the Best of Her Recipes Fro THE AGE
By Beverley Sutherland SMITH
Five Mile Press - 1987
The author used to write a weekly column for The Age newspaper, and I used to have a yellowing collection of recipes cut out from it. Say no more.
Bitter: A Taste of the World's Most Dangerous Flavour
By Jennifer McLagan
Jacqui Small LLP - 2015
Another brilliant work from McLagan. History, science, literature, folklore and personal reminiscences, all combined with beautiful photographs and interesting recipes.
Bloody Delicious
By Joan Campbell, Schofield/Leo
Allen & Unwin - 1998
Joan Campbell was for donkey's years the food editor of Australian 'Vogue'. Biography with accompanying recipes of historical interest.
Cake: A Global History (Reaktion Books - Edible)
By Nicola Humble
Reaktion Books - 2010
Begins with the very pertinent question, what exactly is a cake? The significance of cakes in all sorts of cultures throughout history is fascinating. Wonderful illustrations.
And yes, it mentions Lamingtons.
The Cake Bible
By Rose Levy Beranbaum
William Morrow Cookbooks - 1988
Although this an American book, with all the little problems that can entail, it's a beauty. Godd recipes and a lot of really helpful commentary, tips and advice.
Chalk and Cheese
By Will Studd
Purple Egg - 1999
I was recently shocked to discover that this is rare, out of print, and worth about 5 times what I paid for it! I am thinking of popping it into a zip-lock bag and adding it to the superannuation fund's assets, but in the meantime find it a very useful guide to the increasingly complicated world of cheese.
Charmaine Solomon's Complete Vegetarian Cookbook
By Charmaine Solomon
Angus & Robertson - 1991
Very comprehensive, divided into Eastern and Western cuisines. Desserts, beverages, the works.
Chocolate: A Global History (Reaktion Books - Edible)
By Sarah Moss, Alexander Badenoch
Reaktion Books - 2009
Only a little book, but it has a bibliography if you want to know more. A fascinating history of the social and political history of chocolate (often produced, even today, by slave labour).
Among other things it covers the class implications of packaging and the longstanding feminine associations of chocolate - no surprise to Tim Tam lovers.
The Clever Cook
By Diane Holuigue
Simon & Schuster (Australia) - 1998
Lots of recipes, but really a guide to how to manage without a cookbook, or without all the ingredients in a recipe. Inspiring and confidence building.
The Complete Australian Cookbook
By Rene Gordon
Hamlyn Australia - 1985
Not as scholarly as Stephanie, but very suitable for absolute beginners. Recipes for all the things your Mum may or may not have made, and very helpful 'what went wrong' sections.
The Complete Beverley Sutherland Smith Cookbook
By Beverley Sutherland Smith
Lansdowne - 1987
Very much a meat cookbook; includes venison and hare. Even the soups are meaty. Helpful photographs of how to carve and bone various things. The publication date places it just the far side of the Great Cholesterol Watershed.
Complete Perfect Recipes
By David Herbert
Penguin Global - 2008
A splendid range of recipes for what Herbert calls "classic" but I would call "basic" dishes. The sort of thing you actually cook regularly, nothing too exotic or difficult; quiche lorraine, rice pudding, Nigel Slater's recipe for macaroni cheese.
The recipes tend towards anglo family/comfort food. Some of them are not really recipes but rather guides to how to boil an egg or make a pot of tea, basic skills which some of us take for granted but are a mystery to others.
This book would be an excellent gift for somebody just setting up on their own for the first time. Smaller but less expensive and more conveniently sized than Stephanie.
Consuming Passions L-plates : Learn to Cook the Food You love to Eat
By Ian Parmenter
J B Fairfax - 1998
Not a bad little book. Just because the recipes are simple and designed to encourage beginners doen't mean they aren't good. Includes suggestions for suitable wine (or beer) to accompany each dish.
The Cook's Companion: The Complete Book of Ingredients and Recipes for the Australian Kitchen
By Stephanie Alexander
Penguin Global - 2004
What can one say! If you were allowed only one cookbook, this magnificent, encyclopaedic work would be it. Nowadays everyone knows what you mean when you refer to 'Stephanie'.
The Cookbook Library: Four Centuries of the Cooks, Writers, and Recipes That Made the Modern Cookbook (California Studies in Food & Culture)
By Anne Willan
University of California Press - 2012
This extraordinary book is primarily a history of the cookbook (and by extension of present-day cuisine) from antiquity to the nineteenth century, sourced from the authors' collection. As a book, beautifully designed and illustrated, it is just a delight.
As well as being a well-written and fascinating history, it also contains recipes, adapted as required from the originals.
Cooking in Ten Minutes: or the Adaptation to the Rhythm of Our Time
By Edouard De Pomiane, Peggie Benton
Serif - 2008
A charming little book. Notwithstanding it's having been written in the 1930s, much of his advice is still good.
Cooking on the Bone: Recipes, History and Lore
By Jennifer McLagan
Grub Street - 2006
Not just recipes, but everything you never knew you didn't know about bones of every kind. A carnivore's delight.
Cooking with Pomiane (Modern Library Food)
By Edouard de Pomiane, Peggie Benton, Elizabeth David
Modern Library - 2001
What a wonderful man the good doctor was! Scientific explanations in the manner of Harold McGee are mingled with social commentary worthy of Brillat-Savarin (don't bother cooking for people you dislike, it'll just curdle on the plate, take them out to dinner).
Cooking With Verjuice
By Maggie Beer
Viking - 2000
We all take verjuice for granted now, but when Maggie was pioneering its marketing she published this to promote it. Still a handy reference.
Cravat-a-licious: the Selected Works of the Master Chef Critic
By Matt Preston
Ebury Press - 2009
This isn't a cookbook, it's a collection of Preston's articles and columns. However, it does include some recipes for biscuits (or cookies to the Cousins).
Cuisine of the Sun
By Roger Verge
Macmillan London - 1979
Here it is! Nouvelle Cuisine and the Great EVO Watershed, at source! Took a while to filter through to the English speaking world but. Reading this book, with its mostly fairly simple recipes depending on top quality fresh produce, brings back memories of how things changed in the years after its publication.
Decadent Desserts Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter
By Beverley Sutherland Smith
The File Mile Press - 1996
Really, there are enough recipes to keep you going for years, especially if you don't do dessert all that often. Dunno about decadent - nothing is intimidatingly elaborate or involves exotic ingredients. Much use of seasonal fruit.
Eat - The Little Book of Fast Food
By Nigel Slater
Fourth Estate - 2013
Nigel Slater is one of the great cookery writers of our time. He is a man devoted to the enjoyment of food and his enthusiasm is infectious and inspirational. Just reading him whets the appetite, so skilled is his prose.
This is book is reminiscent of his first, Real Fast Food which was published in 1992. Many of the recipes are wonderfully flexible and there are lots of suggestions for variations. The idea is to rustle up something delicious from whatever you have to hand, and he positively encourages the use of convenience foods like tinned chickpeas, frozen (all-butter) puff pastry and (good quality) butcher's sausages.
The man is my kind of cook.
Eat My Words
By Marion Halligan
Angus & Robertson Childrens - 1990
This isn't a cookbook in the way that books by M F K Fisher and Elizabeth David aren't cookbooks. There are recipes in it, but it's glorious gastronomical writing by an author usually known for her fiction.
Eating with Emperors: 150 Years of Dining with Emperors, Kings, Queens... and the Occasional Maharajah (The Miegunyah Volumes)
By Jake Smith
Melbourne University Press - 2009
When I showed this book to a friend the response was "Have you got it insured?" This most beautifully illustrated volume is a fascinating history that grew out of the author's collection of menu cards.
If you want to know what Queen Victoria ate for lunch (there was curry every day) or what President Obama has for dinner, here it is. And yes, there are recipes, some of which look worth trying.
Emma: A recipe for life
By Emma Ciccotosto
Fremantle Arts Centre Press - 1995
A charming biography and portrayal of post-war Italian immigrant life in Western Australia. Copiusly illustrated whith family photos and full of Emma's genuine home cooking recipes.
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
By Marcella Hazan
Knopf - 1992
This is my only Italian cookbook. I don't need another one.
Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes
By Jennifer McLagan
McClelland & Stewart - 2008
Well, we're all scared of fat these days, aren't we? Fat is essential to good nutrition, fat is where the flavour is. Just don't overdo it.
I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but it's a fascinating read.
Feed Me: 50 Home Cooked Meals for your Dog
By Liviana Prola
Phaidon Press - 2018
The author is a vet with a PhD in Animal Nutrition, and clearly a genuine dog lover who knows and understands dogs.
The book is divided into puppy, adult and senior sections. Apart from recipes there is a wealth of information of every sort; advice about toxic food (I knew about chocolate but not avocado), advice about special diets both medically prescribed and seen floating around the internet, and scientifically detailed nutritional breakdowns for the recipes.
As a bonus, scattered throughout this handsomely presented book are the most delightful watercolour sketches of dogs!
The Flavour Thesaurus
By Niki Segnit
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC - 2010
This isn't really a cookbook. It contains very few recipes as such, but fairly bursts with suggestions and advice distilled not just from the author's experience but from the extensive bibliography.
I bought the Kindle version which makes navigating the cross-references much easier.
The French Kitchen
By Diane Hokuigue
Methuen (Australia) - 1983
This is indeed, as the publishers claim, a comprehensive guide to French cooking for Australians. All the classic techniques and dishes are covered, with useful comments about adaptation to local ingredients (fish, for example). Photos are mostly for instructional purposes - like how to bone out a chicken - rather than of finished dishes.
Very well written. Holuige is a much better writer than the charming but rambling Julia Child, who has understandably never been popular in this country.
Gabriel Gate's Good Food for Men
By Gabriel Gate
William Heinemann - 1996
Can't say that it's helped hubby get over his culinary nerves - he's very hlepful in the kitchen, but freezes when faced with an actual recipe. Still, lots of simple, healthy recipes.
A Gourmet Harvest: A Guide to Growing and Preparing the Exotic, the Delicate and the Simply Delicious
By Gail Thomas
The Five Mile Press - 1986
As a book it's a bit all over the place. How to grow some things, how to cook other things you could never grow, sometimes just explanations of what something is. Lovely line drawing illustrations.
Grains
By Molly Brown
Hardie Grant Books - 2014
These days we are inundated with all sorts of seeds, pulses, legumes and grains. Even cooks familiar with a range of lentils and beans can get a bit nervous when trying the latest rages like freekeh or quinoa; for the record I really like the former and think the latter is over-rated.
This book provides a useful guide to the properties and basic preparation of 48 products and 150 recipes, many of which I have found to be rather good.
The recipes are in an unusual style, with ingredients grouped by source - grocer, greengrocer, butcher.
And no, it is definitely not a vegetarian cookbook.
Greene on Greens
By Bert Greene
Doubleday Australia - 1985
Bert must have been quite a character. Lots of reminiscences and family history accompany the recipes. Definitely dates from before the discovery of EVO and cholesterol!
Heart and Soul
By Kylie Kwong
Studio - 2007
This was given to me. Very nice, but somehow doesn't push my buttons.
Hot Dog: A Global History (Reaktion Books - Edible)
By Bruce Kraig
Reaktion Books - 2009
Places C M O T Dibbler's infamous suasageinnabun into its historical context! The hot dog is a quintessentially American convenience food which has colonised the world, but in fact it is the ultimate expression of an ancient tradition. Fascinating!
The Impressionists Table
By Pamela Todd
Pavilion Books - 1997
A charming combination of art and culinary history, with recipes. Food, after all, features in a lot of Impressionist paintings.
Is There a Nutmeg in the House?
By Elizabeth David, Jill Norman
Michael Joseph Ltd - 2000
I can't believe that, at the time of writing, I am the only Cookbooker to have a copy of this. I know it's not "100 Ways With A Kilo of Mince" or "Sophisticated Cupcakes". it's just sublime writing about food.
It Must've Been Something I Ate: The Return of the Man Who Ate Everything
By Jeffrey Steingarten
Knopf - 2002
Not as amusing as his first book. Steingarten's collossal ego gets a bit out of control IMO.
Jane Grigson's Fruit Book
By Jane Grigson
Michael Joseph Ltd - 1982
A classic. Beautifully written, with all sorts of information about each fruit, as well as recipes.
Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book
By Jane Grigson
Michael Joseph Ltd - 1978
Like her 'Fruit Book', a timeless classic, erudite, entertaining and practical.
Just Add Spice
By Ian Hemphill & Lyndey Milan
Lantern (Penguin Group) - 2010
I've got a box in the cupboard of packets of spices from Herbie's (proprietor Ian Hemphill). I feel I could use them to better effect.
This book is full of information, including recipes for spice mixes like baharat and garam masala, though I prefer to buy mine ready made up, and handy hints on matching suitable wine or beer to spicy dishes.