Cookbooks to travel by

Thoughts and discussion on June's cookbook club theme

UPDATED: We had out digital meet-up over early morning coffee on Saturday 22nd June to share thoughts and recommendation on this month’s theme: cookbooks to travel by. It was an hour of lively, open sharing of old favourites and some new discoveries. Our conversation started in Italy and travelled from there around the Mediterranean into the Middle East, finishing up on a camping trip in the UK.

These are (I hope most of) the writers and books we talked about. In no particular order. If you were at the event and mentioned something that isn’t included here then please add it in the comments. And I’m keen for more ideas there, too, of other books you all love in this genre. Nothing like a personal book recommendation!

• Caroline Eden: Red Sands; Black Sea; Cold Kitchen

• Eleanor Ford: Fire Island; The Nutmeg Trail; A Whisper of Cardamom

• Giorgio Locatelli: Made in Italy; Made in Sicily

• Rachel Roddy: Five Quarters; Two Kitchens

• Letitia Clark: Bitter Honey

• Claudia Roden (various)

• Yotam Ottolenghi & Sami Tamimi: Jerusalem

• Sami Tamimi & Tara Wigley: Falastin

• Nuno Mendes: My Lisbon

• Keith Floyd (various)

• Anissa Helou: Feast

• Anna Del Conte: Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes

• Irina Georgescu: Carpathia

• Elizabeth David (various)

• Lonely Planet: Food Lovers Guide to the World

• Greg & Lucy Malouf: Arabesque

• Arto der Haroutunian (various)

• Tom Tuke-Hastings: Cool Camping

• Sarah Winman: Still Life

• Donna Leon: Brunetti’s Cookbook

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This is a literal snapshot of some of the cookbooks on my shelves at home that have the ability to transport me to far away places. A flick of their pages, maybe a lick of the plate after one of their recipes, and the humdrum becomes a little mistier.

Perhaps it is the currently incessant rain where I am that is making me twitchy for travel. The weather in London is only teasing with occasional sunshine and warmth, and given I won’t be heading off anywhere this summer (don’t feel too sad for me - we go away in September) it will be up to my kitchen bookshelf to transport me to the places and flavours I can for the moment only imagine.

What are the qualities needed for a cookbook to do that job of taking us away from where we are? Interesting recipes, ingredients and imagery for sure. But also the words and stories that accompany them. I need the recipes to sit within a context that places them squarely in the culinary - and therefore wider - culture they come from. A ‘foreign’ recipe isn’t of itself nearly enough to take me there.