Jamie’s America
Jamie Oliver
Ah, age is creeping up on old Jamie. There will come a point when looking boyish in a white T-shirt will become as difficult for him as it did for the Fonz. For the moment, though, the public’s middle class geezer of choice just about pulls it off. But for anyone familiar with Oliver’s banter-heavy cookbooks, there is little to surprise here, apart from him swapping hearty British fare for yankee nonsense. Yes, obesity testing beer butter chicken and churros appear alongside candied bacon (or the artery stopper, as it should be called) and the occasional recipe for alligator, all presented in Oliver’s ‘apples and pears’ prattle. We fear for the man’s waistline if this is what he eats on a daily basis. Nevermind, Jamie, you can always go back on the healthy school dinners.
Michael Joseph, Dhs152.50 available to order from Magrudys.
Rick Stein’s Far Eastern Odyssey
Rick Stein
There have been many other TV chefs who have brought Asian cooking to our screens, but few can have done it as affably, as colourfully, or with as much infectious enthusiasm as Stein. A trip through Southeast Asia, taking in Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, as well as the less well known culinary destinations of Cambodia, Bangladesh and Bali. As well as dishes we recognise from restaurant menus, such as pad thai noodles or satay skewers, there are many which will perhaps be unfamiliar to all but the seasoned traveller, such as the rich Bangladeshi beef shatkora or fragrant Cambodian steamed mussels.
BBC Books, Dhs158.50 available to order from Magrudys.
An Edible History of Humanity
Tom Standage
Tom Standage is business editor of The Economist. As you’d expect, his writing style is therefore crisp, clear, and… economical. Which is no bad thing when you’re trying to view recorded history through the huge prism of world food history. This has been done before by others, from early luminaries such as Margaret Visser to Felipe Fernández-Armesto, who have all had their particular approaches, yet it seems there is room for yet another. This book is necessarily derivative, but to his credit Standage details his sources carefully. The result is a summary, covering diverse subjects from the well known, such as the shift to agriculture from hunter-gathering, to the topics less documented by food writers.
Atlantic Book, Dhs129 available to order from Magrudys.
