My cookbook collection is rather modest. Though TheScotsman’s bank account would like to challenge that. I have accumulated a few treasures over the years but it all started with one book. How to Eat by Nigella Lawson. Her first book gave me the first glimpse of how simple and uncomplicated the food can be. I am not talking about stages in a recipe, its length or the ingredients. I am talking about what goes on in the mind. You know, the doubts, the pre-concieved ideas of the perfect planned and executed ‘dinner party’ and consequently the mounting pressure that surges up when you have to cook for anyone other than yourself. Nigella dispelled those myths, broke it down, threw off the formality behind cooking and entertaining and allowed me to be freer with what happens at the stove or in the oven. Before you know it, I had a burnished, gleaming, smooth topped Creme Caramel on the table. Ha! Eat your heart out Foster Clarks!

I was hooked. I also loved her intelligent, witty manner of writing, sharing her love of commas and it gave me a taste for the same sort of food writing in other books. Within my collection Claudia Roden, Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra and Luke Nguyen come to mind. Ms. Roden is the doyenne of all things Middle Eastern, Ms Pagrach Chandra, primarily for Dutch baking and Luke Nguyen is a wonderful foodie ambassador for Vietnam. They all write in such a style that their words paint vividly, pictures in your minds eye of the of cities, histories, market stalls and the people they have encountered on their food journey. I love it when a cookbook makes me a part of the scene. These are the books I may take to bed with me and read, snuggled up, while brushing cookie crumbs off the sheets (I can see some of you shudder at the thought. Crumbs be damned, I say!)

In the end though, any book, provided the author knows what he/she is talking about, will always hold my interest. Its a simple pleasure, one you can participate in and make your own. There is so much food to be discovered out there, and yet, so little time! If I cannot cook it, I still glean pleasure from reading it. And for that, I am thankful.