Read: Irish Foodie | A very merry cookbook Christmas 2024
First published in the Irish Foodie, Winter 2024.
Of all the books that you can give – or receive – at Christmas time, there’s none more full of potential than a cookbook. That said, you need to choose your gift carefully: there’s definitely a one to suit everyone, but it’s essential to make judicious choices so that they suit the recipient and don’t end up heading straight to the charity shop.
Rather than picking up something from the interchangeable international celeb chef cookbook pile, support local and pick Irish-grown authors where your investment will really be appreciated.
The Irish Bakery by Cherie Denham and Kitty Corrigan (Montgomery Press, £27)
This beautiful book is a carefully managed three-hander, with Cherie Denham’s tempting recipes, elegiac essays written by Kitty Corrigan and evocative photography from Andrew Montgomery. Denham, who grew up on a farm in Co Tyrone, credits her grannies and great aunts for giving her the love of cooking, baking and preserving that she communicates beautifully through recipes for bread, scones, traybakes, tarts, cakes and puddings. It’s not all about faithfully looking back, though. Buns get an upgrade with chocolate and rosewater, Christmas mincemeat comes in the form of a Bakewell slice and parsnip is incorporated into a carrot and apple cake. There’s also a particularly strong savoury pie section. The blend of carefully staged food pictures alongside atmospheric reportage shots makes this book as much of a pleasure to look at as to cook from.
Must try: pheasant, duck, porcini and chestnut pot pie
Seed to Supper by Michelle Darmody (€20, Nine Bean Rows)
“A book that anyone can learn from,” was what Darina Allen said as she launched Michelle Darmody’s Seed to Supper, adding that she had picked up some new tips herself. That’s a weighty recommendation to get and it’s a well deserved one. This is a book that has been many years in the making but Darmody wears her knowledge lightly, as befits what is – theoretically – a children’s book, illustrated with brio by Ruth Graham. From the garden to the kitchen and onward to the table, this is the how, what and where of food that explores connections at every level.
Must try: being a food miles detective
Eat Out at Home – Neven Maguire (Gill, €25)
One of the most difficult things about having people around for food is figuring out the menu. It can be a struggle to pull together a balanced meal that tastes great and is not going to have that night’s chef bitterly regretting the invitations that they’ve issued long before dinner gets to the table. Here’s where Neven Maguire’s Eat Out at Home wins: each recipe – for small plates, large plates, side plates and sweet things – comes with suggestions for dishes to serve alongside and for dessert. Try the crispy porchetta with smashed roast potatoes and pickled red onions, followed by tiramisu, for example. Or mushroom risotto alongside sticky damson ham, plus a cinnamon swirl apple cake. Maguire has been doing this a long time – it’s his twentieth book – and you’ll be in safe hands with uncomplicated recipes that will have you playing with new flavours.
Must try: honey roasted spiced carrots with pistachio and dill
Blasta Books Series 3: 2024 (€15 each, €50 for each four book series)
Each winter, I buy the next year’s Blasta Books series in advance. That way, when the bright, colourful and beautifully illustrated (by Nicky Hooper) little cookbooks land in my letterbox at intervals throughout the year, it’s like a gift to myself. 2024 was punctuated with Caitlin Ruth’s spiced pickled swede (January’s Funky), springtime smoked mackerel pâté from Aishling Moore (April’s Whole Catch), the richest lamb rendang by Sham Hanifa (Agak-Agak in July) and I’ve got Auntie Angela’s Coconut Bake in my sights from Soca by Alistair JD Jeje (October). You can buy the books individually, as a yearly series (2021, 2023 and 2024 are all now available) or sign your recipient up for next year’s series.
Must try: roti canai, the addictive crispy bread from Malaysia,in Agak-Agak
How to Soften Corners by Jennie Moran / Luncheonette (Dropout Press, €25)
When artist Jennie Moran embarked on Luncheonette, her art project / college canteen at Dublin’s National College of Art and Design, she did so with a spirit of unconditional hospitality drawn from the writings of French philosopher Jacques Derrida. This was an unexpected and unconventional business with solid roots in Moran’s art practice, using food to create opportunities for a shared experience. She tells the story in this lovely book, the eight years of making food that would restore, comfort and indulge those she considered to be her guests, rather than just customers. While a selection of idiosyncratic recipes are included – complicated flapjacks, dillisk soda bread (“Don’t overmix or the bread will be dense and bring misery instead of comfort.”) and if-a-burrito-was-soup – this is a book to make you stop and think about your own ideas of hospitality and welcome.
Must try: “Each morning with a sharp intake of breath, I gauged the weight of the immense task at hand, wondered if I was up to it, felt consoled by having succeeded the previous day and leapt blindly into the fabulous abyss.”
Café Cecilia Cookbook by Max Rocha (Phaidon, £39.45)
Going from music management into food as a way of escaping depression, Dublin-born Max Rocha trained in some serious kitchens: Skye Gyngell’s Spring, Fergus Henderson’s St John and The River Café. All those influences came together in Café Cecilia which he opened in 2021, with the help of his family: he’s the son of fashion designer John Rocha and the establishment was named for his Hong Kong grandmother. Fashion and interiors photographer Matthieu Lavanchy took classy photos of dishes that are simple, seasonal and carefully composed. There are no headnotes, but these recipes make you want to go to London directly and eat at Café Cecilia.
Must try: ham hock, butter beans and cabbage
The Irish Bakery, Eat Out At Home and Café Cecilia Cookbook are review copies. The rest I purchased myself.
