Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook

I was given this book the first year I was living out of home, and it was fantastic. The recipes themselves are great because Jamie's chatty way of writing makes everything sound achievable, and encourages you to tweak and go by feel rather than just trying to copy a recipe word-for-word. They're simple, homey things that mostly use easy-to-find ingredients and utensils that everyone has.

But the really strong part of this book is absolutely the introductions to each chapter (salads; pasta, gnocchi & risotto; meat; fish; veg; desserts). Reading the intros is essential to the individual recipes, because they explain things like the different elements that a good salad should have, all about cuts of meat and types of fish, where to use fresh and where to use dried pasta, types of potatoes and how they work in different kinds of dishes, and on and on. Basically they give you the tools to have enough understanding of how good food works to be able to be inventive and creative by yourself.

To be honest though, I haven't actually made very many of the recipes from the book, but I guess that's kind of the point: reading the book was inspiring enough that it meant I could go off and make something out of scraps from the fridge and pantry, and be successful. It gave me know-how of lots of techniques and ways of assembling good food. Not to say the recipes aren't worthwhile though. I'll post reviews of the ones I have done soon, and hopefully try lots more now that I've just had another good browse through!