In a spur of the moment decision, I hitched a lift with Dave this morning to London to visit the hallowed halls of "Books For Cooks" in Notting Hill. I've wanted to go there for some years now, but since I've generally been able to get every cookbook I wanted from Amazon.co.uk there wasn't really a good reason to go. Today I was on a mission to find a copy of Stephanie Alexander's tome, "The Cooks Companion" as recommended (very enthusiastically) by Niki and Meg.
Books For Cooks is a tiny little gem of a shop absolutely crammed from floor to ceiling with wonderful cookbooks. The books are organised by cuisine and topic which made searching very easy once I stopped drooling. At the very back of the shop is their test kitchen and cafe and upstairs they have a demonstration kitchen where they hold small cookery workshops.
After much browsing, I found almost all of the cookbooks I was looking for; a terrible picture of which, you can see above. Its a surprisingly small number of books by my standards, but the Stephanie Alexander weighed an absolute ton and I figured that it would be better to nip back into the shop the next time I was in town than be unable to carry a mountain of books home! Plus, I'd already spotted a wine merchants on the corner of Blenheim Crescent and Kensington Park Road...
I wound up buying:
- Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme - I remembered Clotilde drooling over one of his chocolate cakes.
- The Cooks Companion, Stephanie Alexander - my interest was piqued by the rave reviews Niki and Meg gave this tome. I look forward to cooking from it!
- Sweet Sicily, Victoria Granof - I read an article on this book a few years ago and when I spotted it, I swooped upon it. Its crammed full of anecdotes, recipes and gorgeous pictures!
- Understanding Baking, Amendola and Rees - this is a technical treatise on baking and bread-making. No recipes, just science. I'm still a scientist (okay - geek) at heart!
I didn't manage to pick up a copy of Gayle Ortiz's "The Village Bakers Wife" - apparently there is a new edition coming out in April, so I've asked for that to be posted to me. And they didn't have a copy of RLB's "The Cake Bible", although, I doubt I could have carried that home if its anywhere near the weight of her latest book!
Still, a very successful shopping trip and a very fun morning. I did indeed nip into the wine merchant's, but I'll talk about that when I drink the wine...
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Wow! I'm so impressed you went out and bought Stephanie's book based on our recommendations! I only hope it gives you as much joy and inspiration as it has for many Australians.
N.B. Out of nowhere last night my boyfriend, who doesn't cook so much, started talking about the best chocolate cake he made a few years ago. 9 egg yolks, no flour and piled with ganache...his eyes turned glassy and his hands waved with passion... I asked him what occasion prompted the making of such a creation and he said: "Oh, nothing much. I had just received Stephanie's book, so thought I'd start cooking...."
There you go! :-)
(incidentally, it was Marieke's chocolate cake)
1. Posted by Niki on November 19, 2007
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Oh I went on a pilgrimage there last time I was in London and absolutely loved it. A kid in a candy store! It was crammed with people, but I agree, very well organized and the sales lady was very helpful and knowledgeable, too.
I'm sure you'll love the Pierre Hermé chocolate book! Aren't the pics gorgeous? The one recipe I made out of it (clipped from a magazine article) was the apricot and ginger cake (http://chocolateandzucchini.com/archives/2003/11/cake_au_chocolat_abricots_et_gingembre.php). It was excellent!
2. Posted by clotilde on November 19, 2007
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Chris just now flipped open his less than one month old copy of "The Village Baker", and the first few pages fell out. Sort of funny that I ran into your mention of The Village Baker's Wife just then...
3. Posted by emily b. hunt on November 19, 2007