Considering eating is a necessity it is so easy for cookery to become a chore, most of us have experienced a food rut recently whilst restaurants have been shut and takeaway options limited to chinese, pizza and kebabs. The best and only thing for it is to seek some inspiration! Switch some cookery channels on, read some of your favourite restaurant menus, read cooking magazines or flick through Pinterest for recipes. But, the one thing I can recommend above all is dusting off your cookbooks and reading them like you would a storybook, read every recipe!
You may never cook the specific recipe you are reading, but you're gaining knowledge as you go.
Here's a list of my favourites, nothing fancy, unapproachable or pretentious. All my favourites are celebrity chefs so very accessible.
Christmas Cookbook - Jamie Oliver
As you'll see from my photo of it, a book very well-loved. Doe Catering roast dinner lovers will certainly recognise a few recipes. Spinach Crumble is not my invention! - thanks Jamie.
A gift prior to Christmas 2018 when I was hosting for my family it is a book that doesn't go away with the decorations. This one is not just for the festive season and is full to the brim with party ideas and roast dinner trimmings.
India - Rick Stein
My favourtie food is a good curry and this book knows its favourites as it now opens itself to Chettinad Chicken assisted by its broken spine and dirtied pages (always the sign of a good recipe when the page is a complete mess of spices and oil splatters)
The road to Mexico - Rick Stein
Another Rick Stein here but a real family favourite for a Friday night and a huge inspiration for any party bookings I have.
These recipes shine when you have sourced authentic ingredients. So pull out your dried chipotle and ancho and get growing your own Tomatillo this summer.
The Masterchef Cookbook - BBC
I LOVE Masterchef! if he didn't watch it with me it wouldn't take my husband long to work out that there is a Masterchef season on the telly! - I can't be the only one that brings out the drizzles and practices their food presentation skills as if John and Greg were about the critique Monday night's dinner?
This book is a good one when I'm looking for dinner party ideas. For obvious reasons the dishes 'wow' with their presentation but by nature are actually quite simple recipes. Always go to this one for scallop recipes.
The Hand & Flowers Cookbook - Tom Kerridge
I have been lucky enough to have visited the Hand & Flowers a couple of times now and reading this book makes me so happy! - especially the bits referencing his old home town of Gloucester! I don't read this one as a book to strictly follow the recipe (I haven't got a professional kitchen full of equipment!) but lots of my Doe Catering menus take inspiration from flavour combinations and ingredients.
Special mention should go to the Ken Hom book that gets passed around our family households, it's without a cover and really mucky but I have loads of memories cooking from that book with my family.
Mum and Dad's Madhur Jaffery's book is the same!
So there's some reading material for you, please recommend some of your favourites to me in the comment section and let me know if you've got any of these ones!