It’s been a great year for food books. I constantly find inspiration for my designs in the pages of great literature, and often in unexpected places. With thousands of titles on the market it is hard to pinpoint those worth buying. I hope you enjoy these books of recipes, food stories and fine writing as much as I did.

Editor’s Note: This entry was originally posted as a guest blog over at Roaming by Design.

At Elizabeth David’s Table: Her very best everyday recipes by Elizabeth David. Contemporary compilation with photographs for the first time. A nod towards vegetarian choices, classic favourites and neglected recipes from her six main books. It is a very personal book because I helped select 45 of the recipes. Jill Norman, her editor and literary executor, put the book together, aiming it at introducing her work to a younger audience, and 25,000 copies have already been presold in the USA where it will be launched in the spring. I suspect it will quickly become my most thumbed cookery book and I hope so for others too.

The Flavor Thesaurus by Niki Segnit. A most original tour de force of imaginative and exhaustive research into flavours and how they that match. Filed alphabetically here, a selection of entries from ‘M’ includes how the mustiness of forest floor mushrooms suits the earthy flavours of freshwater fish. Shitake brings out the flavour of Salmon; as mushrooms contain no salt she suggests they work well with Parmesan for risottos or Gruyere when served with toast. Mushrooms and truffles are described as kissing cousins so you can use truffle oil, which are butter to mushroom dishes like a push-up bra to the sensual figure: the aim being to give more ordinary fungi (which is mostly what we can buy in supermarkets) the full, in-your-face sexiness of the truffle.  A proper stocking filler with an evocative twist!

Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan. Our greatest contemporary polemicist on food has produced this shortened version of his masterpiece, In Defense of Food. He brings sanity to the (sometimes) complex business of working out what to eat, especially if one wants to be ethical and healthy and still receive pleasure from food.  His training as a nature writer means you get the benefit of someone who brings elegance and wit to his writing. Being chastised is not how you want to be treated when looking for new ways of going about eating and he always avoids that by making you feel that you are able to be a good human being.

Kitchenella: The secrets of women: heroic, simple, nurturing cookery – for everyone by Rose Prince. A compliment to At Elizabeth David’s table, this book aims to show working women how they can cook imaginatively, healthily, affordably. “My mother wasn’t a yummy-mummy who made fun cakes with us. She was quite stern about passing things on. She saw it as training. Women are still the main carers of others but there is silence now. Secrets are not passed on. The concern is that kids grow up without learning because mothers don’t answer this call to nurture.” I met Rose when she co-produced “A Matter of Taste,” the TV biography of Elizabeth David’s, and realised how serious she was about communicating the values and recipes associated with English food. Very modern is her dislike of waste and her drive to make cooking an everyday family affair. Useful for the modern man as well!

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham. Eye opening, easy-to-read account that is a must read for all kitchen designers and those interested in neuroscience. He combines paleoantropology, archaeology, chemistry and physics of food with human biology. It explains how we developed brains and how our skills developed through cooking food. It also spends the deathnel to raw food obsessionists and shows that cooking is the key to our evolutionary success. Mr Wrangham should be confirmed as the patron saint of kitchen designers!

Vefa’s Kitchen by Vefa Alexiadou. Greek regional cooking from Greece’s best-selling cookery writer. I am always reminded on trips to Greece that we are not appreciative enough of just how authentic and digestible Greek cooking is, particularly in smaller local taverns or restaurants. It’s unfair, too, that the country’s cuisine has never been celebrated as the mother of Mediterranean food, a fact that is put right in this compendium. I was given this by Harry and Emma, my eldest son and his fiancé, after they had visited Crete and we have all used it. Regional cooking is always the best kind of cooking to do at home, including Greek.

Plenty by Yotem Ottolengi. Ottolengi has a striking food philosophy and real life offering, particularly with vegetables and patisseries. Although not a vegetarian, his mini-cuisine is visually arresting, original and innovative. It’s based on strong flavours and stunning, fresh combinations, bringing a desirable angle to being vegetarian. Ingredients have to “have a clear voice, plain characteristics that are lucid and powerful, with images, tastes and aromas you can remember and yearn for.” His growing collection of London café-style restaurants make each one worth a visit to see and taste his recipes for yourself.

Between Bites: Memoirs of a Hungry Hedonist by James Villas. Witty and compelling stories about life as an activist gourmet and writer. As one of America’s top food writers who wrote for Gourmet, Town and Country, Bon Appétit and The New York Times, he stands out for being, in his own words, an outspoken, optimistic rebel. His firsthand knowledge of French cooking, early championing of American food in the 60’s and dining with the great and the good, I found thoroughly riveting. Excellent for a train, plane or simple reading by the fire.

British Food: an Extraordinary Thousand Years of History by Colin Spencer. For years I made do with Dorothy Hartley’s eccentric Food in England for my knowledge of British food. Elizabeth David told me ‘our’ strength lay in farmhouse cooking based upon the high standard of raw ingredients, which left a lot unsaid. This extensive account looks at changes caused by the Black Death, the Enclosures to the Industrial Revolution and the social and commercial trends of the present day. It explains too how we reached such a deficit in the culinary department up till our recent food revolution and it helps one feel less defensive of being British. It is always fascinating to see history explained through media other than politics, particularly through food culture.

This week, we’ll be posting a few of Johnny’s favorite recipes from Elizabeth David’s Christmas in the spirit of the holidays. Send us your photos of Elizabeth’s dishes in your kitchen and we’ll post them on Grey Matters. Happy Cooking!

It is not generally known that pumpkin can make an excellent chutney, rich and dark. The recipe below produces a mixture with a taste which is spicy but not to sharp; the pumpkin slices retain something of their shape, and shine translucently through the glass jars.

Green grocers very often sell pumpkins by the piece; a whole one is, of course, cheaper, but remember that once it is cut it will not keep longer than about ten days.

Ingredients are a 2 ½ lb piece of pumpkin (gross weight), 1 lb of ripe tomatoes, ½ lb of onions, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 oz of sultanas, ¾ lbs each of soft dark brown sugar and white caster sugar, 2 tablespoons of salt, 2 scant teaspoons each of ground ginger, black peppercorns and allspice berries, 1 ¼ pints of wine vinegar or cider vinegar.

Peel the pumpkin, discard seed and cottony center. Slice, then cut into pieces roughly 2 inches wide and long and ½ inch thick. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes, skin and slice them. Peel and slice the onions and the garlic.

Put all solid ingredients, including spices (crush the peppercorns and allspice berries in a mortar) and sugar, in your preserving pan. (For chutneys, always use heavy aluminum, never untinned copper jam pans.) Add vinegar. Bring gently to the boil, and then cook steadily, but not at a gallop, until the mixture is jammy. Skim from time to time, and toward the end of the cooking, which will take altogether about 50 minutes, stir very frequently. Chutney can be a disastrous sticker if you don’t give it your full attention during the final stages.

This is a long-keeping chutney, but, like most chutneys, it is best if cooked to a moderate set only; in other words it should still be a little bit runny; if too solid it will quickly dry up.

Ladle into pots, which should be filled right to the brim. When cold cover with rounds of waxed paper, and then with a double layer of thick greaseproof paper. (Or use jars with plastic-lined lids that will not be corroded by vinegar. JN) Transparent covers that let in the light are not suitable for chutney.

The yield from these quantities will be approximately 3 ½ lb; and although it may be a little more extravagant as regards fuel and materials, I find chutney cooked in small batches more satisfactory than when produced on a large scale.

It is worth noting that should it be more convenient, all ingredients for the chutney can be prepared, mixed with sugar and vinegar, and left for several hours or over night (but not longer than 12 hours) in a covered bowl before cooking.

*Recipe from Elizabeth David’s Christmas, David R. Godine: Boston, 2008. US Edition, p 138-139.

Johnny Grey Studios is turning 30. I have long wanted to thank my clients for their tremendous believe in my work and that of the Johnny Grey Studios. I owe my livelihood to them over the last 30 years. I also had a sneaking suspicion that they might like to meet each other too (and I was right). So one evening last week I booked out Clarkes on Kensington Church Street in London and we celebrated together, packing the restaurant to capacity. Members of the Johnny Grey Studios family came from as far away as Spain, France, Ireland, Scotland and by proxy Australia, as well as England.

We were also celebrating the launch of At Elizabeth David’s Table: Her Very Best Everyday Recipes, a new book featuring the culinary concoctions of my late aunt. Jill Norman compiled it and David Loftus took some mouth-watering photographs on location in France and Italy. As her literary executor and long standing friend and editor, Jill gave us a fascinating insight into working with Liza (as we called her). We were reminded of Elizabeth David’s scholarship, research and painstaking method of writing. She often rewrote her text four or five times.

I made a short speech about my accidental career as a kitchen designer. It happened partly because of Elizabeth’s influence. She was one of my mentors and I spent a lot of time cooking, eating and going on expeditions with her, including some wonderful picnics. Some of her dishes I ate are included in the new book. I chose 40 or so recipes that Jill included in the new volume.

Sam Chesterton, my first-ever client, read out a moving piece about how I started off making furniture at Hampshire Farm Cottage and what life was like in the early 70s in rural west Sussex. He took a bold step and asked me to design a Gothic Kitchen. He admitted to being a bit of a ‘Goth’.

Finally, media guru Peter Bazalgette coined the phrase of the night. It was he said ‘a bit like being at an Aston Martin Owner’s club dinner’. I suddenly thought that gives me an excuse to set up the Johnny Grey Kitchen Owners dinner club. It would be a great excuse to get together once a year to celebrate food, wine, friendship and kitchen culture.

I had some moving tributes and went away with many warm thoughts, glad to be a kitchen designer.