Nigel Slater's Book Recommendations (Updated for 2026)

1

Thai Food

David Thompson

4.4

Renowned chef David Thompson first went to Thailand by mistake: a holiday plan had to be changed at the last minute, and he ended up in Bangkok, where he was seduced by the people, culture, and cuisine. Since that fateful trip some 20 years ago, Thailand has become David's second home. Working alongside cooks who perfected their craft in the Thai royal palaces, he began to document the traditional

Recommended by Nigel Slater and Ted Knutson.

Nigel Slater

An important historical record of Thai cooking and an excellent recipe book. [source]

Ted Knutson

My sister asked me for recipes and I dug this Thai Beef salad one out that I think I stole from David Thompson's amazing Thai cook book. It has HUGE flavours (too much for my kids), but we think it's amazing. https://t.co/iSQbjC9mJv [source]

2

The Cook's Companion

Stephanie Alexander

4.5

The Cook's Companion has established itself as the kitchen "bible" in more than 500,000 homes since it was first published in 1996. This 2014 revision includes two major new chapters, two expanded chapters, 70 new recipes, and a complete revision of the text to reflect changes in the marketplace and new regulations. Stephanie believes that good food is essential to living well: her book is for eve

Recommended by Bruno Loubet and Nigel Slater.

Nigel Slater

It’s quite robust cooking. I tend to turn to her when I come across something that I want to know a bit more about. [source]

Bruno Loubet

This book is a bit like a bible or a dictionary – it’s a huge book with so much information and you can go there for so much reference. [source]

Cover unavailable

3

French Provincial Cooking

Elizabeth David, Juliet Renny

4.3

Elizabeth David's books belong in the libraries of everyone who loves to read and prepare food and this one is generally regarded as her best; her passion and knowledge comes through on every page. She was one of the foremost writers on food in the latter half of the 20th century and this book has her most celebrated writing. "French Provincial Cooking" should be approached and read as a series of short stories, as well written and evocative as the best literature. The voice is highly personal and opinionated, sometimes sharp but always true and always entertaining. Here is a long essay on French cuisine, offering background stories and sketches of recipes more than the slavishly didactic type of recipes that most modern readers might be used to today. For many Elizabeth David was the first to introduce us to the French notion of la cuisine terroir, sometimes interpreted as 'what grows together goes together'. For David, this is the heart of regional cooking, and the thing which most distinguishes it from cooking in haute cuisine restaurants where diners arrive at any time or any season and expect to be able to order any well known French specialty. One of the passages which best characterizes David's approach to a lot of cooking is her opening statement on the perfect omelet: 'As everybody knows, there is only one infallible recipe for the perfect omelet: your own.' The book starts with a short essay on each of the major culinary regions of France, starting perhaps not surprisingly with Provence which is blessed an abundance of produce. The largest portion of the book consists of chapters on cuisine by type of dish: Sauces, Hors-D'oeuvres and Salads, Soups, Eggs and Cheese, Pates and Terrines, Vegetables, Fish, Shellfish, Meat, Composite Meat Dishes, Poultry and Game, and Sweet dishes. The book is all the more valuable in that it paints a picture of a cooking style which existed before modern equipment such as the food processor. Most importantly, the recipes work if your aim is to produce the most excellent food imaginable. What initially may seem to be annoying details (e.g., for omelets, eggs 'should not really be beaten at all, but stirred, ' whereas for scrambled eggs, they should be 'very well beaten') are actually secrets to be treasured, that elevate a good dish to a superb one. The lesson is that good food should be done simply, but it takes care, attention to detail, and frequently, time. A hardback edition of French Provincial Cooking has been unavailable for many years and Grub Street is re-issuing it because of overwhelming demand. It should become as popular an edition as the best-selling "Elizabeth David Classics."

Recommended by Giles Coren and Nigel Slater.

Nigel Slater

Elizabeth David’s recipes give you a sense of place: I feel as if I am in France with her. [source]

Giles Coren

She is a very good cookery writer, trying to explain to people in austere 50s Britain how to make a petit salé or a beef bourguignon. [source]

4

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking

Marcella Hazan

4.4

Title: Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking Binding: Hardcover Author: MarcellaHazan Publisher: AlfredA.Knopf

Recommended by Madhur Jaffrey, Nigel Slater, and Ruth Rogers.

Nigel Slater

It’s not beautiful writing; I don’t read her for information; I don’t read her for a sense of place. I read Marcella Hazan purely for the way she writes her recipes…. There is no finer recipe writer. Her recipes are concise, they’re clear, they’re unfussy and she never leaves me in any doubt about what I’m supposed to be doing. [source]

Madhur Jaffrey

Marcella Hazan takes you by the hand. For example, if you are going to make a risotto she tells you what rice to buy. [source]

Ruth Rogers

When people come to work at the River Café as a chef we ask them if they have read this, and if they haven’t we ask them to read it. [source]

5

How to Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food

Nigella Lawson

4.3

Note: this is a US edition of this cookbook.

"Cooking is not about just joining the dots, following one recipe slavishly and then moving on to the next," says British food writer Nigella Lawson. "It's about developing an understanding of food, a sense of assurance in the kitchen, about the simple desire to make yourself something to eat." Lawson is not a chef, but "an eater." She writes as if she'

Recommended by Nigel Slater and Sophie Dahl.

Nigel Slater

If I could keep only one cookbook, this would be it. There’s an intelligence to the way she writes, and she expects a certain intelligence of her readers as well. [source]

Sophie Dahl

It was her warm self-deprecating lovely tone that really engaged me. I loved the way that she described food. It was just this wonderful, friendly, easy rolling-off-the-page kind of writing. [source]