A Different Sort of Book

Jul 18, 2025

books on brown wooden shelf — Photo by Alfred Kenneally on Unsplash

When I mention that I read cookery books, I can feel a groan or roll of the eyes coming on. Cookbooks don’t count as reading! Well, that really depends on what sort of cookbooks you read. As a recipe writer myself, I know that cookbooks are not an easy genre. You don’t simply magic up a few recipes, write them down, take a photo and hey presto, there’s a cookery book. My last book took me 5 years to produce and my current one (a book of soups) is in 2 years in so far (though partly for personal reasons as well as the complexity of the task). A well written cookbook is a mammoth undertaking. There has to be a coherence to the recipes included, there has to be a clear narrative voice talking you through the recipes and all the best books, in my opinion, have story, history and autobiography thrown in. Unlike fiction, the contents have to work in the real world. Writing a cookery book is hard graft. Writing a good one is really hard!

I’m not a fan of celebrity cookbook, or celebrity cooks come to that. Lots of the books are created by a hardworking team of cooks, recipe writers, stylists and washer-uppers, who never get the credit for their work. It’s almost impossible to get a cookery book published though, unless you are a celebrity of some sort, hence the plethora of celeb cookbooks on the market. There are exceptions, but they’re just that - exceptions. Even if you are a famous chef, there’s no guarantee that Joe public will have heard of you and buy your books and there are plenty of very successful restaurateurs who have had spectacularly unsuccessful cookbooks.

I used to buy a lot of cookbooks and will still save up now for something I think is special. I love flicking through, looking at the photos (if they’re there) imaging how the dishes might turn out and what tweaks I could make. I’m terrible at following recipes - most cooks are! I revel in unusual ingredients and finding new spice mixes or techniques. I’m not your average home cook or cookbook reader, I suppose. Most things have to be written for the home cook in explicit terms, with lots of hand holding and few assumptions, which isn’t a bad thing in many ways, but unfortunate in others as it reduces the space for cooks to chat about their lives, the history of food and place, the cultures and cuisines, which might be foreign to me and ultimately that is what interests me in a cookery book. I’m not after a ‘list of receipts’ I’m looking for stories and connection.

Food plays a vital role in many cultures and acts as a glue which holds communities together. We see this in immigrant communities, where sharing food from home helps create cohesion and keeps memories alive. Cookbooks can be a micro version of that, where cooks share what they are passionate about - food from their culture and homeland, from which they may be separated. Think of Olia Hercules, the Ukrainian author/cook who shares recipes from her homeland, filled with loss and longing and recipes passed down through generations of the same family. Sammi Tamini who co-wrote Falastin, which is a described as ‘a love letter to Palestine’, full of stories and recipes that, whilst maybe not traditional in the true sense, nonetheless reflect those traditional dishes and that strong community.

We don’t really have that strong community food tradition in the UK, but we can learn from allotmenteers who have summer BBQ’s and share food traditions, trade stories; community gardens where different cultures share vegetables and fruits from their homelands; community kitchens that specialise in East African or Caribbean food and charity initiatives that get people together. There are plenty of other examples across the country, where food is bringing communities together. It’s heartening.

I see cookbooks like this, a look into someone else’s kitchen, cooking and way of life. Sitting around the kitchen table, sharing stories and recipes that we love. The best cookbooks teach us something more than a new recipe or two, they share someone’s passion for food and life and culture; they take us to places, evoke memories and make connections, or at least, the best ones do.

Next time you fancy trying a new recipe or finding out about a different cuisine, consider investing in a cookbook, rather than looking up a recipe on ‘mr g’. A lot of work goes into producing these books. They’re not cheap to buy because they’re not cheap to produce. People want full colour photos these days and they come at a cost. I sell my cookbook for £14.99, but discount cost for booksellers is not much above the cost price for printing. For a full colour hardback cookbook retailing at £25 say, the author is probably getting less than £5 after printing, production and marketing costs are taken out. If the book is sold on discounts stores like the big A or the major supermarkets, the return will be even less. This is not a rant about author profits (or lack of) and as always, celebrities get much better deals, even though a lot of them do very little work other than grant their name to the end product. As I say, there are exceptions.

My most recent purchase (pre-ordered on a special offer from the publisher) is Sabzi by Yasmin Khan, who is a cook, broadcaster and activist. She’s fairly well known I guess, but her books manage to share food, stories and people in an authentic way. She mixes Persian, Mediterranean and Palestinian food traditions and shares vibrant recipes, personal reflections and stories from people’s home kitchens - everything a cookbook should be.

Buy me a Cuppa. Thanks!

I’m not writing to promote any particular book or author - including myself - I’m writing to ask you to look at cookbooks differently, to see behind the price tag and the photos and to look at what other ingredients might make up a book of recipes; to seek out the less famous writers sharing their food with passion. There are plenty of writers doing that here on Substack - check them out and if you can afford it, do support their work by buying their books as well as taking advantage of the free recipes they offer.

By way of bonus, I thought I’d share a couple of simple ‘barely recipes’ from my own cookbook, which are ideal for summer eating. Enjoy!

Fried Tomato Bread

This is a recipe for summer when you have a glut of ripe tomatoes. Ilike to use a mixture of cherry tomatoes as it looks so cheerful in thepan. It’s barely a recipe, but I don’t offer any apologies for this simple summer fare.

You will need a large non-stick frying pan.

Serves 1

Ingredients

300g of mixed cherry tomatoes, cut in half

I slice of wholemeal or sourdough bread – a day old is best

Fresh basil

1 tspn Balsamic vinegar

½ a garlic clove crushed (optional)

Seasoning

Method

This is a simple, slow cooked dish. The trick is to use a lot of olive oil and let the tomatoes cook down slowly until they are soft and threatening to collapse. Add the garlic – if using - once the tomatoes have cooked a bit, with a little more oil if necessary.

Add the balsamic and seasoning.

Once the tomatoes start to release their juices, push them to one side and place the bread in the pan; press it into the juices. Allow it to soak up the tomato juice and oil. Once it is starting to crisp and brown, turn it over and repeat the process. Serve the tomatoes on the bread and garnish with the basil

Lentil Tabbouleh

Tabbouleh is a simple Levantine salad of very finely choppedvegetables, lots of fresh herbs and bulgur wheat, all tossed with citrus juice and olive oil. In this gluten free version I switch the wheat for puy lentils which makes for an easy and interesting substitute. It’s easy to up the quantities and take it on a sharing picnic or keep it in the fridge for summer work lunches.

Ingredients

200g puy lentils

6 spring onions

1 pack cherry tomatoes

1/2 a cucumber

1 lime, juiced

1/2 a small bunch of each of the following herbs:

Mint

Flat-leaf parsley

Leaf coriander

Method

Rinse the lentils, then cook in plenty of salted water until tender.

Drain and set aside to cool.

Trim and finely slice the spring onions, and quarter the cherry

tomatoes.

Scrape the seeds out of the cucumber and finely dice.

Finely chop the herb leaves.

Mix the cooled lentils with the spring onions, tomatoes, cucumber and

herbs.

Add the oil and lime juice and season with the sea salt and freshly

ground black pepper.

Can be served with feta or halloumi cheese if you want to boost the protein content and make it more of a main meal.

Whilst this was not an article written primarily to market my own cookbook, it would probably be remiss of me to waste the opportunity entirely, so I’m offering my first cookbook to you, my lovely Substack subscribers, at special summer price of £7 (less than half price) whilst stocks last. Postage in addition. UK only.

highlandhomecook.co.uk/substack

As always, I’d be happy for you to share your thoughts in the comments.