Exploring a cookbook of recipes from another cuisine is always exciting, especially if there's a good story with it.
He tells the stories of his grandmother's and his mother's cooking, his own story from working in the family hotel in north Italy to establishing his renowned London restaurant, Locanda Locatelli, but mostly his stories are about the food, where it came from, and how to deal with it.
However, being Italian, he's not in awe of tradition and a bit of irreverence creeps in from time to time which adds to the charm.
Essential for Italophiles.
Based in Hanoi where he has a restaurant, he explains the food and gives numerous recipes, some easily achievable here and others that require lots of exotic ingredients.
A coffee-table book as much as a practical one but beautifully presented.
(Murdoch, hbk, $65), is no exception.
Believing food is the essence of any country's people, she takes her family to live in Portugal and discover the wonderful mix of Portuguese food, influenced by the ingredients from its past colonies, Goa in India, Brazil, Macau, Mozambique, Angola, Sao Tome, Principe, Azores, Madeira - the piripiri of the title is a type of chilli from Angola.
Kiros is obviously besotted with Portugal but the photographs are stylish, the presentation immaculate and the recipes interesting.
Indian chef Anil Ashokan has moved to Sydney and opened the innovative Indian restaurant Qmin, and this book presents his stylish food - Indian flavours, true to their origin, but in a modern idiom.
The recipes are generally not difficult and the photographs show them presented in a stylish modern way.
Lavishly illustrated, it's the book of his television show Feast in which he travels to learn the food history, culture, and life of India, Morocco and Syria.
The recipes, mainly for traditional dishes he found in restaurants and street stalls, are enticing.
A fat, well-illustrated book, it has recipes from China, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Japan, including many that have become almost mainstream such as Thai beef salad, tom yum soup, steamed Asian greens with char siu sauce, pad thai, dahl, barbecue spare ribs, as well as hundreds of others.
