The best cookbooks to buy this autumn

PICK OF THE CROP The big names are still there, but this year’s haul is more original and diverse than ever – so make some room for these top titles, says Diana Henry

Last year’s cookbook haul (which included Nigella, Nigel, Rick and Hugh) was so good I didn’t think it could get any better, but this autumn, traditionally the time when cookbook publishers push out their biggest titles, is full of tomes I’ll have to make room for. There are books by the starriest names – Jamie has done Italy and Deliciously Ella has cooked with more plants – but the key thing about this season’s crop is originality and diversity. There are books on food from Shetland, Germany and the Black Sea, and slightly mad titles written by knowledgeable enthusiasts, such as Let’s Eat France by François-régis Gaudry. There’s a lot of thinking going on about the process of cooking as well, seen in Niki Segnit’s Lateral Cooking and Sybil Kapoor’s Sight, Smell, Touch, Taste, Sound.

It’s astonishing that food writers keep coming up with new areas of interest and observations on technique, but they do. And most of the books on this list are much more than collections of recipes. Clear some space on your shelves…

PAVILION, £20

The first book from London restaurant Darjeeling Express (soon to feature on every food nerd’s favourite show, Netflix’s Chef ’s Table). Chef and owner Asma Khan, who employs an all-female team, has collected recipes for some of the most popular home dishes served there. She also tells how she went from being a law graduate who couldn’t boil an egg to running a restaurant that’s known as much for its social initiatives as its food.

PAVILION, £24

The thinking person’s cookbook, this explores the role of the senses in eating and cooking. The recipes are very good ( grilled sea bass with kombu, orange and soy duck) but it’s the writing about how you can – and should – notice more when you cook and eat that is revelatory. It won’t just make you a more aware cook but a more fulfilled and attentive one, too. Mindfulness in the kitchen.

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