Top eight recipes books for Christmas

THERE’S never any shortage of cookbooks at this time of year. Publishers know they make great gifts, as do those who give gifts they want to last.

A good cookbook will offer a fresh take on everyday foods and introduce some new ideas into your cooking regime. It’s unlikely you’ll try every recipe but even a handful of new favourites will make it a worthwhile investment, to be revisited over and over.

Food needs not only to taste good but to look good too. And here’s where every good cookery book comes into its own with top- notch pictures of dishes — often in rustic settings — that simply beg to be cooked and eaten. There are plenty of new books by TV chefs from Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood, Jamie Oliver, to more local Catherine Fulvio and Rachel Allen, but this year I have stuck with other Irish cooks and publishers, some of them new to us, some them rediscovered.