Cooking up a storm

Cookbooks have come a long way since the first one was published 3,500 years ago.

Today, they make up seven of the top 20 best-selling books. But foodies know they’re not just about the recipes — they’re about creating a lifestyle. Here, Joe McNamee and three well-known Irish faces pay homage to the genre.

A history of the cookbook could well be divided into two parts. The first, spanning roughly 3,500 years and largely the province of academic epicureans, begins with recipes written on clay tablet (Babylonian, from 1500BC), followed by a nod to Apicius, a Roman collection put together in 400-500AD.