JEREMY LEE of Quo Vadis in London rolled into town last week and gave a hilarious one-day course at Ballymaloe Cookery School.

Tommy Barker says a new book by Joy Larkcom ‘the queen of vegetable growing’ can be easily dipped into, and out of, like a cut-and-come salad

Cookbooks now make up half of all non-fiction bestsellers’ lists. Ahead of TasteFest Cork, local foodie Joe McNamee says his favourite Father’s Day gift is a good food tome packed with mouth-watering pictures and delicious treats.

I’VE GOT every book that Elizabeth David wrote, in my library. She was unquestionably one of the most superb cooking writers of all time and if I had to choose just one book from the close to 2,000 volumes I have it would have to be French Provincial Cookery.

I BET lots of you have a book token or two or tucked away somewhere since Christmas, so before they get lost here are a few suggestions for cookery books that have caught my fancy in the past few months.

Medium Raw

“The key is the produce and the produce is king. Elizabeth David’s famous quote ‘first catch your chicken’ comes to mind. So, for a decent crab salad first catch your crab!”.

THE British Guild of Food Writers was founded on April 12, 1984, when a small group of food writers met over a superb lunch, amongst them Jane Grigson, Elizabeth David, Arabella Boxer and Michael Smith.

“IT’S a job for life,” says Ber Pey, surveying the tanking operation that’s been completed in the ground floor of 3 Newenham Terrace.