Tom Parker Bowles’s cookbooks of the year

Claudia Roden has a new book out, Med: A Cookbook. It is a reason to celebrate. She is a wonderful writer, with her knowledge and warm personality. These recipes are not just united by the great sea but also by a feeling of simplicity, purity and the basic joy of eating. (Ebury, £28)

Nigel Slater is another rarity writer whose prose is beautifully matched by the warmth and beauty of his recipes. A Cook’s Book is billed as the ‘essential Nigel Slater’. With recipes like ‘A cure for a cold, a hangover, everything really…’, as well as sections on crumbles and the roast potato, this is him at his most beguiling. (HarperCollins, £30)

Rachel Roddy’s deep understanding of Italian cuisine is always available. An A-Z of Pasta is perhaps her best yet (and that’s saying something), as much work of reference as cookbook, filled with ‘Stories, shapes, sauces, recipes’. Recipes to delight, writing to enjoy. (Penguin, £25)

Max’s Picnic Book by Max Halley and Ben Benton is no normal outdoor eating tome, rather an inspired and rather brilliant collection of picnic ‘menus’ inspired by the likes of Hunter S Thompson, Genghis Khan and Amy Winehouse. They have some great recipes. It is an al fresco masterpiece that can be steamed (or sometimes boiled) to perfection. (Hardie Grant, £16.99)

The pandemic caused difficulties for British artisans cheese. So what better way to celebrate this great art than A Cheesemonger’s Compendium of British and Irish Cheese, written by Ned Palmer? Beautifully illustrated by Claire Littlejohn, it’s a modern cheese classic. (Profile, £14.99)

I love the cooking of Virgilio Martínez – who is one of Peru’s finest chefs – and The Latin American Cookbook covers well-known cuisines, as well as those smaller countries, often overlooked. This book is fascinating and comprehensive, but it’s also very important. (Phaidon, £35)

Similarly evocative to Mandy Yin’s Sambal Shiok (see below) is Vina Patel’s From Gujarat With Love, a paean to the vegetarian cuisine of this western Indian state. You will be returning to this book again and again because it is vibrant and joyful. (Pavilion, £20)

Tim Anderson’s latest book, Your Home Izakaya, is a tribute to that Japanese institution the izakaya, a mix between tapas bar and pub. The strong, spicy and salty flavours are a common theme in many (but not all) of the flavors. Anderson deftly captures the essence of the izakaya’s laid-back, ‘anything goes’ charm. (Hardie Grant, £25)

Ciudad de México is Edson Diaz-Fuentes’s love letter to his native Mexico City, one of the greatest eating places on earth. We are taken through the typical day by him, including chilaquiles verdes and breakfast tintos divorciados as well as late night pibil ribs. The city is alive with its intoxicating and greedy energy. (Hardie Grant, £26)

Sambal Shiok was by no means London’s first Malaysian restaurant (obviously!), but it’s certainly one of its best. Mandy Yin, the restaurant’s founder, has written a Malaysian cookbook that manages to be both authoritative and deeply personal, a chilli, curry leaf and lemongrass-scented delight. (Quadrille, £25)

Asador and bar 44 are owned by Owen Morgan and Tom Morgan, brothers who have some of the finest Spanish cuisine in America. Tapas Y Copas is their first book. It’s full of Iberian beauty, both classic and modern, and it gets battered and splattered from constant use. (Poetry Wales, £25)

Finally, Chefs at Home, a book of recipes from Britain’s leading chefs (everyone from Jamie, Gordon and Heston to Angela Hartnett, Andrew Wong and Clare Smyth), written during lockdown, with all proceeds going to the brilliant Hospitality Action. Charity is sweeter than ever before. (Jon Croft, £26)