Pies have always been synonymous with humour (what would Charlie Chaplin have done without them?). But cakes? The moment you see the pink-iced baby shower cake picturing Darth Vader cradling a baby girl, you’ll get the joke. And when you see symmetrical rows of naked mohawked babies astride lurid icing carrots, you’ll be hooked. Jen Yates’ Cake Wrecks blog, documenting disastrous professionally made cakes, is an internet phenomenon, gaining her a cult following to rival Christian (Stuff White People Like) Lander. Here, she gathers over 150 of the best (or rather, worst) of her finds – some unintentionally suggestive, some grotesque, many just plain bizarre. A simple idea, perfectly executed. Pity we couldn’t say the same about the cakes...

Coco presents 100 of the best emerging chefs from around the world selected by 10 superstar chefs: Ferran Adrià, Mario Batali, Shannon Bennett, Alain Ducasse, Fergus Henderson, Yoshihiro Murata, Gordon Ramsay, René Redzepi, Alice Waters and Jacky Yu. Local talents Mark Best (Sydney’s Marque Restaurant), Robert Marchetti (Sydney’s Icebergs and Melbourne’s Giuseppe Arnaldo & Sons), Andrew McConnell (Melbourne’s Cutler & Co and Cumulus Inc) and Ben Shewry (Melbourne’s Attica) join 96 global peers in being profiled with a sample menu and signature recipes accompanied by colour photographs of their restaurant and dishes. Part cookbook, part guide to the world’s best new restaurants and part who’s who of the international food scene, Coco is the perfect Christmas gift for serious foodies.

Jake Smith takes a light-hearted look at the changing tastes of royalty over the past 150 years to expose the excesses and idiosyncratic fancies of true high-end dining. There are elaborate menu cards from such events as the dinner Queen Victoria hosted for the future Tsar Nicholas II and the 12-course feasts prepared by her kitchen of 45 staff. It’s a chatty read, covering wartime rationing, cooking for presidents in the White House and Buckingham Palace’s modern-day F-Branch (the royal kitchens), revealing the little-known fact that Prince Charles enjoys a boiled egg with Vegemite after a spot of hunting or polo. Perhaps avoiding the stuffed boar’s head and spit-roasted songbirds, home cooks can try their hand at reproducing Edward VII’s cherry tart or Tsar Nicholas II’s roast venison.

If your dinner parties have lost that mystery ingredient, this latest offering from Lonely Planet may spice up your menu. You could start with basic oddballs like haggis or our very own Vegemite then progress to Sweden’s fermented herring or Cambodia’s deep-fried tarantulas. Or perhaps your dish is missing fish sperm or a healthy dash of chicken knee? Make mine an extra-large serve of the enticingly named ‘pure pork fat’ all the way from the Ukraine. There are more than 50 dishes to choose from, including tips on how they’re cooked. To whet your appetite, each dish is detailed with an impressive image and tips on where to sample a bite of the world’s most challenging nosh. It’s the ideal stocking filler for gallivanting gastronomes.

Jane Kennedy is best known as a member of Working Dog, a collaborator (and often actor) on smash-hit projects such as Frontline and The Panel. Here, she confesses her long, seesaw battle with her weight (including the ‘starvation and fags’ diet that enabled her to fit into her tiny Funky Squad costumes) and shares her long-term recipe for losing it – literally. Here are 80 simple, familyfriendly dishes she’s honed through lots of experimentation in the kitchen. They’re packed with figure-friendly flavour (fresh herbs, spices, good olive oil, sea salt) rather than fatty creams and sugars and, importantly, they’re not boring. Jane loves food – she just loves the idea of wearing Bettina Liano jeans, too.

Je Sais Cuisiner (I Know How to Cook) is to French cuisine what Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion is to Australian – the definitive guide to quality home cooking. A bestseller for three generations, it was first published in 1932 and is still a fixture in most French kitchens. Mathiot guides the reader through all the basics of her national cuisine, and her instructions are clear, practical and comprehensive. More than 1200 recipes mean that the book can rightfully claim to be an authoritative compendium of every classic French dish, from croque monsieur to cassoulet, crêpes suzette to crème caramel. All have been carefully updated to suit modern readers and their kitchens, while preserving the integrity of the original book and the authenticity of the recipes.

If you’ve ever dreamed of picking fresh salad leaves for the evening meal, gathering vine-ripened tomatoes or pulling up your own sweet carrots, this is the book for you. Follow in the footsteps of one of Australia’s bestloved cooks and food writers as she reveals the secrets of rewarding kitchen gardening. Be encouraged by detailed gardening notes that explain how adults and children alike can plant, grow and harvest 73 different vegetables, herbs and fruit, and try some of the 250 recipes that will transform your fresh produce into delicious meals. Whether you have a large plot in a suburban backyard or a few pots on a balcony, you will find everything you need to get started in this inspiring and eminently useful garden-to-table guide.

This is the world’s classic culinary reference book, known and loved for its authoritative and comprehensive collection of recipes. Here it is brought up to date for 2009 in an attractive edition containing over 900 new colour and black-and-white photographs. All chapters have been read and edited by field specialists, 85 biographies of chefs have been added and entries have also been regrouped for increased accessibility. Originally created by Prosper Montagne and published in 1938, this essential addition to any kitchen has withstood the test of time and become an invaluable source of information for every enthusiastic cook.

Leading British plant expert Mark Griffiths fell in love with the lotus after receiving a gift of 3000-year-old seeds from a Japanese visitor. (‘You’re obsessed,’ his wife told him. Soon after, he decided to embark on this biography – thus legitimising his obsession.) Here, he traces the plant’s history, unearthing a wealth of fascinating information about the plant’s meaning in various cultures (Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, India) by immersing himself in lotus lore in museums and libraries – and then embarks on a literal journey to trace the origins of the lotus in Japan. Once there, he finds himself amidst a 12,000-year epic ‘populated with as many princes and poets as plant people, set in restaurants and DIY superstores as well as temples and wetlands’.

The recent release of Nora Ephron’s film Julie & Julia is bound to re-ignite interest in this classic cookbook, which was first published in 1961. This affordable new edition includes each of the original’s 524 recipes as well as the introduction Julia Child wrote for the anniversary edition in 2003, and it will delight both seasoned cooks and enthusiastic novices. When it was published, Mastering the Art of French Cooking took the revolutionary approach of leading the aspiring cook stepby- step from the buying and handling of fresh raw ingredients, through each essential step of the recipe (however simple) to the final creation. It helped people produce really wonderful food – food that tasted good, looked good and was a delight to eat. Also available: Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol. 2 (PB $39.95).

The Greeks seem to have a word for everything, and Greek-Australian Maria Benardis’ fabulous book highlights one that hasn’t yet gained prominence: kerasma, the sharing of food with loved ones. As well as a great range of recipes, this tome is full of recollections of Hellenic life, family snaps and snippets of epicurean lore that make clear the important roles that food preparation and communal dining play in Greek culture. All the usual culinary suspects are here – dolmades, calamari, moussaka and baklava – but also lesser-known traditional fare from Easter treats to spoon sweets, and earthy recipes with wild greens, goat or rabbit. Featuring Alan Benson’s delectable photography, My Greek Family Table will have you salivating and hankering for a Greek island.

This book is Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers’ celebration of the classic food of Italy – the traditional, regional dishes they both love to eat on their travels, and which they are inspired to cook at their famous London restaurant, The River Café, on their return. The 11 chapters focus on every part of the Italian menu: soups, pasta and gnocchi, risotto and polenta, breads and pizza, fish, meat, poultry and game, sauces and stocks, vegetables and salads, sorbets and ice-creams, and cakes. Recipes are simple, relying on felicitous combinations of fresh ingredients for their wow factor (which they have in spades). Handsomely presented with full-page colour photographs galore, this is an essential addition to every home cook’s kitchen.

Anyone left doubting Stéphane Reynaud’s devotion to meat after reading his bestselling debut Pork & Sons need only flick through his latest offering, Rôtis, to be thoroughly convinced. Boldly asserting that roasts aren’t just for Sundays, Reynaud gives us 100 good reasons to turn up the heat with meat, giving step-by-step instructions and loads of recipes for roasting beef, chicken, game, lamb, veal and pork. He even makes some concessions to non-carnivores, with chapters on roasting fish and on vegetables and side dishes. These aren’t the overcooked, stringy, Gravox-coated roasts of the traditional Australian kitchen. Instead, delights such as roast rack of lamb with pistachios or slow-cooked pork loin with ginger are offered for our delectation.

Familiar from Better Homes and Gardens, TV presenter Monica Trápaga put together this collection of ‘favourite family recipes for a daughter to take on her own life journey’ when her own daughter flew the nest. To get things started in the first-timer’s kitchen there are pantry essentials, a guide to cooking utensils, favourite herbs to grow, plus recipes for easy standards such as zucchini and corn fritters, spag bog, roast beef, chocolate brownies and lemon slice. She’s Leaving Home also includes more unusual recipes from the author’s travels around the globe, party food, comfort food and family recipes inspired by Trápaga’s Spanish heritage. The book has a cheerful scrapbook design and is colourfully illustrated with collages, pen and ink drawings, doodles and family photos.

Following on from the international bestseller The Silver Spoon (Phaidon. HB. $69.95) – considered by many experts to be the definitive Italian cookbook – The Silver Spoon Book of Pasta presents a collection of 350 pasta recipes for lovers of the iconic Italian dish. From favourites such as spaghetti alla carbonara and tagliatelle Bolognese to more unusual offerings such as spaghetti with bottarga (roe) and chestnut flour taglierini with onion butter, this is the ultimate pasta reference work – if you can’t find a tempting pasta recipe in these pages, you may as well give up. Use it regularly and you may even end up looking like Sophia Loren (‘Everything you see I owe to spaghetti’).

It’s hard to imagine a more knowledgeable and inspiring guide to the vibrant world of Thai street food than internationally renowned chef and Thai food expert, David Thompson. Join him on a whirlwind tour of the markets, curry shops and stir-fry stalls of Thailand – and then try your hand at cooking the fast, fresh and irresistible food that sustains a nation. Recipes include crunchy prawn cakes, pat thai, sweet banana roti, steamed fish curry and pork hocks braised with star anise – yum! Earl Carter’s photo essays of Thai street life and exquisite food photography make Thai Street Food as much an art reference as it is a culinary one – a stunning gift for lovers of food, travel and photography.

Take an imaginary journey across Bella Italia with Elena Kostioukovitch as she identifies the diverse dishes and ingredients associated with Italy’s 20 regions. A rich mélange of history, travel, culture and food, the book identifies the regions’ various gastronomic emblems – bistecca Fiorentina, risotto Milanese, radicchio Trevisano, insalata Caprese – along with the cheeses, wines, breads and other staples that make travelling through Italy such a gastronomic delight. Packed with anecdotes, evocative photos and insightful snippets of information about Italy, Italians, recipes, restaurants, traditions and celebrations, Kostioukovitch’s diverting and well-researched book is sure to have food-loving Italophiles reaching for their pasta pot and passport.

A mouth-watering collection of easy-to-cook recipes from the much-loved Sydney restaurant.

Subtitled ‘a botanical bible’, The Constant Gardener is the holy grail of gardening books – the trusted bookshelf friend for gardeners. From tips for beginners through to providing inspiration for garden features and design, it includes everything the basic gardener and beyond needs in the one book. Features include an A to Z of Holly’s favourite plants; the use of garden elements such as climbers, hedges and lawns; and a chapter covering garden maintenance: soil, mulch, pruning, propagation, pests and weeds. Kerr Forsyth, whose stunning garden photography is featured throughout the book, is the author of four books on gardening, including the recently released Gardens of Eden (Miegunyah. HB. $60), and has been the Weekend Australian garden columnist for a decade.

A moving memoir about fathers and sons, filled with great characters, plenty of hilarity and some quiet tears.

A collection of the cravat-wearing food critic’s irreverent, intelligent and amusing writings.

Horsfall shows how to grow food at home, giving advice on growing plants from seeds, making fertiliser and efficient watering methods.

Adventure into 34 diverse and fascinating cuisines with the presenter of SBS’s popular cooking programme. Delicious discoveries and foolproof recipes.

The top 20 contestants from MasterChef share recipes they created on the show, accompanied by recipes and tips from top chefs. NB: December release.

Frank Camorra runs Melbourne’s most popular Spanish restaurant, and has titled this book in its honour. Like the food served up at MoVida, there’s an emphasis here on simplicity; Camorra encourages home cooks to buy the best local produce available, be led by the season and enjoy the cooking process. There’s a huge array of tapas dishes to prepare as well as loads of mains, including a chapter on rice (if you’ve ever wanted to cook paella, this book will show you how to do it properly) and one on smallgoods (you can even impress guests with some home-made chorizo). With plenty of information about Spanish ingredients, cooking methods and culinary traditions, MoVida captures the essence and exuberance of Spanish cuisine.

Here, chef and restaurateur Frank Camorra returns to his native Spain in a welcome follow-up to his bestselling first cookbook. In MoVida Rustica, Frank delivers many traditional as well as innovative recipes that are inspired by his travels and have been perfected for the home cook. From the nation’s bustling capital, Madrid, to the Basque seaside towns and the Sherry Triangle of rustic Andalucía, MoVida Rustica highlights the pillars of Spanish cooking and the culture in which the food is grown, prepared and eaten. Follow Frank as he gets to know matriarch Herminda, strolls across the Santiago Market and visits the kitchen gardens of Salamanca to understand what defines traditional Spanish food.

Italian-born, Melbourne-based chef and cooking teacher Rosa Mitchell presents easy-to-cook and delicious Sicilian recipes.

You’re in the local garden centre and you come across a Baronne Prévost rose with its large lilac-pink flowers, prompting you to ask yourself, ‘Who on earth was Baronne Prévost?’ Well, thanks to gardening writer Roger Mann’s Naming the Rose, now you can find out. This pictorial is a rose-lover’s journey through the history of the rose, with biographical portraits of the men and women who gave the blooms their names. Lavishly photographed, this who’s who in the rose world covers everyone from Napoleon and Edna Walling to Handel and the Princess of Wales. Surprisingly, Picasso has his own rose and happily accepted the honour. Even more surprisingly, Gertrude Stein, famous for her quote ‘a rose is a rose is a rose’, is still waiting.

An activist’s call to arms to all citizens – greenfingered, green-thinking or just curious – to transform public spaces into oases of colour and life.

After building a cult following with the quirky and utterly irresistible Pork & Sons (Phaidon. HB. $59.95), Stéphane Reynaud has followed up with Ripailles (Feasts), a homage to the types of dishes served at the traditional Sunday lunches of his French childhood. Like its predecessor, this book is both gorgeous to look at and very practical to use. Users will love the twin indexes – one by ingredient and one by type – and appreciate the useful charts throughout (how best to cook particular cuts of meat, how to open oysters, how to recognise types of mushrooms etc). Forget fussy dishes that take hours to prepare; this book is full of terrines, tarts, stews, salads and roasts that are as easy on the eye and the palate as they are to cook. Bon appétit!

A mouth-watering memoir from food writer Del Conte, author of revolutionary books that inspired today’s generation of British cooks.

With Secrets of the Red Lantern: Stories and Vietnamese Recipes from the Heart, Sydney chef Pauline Nguyen has written an unusual and very moving cookbook/ memoir. Nguyen’s family came to Australia as refugees from Vietnam in the late 1970s, and here she recounts the story of forging her new life in Cabramatta. Growing up with emotionally distant restaurateur parents was clearly difficult, but Nguyen acknowledges the influence her mother and father have had on her life and career, and in many ways this book is a tribute to them. If you’re a devotee of Vietnamese cuisine and are keen to emulate some of the classic dishes in your own kitchen, this richly designed book will show you how.

The chef and owner of internationally renowned restaurant Vue de Monde takes us on a personal tour of Paris. NB: December release.

Both a biography of the great Kent estate with its famous garden, and Nicholson’s story of taking an inheritance and steering it in a new direction.

This vibrant visual and culinary essay follows Luke Nguyen, owner-chef of Sydney’s Red Lantern Vietnamese restaurant, as he travels to Vietnam to discover the best of the country’s regional cooking. Luke visits family and friends, and is invited into the homes of local Vietnamese food experts and cooks to learn more about one of the richest, most diverse cuisines in the world. His trip takes him from the villages and hills around Sapa, in the northwest, to Hanoi, renowned for its French-Vietnamese cuisine. He explores the imperial cooking of Hue, discovers the famed cau lau noodles of Hoi An, tastes a host of simple seafood dishes along the coast and finishes his journey in Saigon. Along the way, Luke collects over 100 regional and family recipes, which are presented here with stunning full-page photographs.

Ian Hemphill’s name has long been synonymous with herbs. His parents established a herb and spice business back in the 1950s, and today Ian runs the Herbie’s Spice specialty shop with his wife, Elizabeth, in Sydney. The Hemphills’ cook’s guide is both a manual to selecting, using and storing culinary herbs and spices, and a compendium of more than 150 recipes featuring the A to Z of aromatic leaves, powders and seeds that can transform a dull meal into a taste sensation. Essential background on herbs and spices is provided, along with cook’s notes and tips on growing herbs. A handy addition to any cook’s library, complete with flavoursome recipes.