New food books to get your teeth into

SOME people get excited about new season fashions, shoes, handbags and the like. Me, I get excited about new season food and cookery books, and there’s a slew of new titles lining up for publication from August into autumn. Hooray!

Even better is that Irish food publishing continues to deliver brilliant new titles by Irish authors.

This coming season sees writers covering topics from bread to cocktails, tackling food waste to mindful eating, from creative home cookery to health- boosting meals.

Here’s the lowdown on new season culinary books coming down the line, with many available to pre-order with special early bird pricing.

Wasted, Conor Spacey, Blasta Books, €15 www.blastabooks.com (publishing July)

The first book by Ireland’s foremost Zero Food Waste champion, Conor Spacey, is the much anticipated Wasted. Published by Blasta Books, and number seven in the series of small books with big voices, Wasted promises to “change your mind-set and reconnect you to real food, from the root to the tip.”

Food waste is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, either by releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere as it decays in landfill sites, or as a result of wasted resources used in the growing and rearing of plants and animals for food. Conor’s personal ethos is vegetables first, and this collection of recipes will show you how to make use of would-be veg waste by creating delicious new dishes, unlocking new flavours, saving you money, and actively contributing to reducing food waste at home.

Home Kitchen, Donal Skehan, Yellow Kite (Hatchette), €25 www.easons.com (publishing October)

Drawing on his extensive experience as a home cook and recipe creator and influenced by his love of travel and traditional Irish dishes, Donal cooks deliciously comforting meals for his family that are packed with flavour that promise to be accessible and easy to make.

This latest book is armed with recipes ready to take on the food week, with chapters such as make-ahead Sundays, everyday dinners, weekday rush, slow-cooking weekend wins, and scrumptious desserts.

The Menopause Kitchen, Rachel Graham, Gill Books, €27.99, (publishing July)

Rachel Graham, aka The Menopause Nutritionist, has sunk her experience in how to tailor diet and food for women experiencing perimenopause and menopausal change into this extensive book.

Women and health professionals alike are realising the importance of eating right to boost overall health and immunity, and build resilience in the body for life during and after menopause.

Graham knows nutrition is the key to an easier transition during this life stage, and the sooner women can get to grips with what we eat, how and when, the smoother the change will be.

The Ketogenic Kitchen, Domini Kemp and Patricia Daly, Gill Books, €26.99 (publishing August)

Both authors are experienced gastronomes, chefs, nutritional experts and cancer survivors. Their latest book continues their advocacy of ketogenic eating for the promotion of overall better health, wellbeing and weight loss, by focusing on meals that are low in carbohydrates and high in good fats. In doing so, it turns on its head the way we have been told how we should eat, and indeed is reflected in national dietary policy by way of the food pyramid. Definitely food for thought.

Irish Kitchen Cocktail, Oisín Davies, Nine Bean Rows Books, €15, www.ninebeanrowsbooks.com, (publishing October)

Ireland’s cocktail king, Oisín Davies, releases his first book showcasing Ireland’s exciting cocktail scene and celebrated spirits in a way budding home-style mixologists can enjoy. These are fun-filled cocktails that don’t require a wizard’s lab to recreate at home.

Sixty recipes (one of which even manages to make use of Club Orange!) take Oisín’s industry knowledge, strip away all the high tech equipment, and show you how to make these drinks using ordinary and everyday kitchen utensils.

Cocktail recipes are categorised, from frozen blender cocktails to hangover helpers.

Butter Boy, Paul Flynn, Nine Bean Rows Books, €35, www.ninebeanrowsbook.com (publishing September)

One of Ireland’s great chefs, Paul Flynn, owner of The Tannery restaurant and cookery school, wrote a column for The Irish Times for three years that included musings on food memories and seasonal recipes.

Butter Boy collects together all of Flynn’s writings and recipes into a monumental work that’s part memoir and part recipe book, and also chronicles how all our relationships to food changed meaning during Covid times.

Described as witty and warm, and full of simple, comforting recipes, Butter Boy will make an engaging addition to everyone’s culinary library.

Flavour, Mark Moriarty, Gill Books, €24.99, www.gillbooks.com (publishing September)

From winning the San Pellegrino Young Chef to working in Michelin kitchens, named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for innovation in the arts, and becoming a household name via his RTÉ series Off-Duty Chef, Mark Moriarty pens his first cookbook, Flavour. In the same vein as his television series, the clue of Mark’s driving ambition for this book is clearly in the title – building flavour and locking it in!

The book’s USP is about taking ordinary and everyday dishes and elevating them to the extraordinary – all without breaking a sweat.

Eat With The Seasons, Cathy Fitzgibbon, Bookhub Publishing, €21, www.theculinarycelt.com

This book launched officially while Covid restrictions were still in place, but with news of a second print run for Eat With The Seasons, Cathy decided it was time to celebrate properly with a real life launch event today, July 27.

Cathy’s book connects readers to seasonal food in a deeper way, by considering what we eat. Through the practice of mindfulness and use of journalling, the book helps us to tune into how we feel emotionally, physically and mentally during our interactions with food, and provides space for self-reflecting on our personal eating patterns.

Congratulations, Cathy!

The New Ballymaloe Bread Book (2nd Edition), Darina Allen, Gill Books, €26.99, www.easons.com

In this updated second edition of The Ballymaloe Bread Book, Darina Allen takes the mystery out of bread-baking in her effortless style of breaking down recipes into easy to follow actions that will produce great results every time. So, whether it’s sourdough or soda bread, to yeasted breads and more besides, this book will put home bread-making back on the menu.