In a culture of celebrity chefs and food reality shows, in countries which are crammed with fresh ingredients flown in from every corner of the Earth, we nonetheless year-on-year wade ever deeper into a great swamp of processed foods. The more we watch food on television, the less food we actually prepare and cook. Michael Pollan's marvellous new book is a clarion-call for the virtues and values of proper cooking - an essential, defining human activity which sits at the heart of our cultures, shapes family life and is in itself hugely enjoyable. In a series of brilliantly observed encounters with chefs from around the world, Pollan takes us on a journey through the fundamentals of cooking, uncovering the inner mysteries of everything from tiny specks of yeast to a whole hog roast.  The result is an extremely funny and surprising book that encourages us to revel in the magical activity of making food.

At the request of his sons, Kumar Pereira created beautiful handwritten and illustrated recipes for them to cook from while he and his wife were away from home. When friends saw these lovely handcrafted designs they wanted copies too, of course, and Kumar would recreate them as gifts. Soon there were numbers of delicious recipes for everything from Crab Salad with Tomato and Green Tea Jelly to Gamma's Mango Curry to Grilled Peaches with Crushed Amaretti. Kumar's Family Cookbook collects these recipes for family meals, together with their delicate illustrations. Kumar has added dishes that he enjoyed as a child growing up in Sri Lanka, plus a smattering of dishes from countries he has visited and lived in. The result is best described by Kumar himself: 'Food is to be shared - shared with family and friends - and nothing gives me greater pleasure than cooking for those who I love and know. This is a sharing of memories, tastes and food, and it combines all that I love to do: cooking, growing produce and using what is seasonal, drawing and illustrating - a visual record of what appeals to me. I hope it gives you as much pleasure as it has given me.'

A bumper edition of recipes from the best known, best loved and the biggest selling author of books on slow cooking, Sally Wise. This combination of Slow Cooker and Slow Cooker 2 is packed full of Sally's great recipes, drawn from a collection created over thirty years of preparing tasty and economical meals for her family. Recipes include heart-warming soups, yummy mains and delectable desserts. These mouthwatering and easy-to-follow recipes will make slow cooking a cinch, all year round. It is the essential collection of slow cooker recipes for everyone needing everyday inspiration and ideas for delicious, nutritious meals.

Tessa Kiros leads us once again into a world where preparing and eating food is a joy - kitchens are filled with smells of garlic and roast potatoes and children eat fresh-baked bread where they run in from school or feast on fizzy orange and chocolate brownies in dens under trees. Tessa's recipes are delightfully entangled with memories of the energy and excitement of her own childhood and hopes for her daughters. These are recipes that have been passed from friend to friend, through the generations of many families, and swapped over garden fences. This joyful and eclectic collection is put together with the grace and honesty of a daisy chain.

Family meals have always played a significant role in the lives of the Thompson sisters - Jessica, Georgia and Maxine. So much so that they created a blog, thebookerycook.com, to celebrate their love of food. Instead of photographing their chosen dishes, however, they made contact with artists all over the world, who supplied dedicated artworks, in a huge variety of styles and media, to illustrate the recipes. This book will appeal to lovers of art as much as lovers of food, and will find its place equally in the kitchen or on the coffee table.

Reaching the semi-final of the first My Kitchen Rules series in 2011, cousins Daniela and Stefanias reputation for raucous banter and hearty cooking had them nicknamed the Italian mamas. Now they bring us their mix of traditional and contemporary Italian cooking in their first, much-anticipated cookbook. Homestyle recipes drawn from years of cooking with their mums reflect their love of family as much as their passion for cooking. Putting smiles on the faces of their family and friends makes it all worthwhile.

Because I'm often headstrong, I've sometimes interpreted classic recipes completely in my own way, and I hope you won't mind. Because I'm often impatient, I've sometimes drawn the recipes because it's faster and because at times, probably unnecessarily, I worry that you don't think in the same realm as I do, I've also added memories and photos so you get a sense of what I mean. Just like a formally decorated table, or a beautifully arranged plate, I believe that a cookbook should exude a certain spirit that I think you should be in when you get in the mood to get going in the kitchen. from the Introduction Home Made blew away readers with its stunning package, delicious recipes, beautiful photos, step by step instruction and Yvette van Boven's own handdrawn artwork throughout the book. Yvette's passion for great food, beauty and good humor could be felt on every page in the book. Now, in Home Made Winter, her heartfelt work is presented again, this time with recipes intended for the winter season. Inspired by her childhood in Ireland and her frequent sojourns in France, Yvette van Boven has created a collection of recipes that will warm your heart. Chapters include Breakfast, Brunch & Lunch; Pies and sweet things for Tea Time; Beverages; To Start; and Dessert. She focuses on simple recipes for classic dishes that everybody thought were complicated to make, like croquettes, pulled pork and apple cider. Step by step, she explains how to make butter, beef sausage, and baileys. She also features winter holiday recipes. This book is sure to become the next musthave among home cooks.

For Chung Jae Lee, born in the busy city of Seoul many moons ago, food has always been a huge factor in his life. Koreans love to eat and the food must always be delicious. Chung Jae shares his favourite and most popular Korean recipes, introducing the home cook to Korean food with traditional Korean eats and his versions of Korean favourites. With simple steps and easy to find ingredients, learn how to cook some of Korea's most-loved food, with a modern twist, including bulgogi, bimibap, Korean barbeque, Jaeyuk gui, seafood pancake, kimchi and twist donuts. Chung Jae shows how easy cooking Korean food can be from party food and mains, to sweets, sauces and sides, this is food you will love eating.

Nothing conveys our interdependence more compellingly than the food we eat. It builds our physical resilience, brings us joy, and strengthens our bonds with family and friends. The recipes in this uplifting book celebrate this truth. They come from the women living in the war-torn countries in which WfWI operate. Recipes also come from renowned international chefs such as Alice Waters, Maggie Beer and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, and humanitarians such as Aung San Suu Kyi, Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Emma Thompson, Richard Branson, Paul McCartney and Mia Farrow. Illustrated with stunning photography of the countries as well as the food, they cover everyday dishes, family meals, and recipes perfect for sharing and celebrating. They range from traditional Afghani bichak pastries and Congolese sticky doughnuts, to spicy cashew and tomato soup, beef rendang and orange-scented almond cake. Interspersed throughout are inspiring stories from the women whose lives have been changed through the intervention of WfWI. All the royalties from the book will support WfWI's farming and food training initiatives, as well as provide micro-financing in the eight countries in which WfWI operate - Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Sudan.

In the Toscano's Italian Family Recipes, Jo Toscano shares three generations' worth of expert tips and tricks when it comes to selecting and preparing fresh produce, as well as some of the favourite recipes of her food-loving family.

Curtis Stone, host of Arena's hugely popular Top Chef Masters and the Discovery Channel's Around the World in 80 Plates, provides a culinary road map of time-saving kitchen solutions and delicious dishes for every day of the week. We're all busy. We can all appreciate using a recipe that we know will cut down on time, expense and even dishes. Curtis Stone maintains that the first step to ensuring a successful meal is to achieve confidence in the kitchen, and so this classically trained, world-renowned, celebrity chef has provided home cooks of all levels with 130 effortless, but inspired, fail-proof recipes that showcase ingredients and can be cooked quickly on any night of the week. He also provides dozens of notes on techniques, tricks and shortcuts that will make home cooking a fun and flavoursome experience for the whole family. Curtis's philosophy is cook, create, celebrate - and these dishes do just that.

Wholefood Baking combines two of wholefoods expert Jude Blereau's great loves. Thoroughly researched and beautifully photographed, this book includes failsafe recipes for more than 120 cakes, scones, biscuits and pastries as well as delectable creams and icings and jams. This book is ideal for every passionate baker, but especially those of us who want to cook for our families and friends in the healthiest way possible.

More than 100 sumptuous recipes for cakes, slices, brownies, muffins, biscuits and cookies, sweet treats, drinks and desserts. What's your favourite? A chocolate brownie or two? A hot chocolate drink on a chilly day? A chocolate mousse that you definitely won't share? People who love chocolate simply can't get enough of it, which is why this wicked collection of recipes taking you from breakfast to night-time, with lots of chocolatey opportunities in between, hits the right spot. Muffins, cupcakes, special-occasion cakes and desserts, drinks, puddings, pies, tarts and melt-in-the-mouth sweets and candies... they're all here in all their rich splendour. With step-by-step techniques for cooking with chocolate and information on the many different types you can buy, this naughty but nice book is the ultimate treat.

Karen Martini's food philosophy is based on fresh produce and big flavours, offering simple, accessible cooking in her own inimitable style. This impressive compilation brings together 170 of Karen's most enduring recipes from her popular cookbooks Where the Heart is, Cooking at Home and Feasting. Whether you're cooking for one, two, a family or a crowd, Karen's recipes will give you all the inspiration you need to create and celebrate.