The Dundee-born chef, who’s been at Quo Vadis restaurant in London’s Soho since 2012, has helped shape contemporary British cooking. I want to encourage someone that they can go into the kitchen and not be punished with an arduous process, but think they can go in and in half an hour make something absolutely delicious— scrambled eggs on toast, even better if you have anchovies and capers. Place one stick of salsify at the curved end, the pole so to speak of each half, and roll tightly towards the cut edge, the equator of the disc. He focussed on the very best ingredients, sourced as well as they could be and prepared in a way that was hospitable.

I imagine this is the kind of book that will age delightfully, and that my copy will become battered and stained from a long life in the kitchen, possibly with messy notes scrawled in the margins and scrappy bits of paper sticking out but will look all the better for it, to be passed on to the kids when they're older. Press the cake down lightly with the bottom of a frying pan, then cook for a further 30 minutes, until the edges of the cake have coloured deep gold.Lee and friends shot the photographs for the book at his home, for a true reflection of his cooking – the chocolate tart is a little spilled, the pastry a little blond, the plates and cookware his own.

According to Stone: “The major growth areas in the market in recent years have been healthy and vegetarian cookery and Middle Eastern cuisine, while titles that offer quick and easy recipes are always popular. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. In 2012 Jeremy and Quo Vadis won the Catey for Best Restaurant Menu of the Year and in 2013 they won the Tatler Award for Best Kitchen.The book is a freewheeling foray into the island nation’s food culture, with beautiful photographs shot on location in Sri Lanka, as well as favourite dishes from the restaurants themselves, including the hoppers (pillowy rice and coconut pancakes) for which it is named. The book is part reference and part recipe book, with chapters on the history of British cheese chronicling the industry’s many ups and downs, and the basics of how cheese is made. I have already learned new ideas and picked out a number of recipes that I am planning to cook over the next months.

The book is arranged with a chef’s eye for ingredients, and favourite things to eat throughout the seasons, rather than in courses or meals. He’s worked with Simon Hopkinson and the late, great Alastair Little, and he wrote a food column for a national broadsheet for years.

But Lee had long felt a volume of his own work may be simmering away, and when approached by Fourth Estate in about 2016 he knew it was time to make it real, eventually. I'm looking forward to getting a lot of use out of this book plus it's a perfect one to gift to foodies. It’s a vegetable that has an elegant and delicate flavour at odds with its appearance – a dark, earthy root, long and slender, enclosed in a covering of bark echoing the barren, bleak silhouettes of trees in the thrall of winter.

Books on baking continue to woo cookbook lovers, too – two books from blogger and baker Jane Dunn ( Jane’s Patisserie: Celebrate! Mervis really understands and appreciates British food, and his perspective is thought-provoking – enticing readers to enjoy all its delicious quirks and nuances. When the tarts were assembled, Mum would set to with whichever fruit was to bake within or spoon upon it – apricots or greengages, plums, prunes or apples or, a great favourite then and now, a pear and almond tart studded with shards of crystallised stem ginger. It’s a snapshot of where British cheese is now, and where it may be headed as farming practices change and the industry matures.It also came very naturally because somehow I was so fortunate to dodge the ferocious bullet of working in restaurants where you were constantly pummelled. Both asparagus and salsify, cooked and served stacked like a small bonfire, are excellent as a bite with drinks.