A mouth-watering selection: 2014’s best eight cookery books

The people behind the people are the ones to watch for, and we have all been waiting for a book by Anna Jones. Who? Well, if you are a fan of Jamie Oliver, you will have read a lot of Jones. For seven years she worked as his ‘stylist, writer and food creative,’ which means, we guess, that she was behind the curtain busily pulling levers for the great wizard. He has written the foreword to his protégée’s first book, and says he’s is ‘super proud’. But so he should be, for A Modern Way to Eat (Fourth Estate £25, Spectator Bookshop, £20) is a beautiful and inspiring one, and thankfully devoid of Jamie-speak — that is, nothing is described as ‘smashing.’.

It is a book of vegetarian recipes, but carnivores, do not be put off. Let’s say it is a book of deliciously invigorating dishes that happen not to contain any flesh. Among the recipes I shall be cooking from it are the restorative coconut broth with lemongrass, lime and greens (Jones is very strong on soup); also the lemon ricotta cloud pancakes and the dosa potato cakes.

Then I shall have some meat, probably choosing a recipe from Tom Parker Bowles’ s Let’s Eat Meat (Pavilion £25, Spectator Bookshop, £20) which is a manifesto for eating better meat less often, but essentially a world tour of what you could call flesh pots from Cajun jambalaya to bun cha from Vietnam. Parker Bowles is a great traveller, and at his best unearths authentic global recipes.

The London restaurant Dabbous (in Whitfield Street) apparently stunned critics and diners when it opened in 2012. I cannot say why from personal experience, because the current waiting list for a table is four months.