You can always rely on Anne Willan, proprietor of the La Varenne cookery school, to produce interesting, worthwhile books, and her newest title, Cooked to Perfection is no exception. "This book began in the kitchen, as does much in our house. `That looks done to me,' I said one day as a student lifted a roast chicken out of the oven. And then I thought - how do I know? Cooking is a skill learned by experience, and nothing is more difficult than judging when a dish is cooked to perfection," she writes in the introduction. The book then explores the whole idea of appreciating just when something is properly cooked, and just about everything from soup to nuts then comes under the microscope. There are lots of tips and helpful suggestions, and this is a wise, mature work, beautifully produced.
Anne Willan, Cooked to Perfection (Quadrille £25)