Cookbooks

Celebrate the colors and flavors of fall with bright orange squash and sweet golden raisins contrasting the dark, earthy kale and a pungent roasted garlic dressing.

You’ve probably never thought of throwing some brisket on the barbie, but this recipe will totally convert you. It’s all about giving this underrated cut the attention it deserves – let the dry marinade flavors penetrate and tenderize the brisket and I promise once it hits the barbecue, the aroma will blow your mind! And the pickled fennel? You won’t believe how good it tastes either.

Roasted broccoli and seitan add bulk to this vegan burger from Tyler Kord, chef at cult favorite sandwich shop No. 7 Sub in New York City.

This wheat- and refined sugar-free crumble is a healthier way to bake with the season’s ripe berries.

I have had this served with chopped avocado, beans, rice, and all sorts. So please do feel free to include one (or all) of those as an accompaniment if you fancy it.

These berries don’t need much cooking time to stew down. However, you can change the fruits to apples, pears or even quinces and cook them in the slow cooker on low for about 5 hours. Let the slow cooker revolution continue! Best way forward for this brekky is to cook the fruit (frozen works well, too) and oats in batches so you have enough to last you throughout the week.

Fresh, crisp, sweet and salty, this is my go-to summer salad. Using in-season fruit in salads always makes for a refreshing change.

Sliders are simple, but perfecting them is a bit of an art. It’s all about getting the three main components—the sauce, the filling and the bread—in the right ratio. We’ve got the sauce and filling covered, so all you need to do is get some fresh bread.

Using yogurt instead of oils to make tartar sauce does three things: it lowers the fat content; gives it a zingy yoghurt tang; and also brings probiotic cultures into your diet. It’s a win, win, win.

Serve this tangy vinegar-based slaw with roasted pork or Guy Turland's smoky Barbecue Brisket

An indication of knowing someone really well is knowing which foods they love, like, and hate. My father loves this recipe, and I was told by Kyria Loula, who knew him as a boy, that it had to go into the book just for him. If you follow his taste buds, the more garlic the better. If you follow mine, start slow, taste as you go, and add more garlic as needed.

To make the best use of your time, prepare the deceptively delicious cherry sauce while the corn cake is baking. The cake is best served either warm or at room temperature, with the stewed cherries spooned over the top. Since frozen cherries are available year-round, you’ll never need to wait for cherry season to enjoy this dessert.

This recipe warms the heart of my big sister, Omolola. She insists that she can’t make it like I can, but I reckon she just likes being pampered once in a while. Don’t we all. Yam can be a little dry on its own but this mash is silky smooth, with the coconut giving it a richness.

You’ll need some lollipop sticks for this recipe. We found some interesting yellow serving sticks that worked well at dinner, but if worse comes to worst you can use cocktail sticks.

This is the dish that first got me into cooking. Talking about it got me my first job in a kitchen, and together with the help of friends, local restaurants, and family it’s the recipe we have worked on the most for this book, because we all know how good it should be. If I could only eat one thing in the world it would probably be my grandma’s jollof. She would regularly cook a big pot with care and patience and insist that everyone took home a small container of it. Cooking the rice and storing it for the following day or to give to friends to take away is part of a sharing culture that surrounds jollof—just remember to return the Tupperware!

Replacing soda water with a beer float makes for a frothy, refreshing twist on the Americano, a classic Italian cocktail.

Created to incorporate the seasonally grown herbs from our rooftop garden, this unique cocktail is one of my summertime favorites. The pot still Irish gin has a soft and floral profile, so if you’re unable to procure it, I would go with one of the recently released lower-alcohol gins of your choice, steering clear of juniper-heavy renditions. The ingredients complement each other so well, you can’t help but taste something distinctive and different in every sip. It’s a must-try.

Of all the cocktails associated with or attributed to the Hotel, not one—not even the venerable Rob Roy—was as popular as the Bronx. Sometimes referred to as the Cosmopolitan of its day, it was one of the most requested cocktails prior to Prohibition.

Everyone should have an house spritz—a seasonal standard whose proportions are known by heart and ingredients are stocked easily. This is ours. A simple riff on the classic spritz formula originally built to highlight Lini’s fruity, irresistible lambrusco rosato, this has become a spring-summer staple for both of us. Gentian-tinged Cocchi Americao plays the bitter role, while sour grapefruit acts as a foil to its sweetness, simultaneously pumping up the volume on the lambrusco. Built in a pitcher or portioned out in a wine glass, it’s a drink that embodies the spritz philosophy of being both beautiful and simple.

Inspired by a cocktail from New York City bartender Natasha David, the crimson-colored Tarocco Spritz is a nod to the flavor and color of the Sicilian Tarocco orange, often referred to as the “half-blood orange.” A mixed-heritage cocktail, this drink has a bumped-up base of gin to match the vibrant bitter aperitivo liqueur Cappelletti. The drink’s acidity comes courtesy of blood orange, lemon juice, and prosecco, bound together by the unlikely addition of vanilla, which complements Cappelletti’s notes of spice and oxidation.