It began with....

...this book. I may have possessed others initially but this was the one that began my interest in cooking. I think it was the pictures that jumped off the page at you, the scrumptious looking food, the passion with which the author Tamasin Day Lewis writes about food and taste and provenance. I was immediately hooked. With my better half as guinea pig, I attempted the glorious almond macaroon cake and Somerset apple cake, her version of Casa Moro's paella and from then have never looked back. He loved them. Alas, my copy is worn, splattered, dog eared and a survivor of other kitchen abuses, but my love for this cookbook has never been tempered by its increasingly dishevelled appearance. If you're in the market for a cookbook, I respectfully suggest this one...