Victoria Prever

Food Editor, Jewish Chronicle

https://www.thejc.com/landing/Author/The%20Fresser

Biography

Food editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Victoria Prever, left a legal career in 2003 to indulge her love of food and train as a professional chef at Leith's School of Food and Wine. Since then, she has written for the Hampstead and Highgate Express as their restaurant critic; as a private caterer and taught at cookery schools, including Leith’s and Good Housekeeping. She has been at the Jewish Chronicle since 2011. Victoria is also a freelance food writer and food consultant working with various food brands on recipe and website development.

Real Fast Food

Nigel Slater

I’m a huge fan of Nigel’s books. This was one that I’ve been back to time and time again and still refer to. I love the simplicity.

How To Eat: The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food

Nigella Lawson

Her first book and one I’ve grown up cooking from. I have most of her books but this is my oldest friend.

Gorgeous Cakes

Annie Bell

My go-to when I need any cake. I do look at the more recent cake books like Hummingbird and Primrose Bakery, but this has my heart.

Leith's Cookery Bible

Prue Leith and Caroline Waldegrave

I trained at Leith’s and my copy has lost both covers and is full of handwritten notes, plus my own recipes stapled onto what’s left of the front pages. A lot of basics and classics come from here.

The Modern Vegetarian

Maria Elia

I have three books by the wonderful Maria, whose flavours are superb. Her tomato, feta, almond and date baklava was the first savoury version I’d tried and I was hooked.

New Feast: Modern Middle Eastern Vegetarian

Greg Malouf and Lucy Malouf

I totally love the fresh ingredients and Middle Eastern style of this book. One I return to regularly.

Ready for Dessert

David Lebovitz

The King of dessert is one of my favourites. I love his ice cream recipe book too, so it was a toss up between them, but this had a slightly bigger range.

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

I could have chosen a few of this lovely man’s books. I love the first one as I’ve probably cooked more from it than any of the others. A classic.

The Cook's Companion

Stephanie Alexander

I bought this book with a book voucher prize I won when I graduated from Leith’s. It’s an encyclopaedia of ingredients, and packed with useful information, from tips on how to store and prepare ingredients, to lists of other foods that the ingredient you are looking up goes with. There is a wide range of recipes for each one and a large introductory section on basic cooking methods. I could spend hours browsing and head to it when needing inspiration. Alexander is a national treasure in her native Australia and I love the antipodean influence.

Honey & Co: The Baking Book

Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer

These two Israeli chefs are totally without airs and graces and their books read like love stories. I love both books, but my sweet tooth could not leave this off my list.

Follow Victoria Prever

What's playing in Victoria's kitchen?

tend to listen to speech radio (Radio 4) or a mixture of speech and music (Radio 2) in the kitchen. I like to feel someone is keeping me company.