Eleanor Maidment

Food writer

https://www.eleanormaidment.com

Biography

Eleanor Maidment is a British food writer. She has been the Food Editor of the award-winning Waitrose Food magazine for over seven years, and has been writing about food and drink for many more. She is happiest in her test kitchen, developing simple, colourful and flavour-packed recipes for home cooks.

The Art of Simple Food

Alice Waters

This and its sequel, The Art of Simple Food II, are a pair of extraordinary books from seminal US chef Alice Waters, offering advice on technique as well as simple, seasonal recipes. It’s rare that I love a cookery book with no photography, but these are both exceptional.

Leiths Technique Bible

Susan Spall and Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne

I did my professional cookery training at Leiths cookery school in west London. This was the book we learned our classic techniques from. It’s incredibly user-friendly and helpfully tells you why things might have gone wrong.

Foolproof Indian Cookery

Madhur Jaffrey

I love all of Madhur Jaffrey’s books, but this is the one I have cooked from most. It was part of a series the BBC released on regional ‘foolproof’ cookery (Ken Hom covered Chinese, Raymond Blanc French) in about 2000, and the step-by-step recipes are refreshingly uncomplicated and easy-to-follow.

The Book of Jewish Food

Claudia Roden

A really interesting insight into the origins of Jewish cooking. Roden is a wonderful storyteller as well as recipe writer.

How to be a Domestic Goddess

Nigella Lawson

So many of my go-to classic bakes – banana bread, brownies – come from Nigella Lawson’s second book.

Delia's Complete How To Cook

Delia Smith

I’ve always been able to follow a recipe, but I think this was the first book that got me thinking about why things work in the kitchen. Delia was genuinely a culinary hero when I was growing up, and I love the way all of her recipes just work.

Ottolenghi: The Cookbook

Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

What a ground-breaking book. I think it truly change the way we cook, introducing ideas of colour, texture and so many ingredients that we hadn’t really cooked with before.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat

Samin Nosrat

Sometimes a book comes along that is just that little bit different. I think Samin’s approach to breaking down why things work in the kitchen is exciting and engaging.

Ducksoup Cookbook

Clare Lattin and Tom Hill

Admittedly I haven’t cooked anything from here, but it’s such a good-looking book… I adore its design and photography. And the restaurant is great, so I can only imagine the recipes are great too.

Food52 Genius Recipes: 100 Recipes That Will Change the Way You Cook

Kristen Miglore

A compendium of some the most clever recipes that have ever been published, and a little bit of explanation about what makes them so genius. A great read.

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What's playing in Eleanor's kitchen?

An Awesome Wave by Alt J often accompanies me on a Sunday afternoon when I’m doing my batch cooking for the week. John Legend’s Get Lifted is another favourite, and a little more upbeat.

Listen to Eleanor's playlist