A Greedy Man in a Hungry World

It's about the globalisation of high culture, the market in taste and the money spent on it. From Las Vegas to Moscow, Dubai to Tokyo and New York to London, Jay Rayner chronicles the revolution in high-end gastronomy that has been sweeping the world since the late eighties. Not simply an account of endless meals in high-end restaurants, it is an exploration of the cities and cultures in which they are found.

The 10 Commandments may have had a lot going for them, but they don't offer those of us located in the 21st century much in the way of guidance when it comes to our relationship with our food. And Lord knows we need it. Enter our new culinary Moses, the legendary restaurant critic Jay Rayner, with a new set of hand-tooled commandments for this food-obsessed age. He deals once and for all with questions like whether it is ever okay to covet thy neighbour's oxen (it is), eating with your hands (very important indeed) and if you should cut off the fat (no).

The Christmas Chronicles is the story of Nigel Slater's love for winter, for the scent of fir and spruce, for ghost stories read with a glass of sloe gin, and beeswax candles with shadows dancing on the ceiling. With recipes, decorations, fables and quick fireside suppers, Nigel guides you through the essential preparations for Christmas and the New Year, with everything you need to enjoy the winter months.

When Marco Pierre White's mother died when he was just six years old, it transformed his life. Soon his father was urging him to earn his own keep, and by 16 he was working in his first restaurant. White went on to learn from some of the best chefs in the country, such as Albert Roux, Raymond Blanc and Pierre Koffmann. He survived the intense pressure of hundred-hour weeks in the heat of the kitchen, developed his own style and then struck out on his own.

Here is Anthony Bourdain's long-awaited sequel to Kitchen Confidential, the worldwide best seller. A lot has changed since then - for the subculture of chefs and cooks, for the restaurant business, and for Anthony Bourdain. Medium Raw explores these changes, moving back and forth from the author's bad old days to the present.

In this major new history of English food, Clarissa Dickson Wright takes the reader on a journey from the time of the Second Crusade and the feasts of medieval kings to the cuisine - both good and bad - of the present day. She looks at the shifting influences on the national diet as new ideas and ingredients have arrived, and as immigrant communities have made their contribution to the life of the country. She evokes lost worlds of open fires and ice houses, of constant pickling and preserving, and of manchet loaves and curly-coated pigs.

The British have a relationship with their food that is unlike that of any other country. Once something that was never discussed in polite company, it is now something with which the nation is obsessed. But are we at last developing a food culture or are we just going through the motions? Eating for England is an entertaining, detailed, and somewhat tongue-in-cheek observation of the British and their food, their cooking, their eating, and how they behave in restaurants.

Never before have we had so much information available to us about food and health. There's GAPS, paleo, detox, gluten-free, alkaline, the sugar conspiracy, clean eating.... Unfortunately, a lot of it is not only wrong but actually harmful. So why do so many of us believe this bad science? Assembling a crack team of psychiatrists, behavioural economists, food scientists and dietitians, the Angry Chef unravels the mystery of why sensible, intelligent people are so easily taken in by the latest food fads.

Marc Basset, restaurant critic for a national newspaper, has made vitriol his trademark. His vivid cruelty makes his many readers laugh - until a chef roasts himself to death in his bread oven, leaving Bassett’s review of his restaurant stuck to the door. When Marc learns of the chef’s suicide, he experiences a new sensation - remorse. By apologising to the wife and daughter, he begins to experience levels of self-satisfaction that he never thought possible.

'All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why’. Rick Stein's childhood in 1950s rural Oxfordshire and North Cornwall was idyllic. His parents were charming and gregarious, their five children much-loved and given freedom typical of the time. As he grew older, the holidays were filled with loud and lively parties in his parents' Cornish barn. But ever-present was the unpredicatible mood of his bipolar father, with Rick frequently the focus of his anger and sadness. When Rick was 18 his father killed himself.

In his lively, unprecedented close-up portrait of Ferran Adrià, award-winning food writer Colman Andrews traces this groundbreaking chef’s rise from resort hotel dishwasher to culinary deity, and the evolution of El Bulli from a German-owned beach bar into the establishment voted annually by an international jury to be “the world’s best restaurant”.

Eating is an indispensable human activity. As a result, whether we realize it or not, the drive to obtain food has been a major catalyst across all of history, from prehistoric times to the present. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: "Gastronomy governs the whole life of man."

'I have just had one of those absolutely mad mornings when you go out to have a browse at tagines and end up coming home with a brand-new gas ring expander. I think I was probably as surprised as anybody. Sometimes life is just like that, isn't it?' Award-winning food writer Damien Trench takes you on a journey through his childhood and his early inspirations - culinary and otherwise - with occasional diversions to the present.

In this fascinating and easily digestible book, The One Show's resident scientist Marty Jopson takes us on a mouthwatering tour of the 21st-century kitchen and the everyday food miracles that we all take for granted. Ever wondered what modified starch is and why it's in so much of the food we buy? What do instant mash and freeze-dried coffee have in common? What's the real truth behind the five-second rule?

Celebrity Chef Heston Blumenthal is a gastronomic alchemist who sees the kitchen as a laboratory where he loves to experiment with new ways to tantalize diners' taste buds. The story of his life is every bit as colorful and attention-grabbing as his famous snail porridge and bacon-and-egg ice cream. This biography traces his journey from a life-changing childhood holiday in France through to his brief apprenticeship in Raymond Blanc's restaurant, where he stood up to a kitchen bully.