大象传媒

After a lifetime of loving cookery books, I'm afraid the internet has become my sole source of recipes.
The problem with cookery books is that by the time you've taken your household's likes/dislikes and dietary requirements into account, there's only a handful of recipes that can be used. My husband is lactose-intolerant and doesn't like fish, so that's knocked two out of every three recipes on the head. Dinner parties pose similar problems, 'Amy doesn't like vinegar, so that dressing is out, Bob doesn't like fruit with meat, so we can't have that lovely lamb dish with apricots...'
With the internet I can type in the ingredients and go straight to the dishes I can cook.
It's a great shame because cookbooks are often things of beauty, wonderfully produced. I spent a great deal of my life designing and preparing books for print, so I feel a traitor to now confess that it's the internet for me every time.
Food blogs - that's the way ahead.

I have seen the future...it is 'app', how horrid. Could we be saying goodbye to the future passing down the family of treasured well used books with little inserts, additions and sub notes left by dearly departed Mothers and Grandmothers.

I recently gave my Larousse Gastronomoique to my teen-age nephew as he left to start a new job in a Michelin starred Cumbrian restaurant. I have no further use for it and feel happy it has gone to a good home.

The internet is very handy though and I am happy to embrace both formats!

My mum's rule of thumb was that if you could get three good recipes out of a cook book it was "good". I've cooked from recipes on laptops and smartphones, but nothing beats paper (preferably in book form) for ease of use. A good reference cookbook (e.g. Delia's complete cookery) is an essential to any kitchen and there are a few good ones to choose from. Cook books have more authority that many internet recipes as they are more likely to be tried-and-tested, and a beautiful cookbook can be full of inspiration.

The best cookbooks aren't just about recipes with lists of ingredients and instructions - they include passages on cooking, buying food and eating which add hugely to my knowledge and understanding of food. Nigella's How To Eat is particularly good at this; it's like having a conversation about food with an experienced friend or relative. A good food blog can give you that but I'm struggling to find many that suit my tastes. So far I have two I like: and .

Nowadays I find myself normally looking at the internet before my cookery books for inspiration. But I do like cook books and browsing through them as well. Also my box full of ideas from magazines and my own notes. I think we are now using more and more different sources for our inspiration, for example supermarket "ideas", blogs on the internet and of course, our good old cook books. I can't imagine books being totally replaced - anyway, I hope not!

I have several dozens of cookbooks, and have never cooked anything from many of them. I rarely follow recipes except when baking or making desserts, but instead use the cookbooks to give me ideas for flavour and ingredient combinations which will work well, or adapt recipes to suit my family's tastes.

I also really enjoy looking through cookery books as a relaxation - I don't find browsing the internet quite as therapeutic. I tend to use the internet if I'm looking for ways of using a specific ingredient, or finding a new baking recipe, whereas I read cookbooks just for the pleasure of it.

However, I agree with Harriet's Mum that even one or two recipes (or ideas) from a book makes it worth paying for - you don't need to 'cook the book'. Nowadays I rarely buy brand new cookery books, but browse the shelves of charity shops for old or unusual books, or books which I find interesting, but wouldn't want to pay full price for! It's a great way of extending the range of books I have - if I had to buy them new I would only buy books with baking recipes.

I get my recipes from books, google serches, food blogs and friends. The thing I love about a good cook book is that you can browse through it for inspiration. If I'm trying to work out the menu for the week, and i don't know what I want, then I usually grab a few books and spend a happy hour or two immersing myself in them, getting ideas for new dishes, and rediscovering old ones.

Getting recipes off the internet generally means one has to be searching for specific ingredients or a certain dish, and i do that sometimes, but for me, you just can't beat a proper book.

I love my Be-Ro cookbook! It taught me everything I know about the perfect victoria sponge, biscuits, fancies, pies, sauces, pastry and batter-making. Not cooked everything in it, but a good 50%.

Having said that, for recipes, it's the internet every time. I own a few books, but often can't afford / find / recognise (!) some of the ingredients, and the versatility of the internet means you can always find something to suit you. I love a real book, but tend to only use them for inspiration. And the pretty pictures of course!

The general opinion here is shared by me. When starting up in the kitchen, one relies upon a cookbook to assist with the basic techniques, but after acquiring a modicum of experience, a cookbook becomes more and more of a hindrance in the prep area. Accomplished cooks and chefs, therefore, rely upon their experience and basic expertise in tasting, in order to prep standard recipes and experiment for themselves. Whilst I am always willing, nay eager, to try out new ideas and tastes in the culinary art I practise, I must confess to following, generally, the modern trend of using the vast internet library of recipes. It is far quicker, and if one desires an ethnic alternative...well, there it is.

I love buying and looking through cook books, its not just about making the recipes these days, many of the books are visually very pleasing to browse through. I have had to stop myself buying more though, I have a whole shelf full and don't cook that many recipes from them.

For recipes, I use a mixture of cookbooks, the internet and food magazines. The book I have cooked the most recipes from is the little 大象传媒 Good Food 101 Low Fat Feasts book - lots of quick and easy recipes in there.