5 must-read biographies about chefs/cooks

“I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.”
- W.C. Fields

Above image depicting appropriate use of a food group? Possibly not. But too funny not to use for this post.

'Food good' is my lifelong philosophy. Well, that and 'Chocolate good.' And probably 'Books good.' (I'm beginning to believe that there's a lot I find good, and that maybe I should amend my philosophy to 'Life? It is good' fullstop). My cooking is not that crash hot, to be honest. I bake better than I cook, but I'm amazingly lazy. I'd much rather buy a bag of chips (potato crisps) and eat those on bread than cook myself a proper sit down meal. It's less fuss. For a few years I happily lived on my own and would start out cooking actual dinners, and then somewhere along the line it got to be too much effort for one person, and so I stopped. And when mum and dad would make their monthly visits out to see me they'd poke their nose in my freezer, fridge and cupboards to make sure I was taking care of myself. And because I was living on tuna sandwiches or chip sandwiches (sometimes with marmite because OBVIOUSLY) everything was always full. Meaning that I looked like an actual adult who was capable of making adult-ish lifestyle decisions. It was around that time that I discovered how much I enjoyed cooking shows and books. More often than not it was because I loved the food and the locales (especially if the chefs were on location - combine food and travel and I'll happily watch it and be a fan for life) more than wanting to try to recreate any of the dishes myself. After that, it wasn't such a big leap to go from following food shows to reading biographies of those same people. And today's list is, really, nothing more than that - foodies, their lives, and the place of food in it. This list is quite selfish on my part, really: I heart food, and I heart people who make food. Now come live in my house and cook for me so I don't have to. (And on the days when you don't want to cook, I can still make a mean tuna sandwich, and I've perfected the best ratio of marmite to chip).

Top 5 books for a roadtrip

"Babies are born with the instinct to speak, the way spiders are born with the instinct to spin webs. You don't need to train babies to speak; they just do. But reading is different."
— Steven Pinker

Today's list is courtesy of the fabulous Anne, Libraries Advisor Youth Service Development. Take it away, Anne :)

We had a discussion earlier this year about whether or not reading was natural. Like we all know from experience – babies make noise. It comes to them as naturally as some of their other bodily functions. In fairness there is an element of learning as they pick up the sounds and make sense of them, but in much the same way I believe movement is a babies first language, sound (or speaking) comes in a very close second. However reading is something that they have to learn to do.

And that may be one of the reasons why the joy of listening to a story never grows old. I am a fan of stories, storytelling and, by extension, this year have become a fan of the audio book. It may be something to do with an increasing commute and disillusionment with some of the random radio stations my car tuner picks up. It may just be one way to read a book without having to turn a page. It certainly does have its up side as while I am still number well down the list waiting my turn for a copy of J.K. Rowling’s The Casual Vacancy, I have already read it... on audio book. There might not be as many copies available through the library system, but as many people have not yet discovered the advantages of the audio book, they still come through much quicker.

So for those of you about to embark on the traditional long holiday haul to other parts of the country, here are my Top 5 to make the drive more bearable (and with something for everyone).