Favorite authors

I'll start with three from Asia--Jennifer Brennan, Madhur Jaffrey, and Charmaine Solomon and (off topic for this group, but I've got to name her) one Mexican, Diana Kennedy.

Cor, bit quiet in here! Mind you, I didn't know this group existed, so...

I love Madhur Jaffrey and have owned Eastern Vegetarian Cooking and Indian Cookery for many years. I am now very fond of Thai cookery, and have The Ultimate Thai and South-East Asia Cookbook which is quite good. However, I lust after some of Sri Owen's books, which have excellent reviews.

I also have The Asian Grocery Store Demystified, which I don't really recommend unless you are a complete novice.

I have used Pearl Buck's oriental recipes, as she is an author who travelled far and wide and she gave the basics for every Asian country she went to - it includes Indian, Thai, Bangladeshi, Vietnamese, Japanese and Chinese recipes, amongst others.

Also, for dumplings, I haven't found anything approaching the quality of the recipes in Andrea Nguyen's Asian Dumplings' book - the recipes are really authentic and wholesome. But because the pastry is made by hand, some patience is required (half a day to make dumplings). It's all worth it, especially for special occasions and celebrations.

For Japanese cookery, I bought 3 French books, well illustrated and explained: Michèle Gomes and her 'Sushi Facile'; Laure Kié with 'Mes petits Bento' and finally, Sandra Mahut's 'Yakitori' recipes.

For Indian curries, Laxmi Khurana's 'Traditional Indian Housewife's Recipe Book' was recommended to me by an Indian friend.

As for Moroccan cookery, the best book is undoubtedly Zette Guinaudeau's traditional Fassi recipes, a classic with all the details for tagines, couscous, pastilla, etc.