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Perfect presents for friends, family and fans of Stanley Tucci, Rachel Roddy, and Anthony BourdainMed: a CookbookClaudia Roden(Ebury, £28)More than 50 years after her groundbreaking, genre-defining A Book of Middle Eastern Food, Claudia Roden has produced another triumph that this time travels around the Mediterranean. The most revered of living food writers (by me at least) has relaxed. The recipes are simple and of course immaculate, the writing is effortless. Read and cook from it often. AJBuy it for adding to your Claudia Roden collectionOrder your copy at guardianbookshop.comA Cook’s BookNigel Slater(4th Estate, £30)Subtitled The Essential Nigel Slater, this is 500 pages of new and revisited recipes, interwoven with writing that evokes a life’s work. Of course the words are as comforting as the dishes – there’s a definitive roast chicken with roast potatoes and roasting juice. If you were to only have one Nigel Slater cookbook in your life, this is the one. AJBuy it for reading aloud to yourself in the kitchenOrder your copy at guardianbookshop.com Continue reading...