Well OK then (me and my big month). I also promised Aftergrogflog an essay on the Avro Vulcan which took flight at exactly the same time Elizabeth David started turbocharging English cooking.

Fuck me! if I’m crafty enough, I could write the same piece for both sites. Britain’s pathetic nuclear strike force and disgusting cuisine getting simultaneously revolutionised by sexy, stylish and high-maintenance and expensive delivery systems. I can see the poster!

OK, yes, I will now and go lie down for a while with a damp cocktail napkin on my forehead.

I have loads of cookbooks and the only people I know with more cookbooks than me are people who’s dinner invitations I happily accept.

And as for the “people don’t cook from their cookbooks” thing – goodness me, what a load of bollocks. The people I know who don’t cook – I mean, people who live on takeaways and TV dinners and jars of pasta sauce and do things like chicken wings under the griller or sausages with a salad from coles – don’t own any cookbooks at all. They honestly don’t care about it at all.

Now I’m off to re-read a spanish cookbook I borrowed from the library, which I will happily cook from provided I can find a) manchego cheese and b) bacalao and c) the time.

Pav and Anthony – I love to see the guests chatting away happily together! And thanks for the reading list ; )

‘zactly. Plus the lives of very nice and straightforward people rarely make for entertaining biographies. You need a good pungent dash of chili or garlic in there.

What emerged from the two Liz David biographies published in the late 1990s was that she didn’t seem that nice a person, which kind of flies in the face the idea promoted by just about every contemporary celebrity cookbook that cooking is all about conviviality, reclaiming lost forms of community, nourishing and nurturing etc

And apparently exactly the same is true of the MFK Fisher biography — but I love her anyway. Fabulous food/travel/memoir writer, great beauty, force of nature, what’s not to like?

What emerged from the two Liz David biographies published in the late 1990s was that she didn’t seem that nice a person, which kind of flies in the face the idea promoted by just about every contemporary celebrity cookbook that cooking is all about conviviality, recaliming lost forms of community, nourishing and nurturing etc

From what I can see the Thermothingo would be good if one made a lot of desserts or sauce type things. I can’t see how it would help me with a roast chicken or a stir fry or corned beef or baked vegies.

I’m not a big machine user anyway. All machines – with the huge exception of the rice cooker – end up in the cupboard and eventually given away. Well except for the toaster and the Bamix wand thingo. I’ve even got back to basically one knife for chopping etc.

And the $1,200+ price tag is a bit daunting – when all I really desire is a second hand orange crock pot.

And yes to whoever mentioned her, Margaret Visser is wonderful.

Thanks for the tipoff Dr S. Now I know what DVD to get my mother for Xmas.