Our Lakeside team are a creative bunch, full of individuals undertaking their own artistic pursuits. Take Box Office Assistant, CM Thompson, who in addition to working the Box Office and creating resources for the Learning Team, is a published author. Learn about her interests in reading and writing and even take away some book recommendations.
In her blogs, Charlotte recommends books that are easy to read or that will take you somewhere different. On this occassion, let's go on a culinary adventure with a few of her favourite recipe books, food biographies and other food-related writings – scroll on for a mouth-watering reading list!
THE KITCHEN COUNTER COOKING SCHOOL: HOW A FEW SIMPLE LESSONS TRANSFORMED NINE CULINARY NOVICES INTO FEARLESS HOME COOKS
by Kathleen Flinn
Flinn likes to write books with long titles: I also recommend her other books The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry and Burnt Toast Makes You Sing Good. She has a particularly very easy going but still informative writing style in this book. She covers the basics of cooking from listing 'Ten Ways to Flavor Roast Chicken' to 'How to Make A Basic Alfredo Sauce' and 'Your Own Vinaigrette'. An inspiration to those who don't know what they are doing in the kitchen, no matter how old they are, Flinn's book is for everyone: “Julia Child said she didn't learn to cook until she was thirty-two. Until then, she just ate. So you see, it's never too late.”
MY LIFE FROM SCRATCH: A SWEET JOURNEY STARTING OVER ONE CAKE AT A TIME
by Gesine Bullock-Prado
Previously titled Confections of a Closet Master Baker, this memoir is a funny and introspective read. Gesine runs through a typical day in her bakery, what inspired her to leave her busy Hollywood life behind, to setting up a bakery in Vermont. A great read, especially if you have idly wondered about setting up your own business.
SPOON FED: HOW EIGHT COOKS SAVED MY LIFE
by Kim Severson
“I had solved the big problems. I had stopped drinking and I had started to believe in myself again. And just those two things in and out of themselves were pretty exhausting-enough, really to call it a day.” An occasionally funny, occasionally devastating autobiography: when Severson lost “sight of who she was and who she wanted to be” she turned to recipes and the people who inspire them, Ruth Reichl, Alice Walters, Mrs Chase to regain her own sense of self.
PUBLIC CONFESSIONS OF A MIDDLE AGED WOMAN
by Sue Townsend
A collection of articles Townsend wrote for the Sainsbury's magazine, this is a book that I consider to be a chicken soup for the soul book, its what I turn to when everything else is just "meh". Light-hearted, funny and full of advice such as “Never read advice columns. They are inevitably written by middle aged women with a grievance against the young” – it is why my ambition for a while was to become Madame Vodka.
CHERRIES IN WINTER: MY FAMILY'S RECIPE FOR HOPE IN HARD TIMES
by Suzan Colón
Laid off during the 2009 recession, Colón reaches for her families recipes, reaching across generations of hardship and hard times.
“You know what you have to do now. You have to put up soup”: which means bracing yourself and doing what you can to preserve you through the rough times. It is a reminder that things will get better and a story to sustain you until they do. Remember, even in really bad times, you still need to treat yourself to something special.
Get to know CM Thompson by reading more about her in a recent interview here.