Books

Huxtabook

Why buy a restaurant chef's cookbook? So you can make favourite dishes at home? Or to discover something tastes so good because it's deep-fried … twice? Flavour junkies who know Daniel Wilson's genre-hopping Huxtable in Fitzroy will need no excuses. Sweet corn and mac cheese with smoked mozzarella and chipotle? Where do we sign! Some of the recipes are quite long, but not necessarily difficult, and they leap from foie gras parfait to wagyu green peppercorn curry. The common theme is big, border-hopping flavour, a Wilson trademark.
Best bit: Big, sassy flavours and an unconventional mix of recipes for adventurous cooks. Daniel Wilson, Hardie Grant, $49.95. Out now.

JANNE APELGREN

Mangia! Mangia! Gatherings

A joyous book, themed around family get-togethers. It's the second offering by friends Teresa Oates (who opens All'antico restaurant this month in Heidelberg) and Angela Villella. The Italian recipes centre around celebrations - weddings, Christmas, Easter - and home cooking. A showstopper silver biscuit tray laden with biscotti will have home bakers swooning, or try your hand at ricotta-filled cannoli and chewy amaretti.
Best bit: Simple Italian fare to feed a crowd.
Teresa Oates & Angela Villella, Penguin / Lantern, $39.99. Out now.

ANNABEL SMITH

The 20/20 Diet Cookbook

Nutritionist Lola Berry lost 20 kilograms in 20 weeks, wrote a book about it (2012's The 20/20 Diet) and was suddenly being invited onto TV shows around the country as a serial guest. Her mantra is ''wholefoods'', a close relation of the fashionable paleo diet - and her recipes exclude processed grains, legumes and dairy - instead looking to alternatives such as quinoa (a seed rather than grain), nuts and nut milks (in place of dairy) and raw honey and dates rather than refined sugars. While the silent, suffering anti-diet brigade may heave a collective sigh, cookbooks such as Berry's new companion to The 20/20 Diet are good news for the growing number of people advised to adhere to gluten-free, or low-GI food plans.
Best bit: Discovering new ingredients that make you feel virtuous, like cocoa nibs. And Berry is a chilli-lover.
Lola Berry, Plum (Macmillan), $34.99. Out now.

JANE HOLROYD