Cookery Books

I am sure, like me, everyone has a mass of cookery books they do not use from one year to the next, given as gifts, bought yourself because you read great reviews , pretty pictures etc etc. As a professional chef for many years I felt a book paid for it's self if I go one good recipe from it. So, what our my favourites, my bibles.
The Joy of Cooking by Irma & Marion Rombauer - and not a picture in sight! If you had this book your really would not need another I cooked professionally in the USA for almost 15 years. Coming from Ireland in 1982 was a bit nerve racking without a clue of the American palate but boy did this book help.
At around this time I purchased Delia Smith's Complete Cookery Course. Poor thing needs some serious TLC it has no back and very much the worse for wear, lots of bits newspaper clippings of recipes, and all the spare flyer pages full of notes. but still it is used all the time. Jenny makes wedding cakes and it is Delia's Rich Fruit Cake recipe she follows and is complimented all the time on the moist texture.
A classic of reference book for vegetables is Leaves from a Tuscon Village by Janet Ross & Maichael Waterfield. It was first published in 1899! This is the updated version, a must for every serious cook
If I tell you that the only other Italian recipe book,and I have about 15 in number, I use probably weekly due to it's pure simplicity was published by Sainsburys'! It is Pasta Italian Style by Patricia Lousada.
I also like books with history, everyone should have Theodora Fitzgibbons A Taste of Ireland "The best food of a country is the traditional food which has been tried & tested over the centuries" Another interesting little book is The Cookery & Cures of Old Kilkenny this was brought our to raise funds for St Canices Cathedral. I think a reprint is due!
I love books, but there are a generations coming behind me where going on line has all the answers, my daughter in New York doesn't buy a news paper. How is Sunday the same I ask? That is the one thing I look forward to, the lull between breakfast & check out and new guest's arriving, all those sections of the paper, the magazines, some even having great recipes that I clip out with every intention of using, I have two "neat" files full and of course can never find the one I am looking for!
So to keep up with the youngsters I recommend http://www.epicurious.com/. Excellent!
By the way Edwards launch was a huge success, he didn't have time to speak to me, surroundeed by his adoring fans. He deserves all of this and more, one of the nicest guys I know.