• RELATED STORIES

• Century buys Washington DC-set crime novel

  Century has acquired a crim...

• Rupert Heath and Elise Dillsworth Agencies join forces

  The Rupert Heath Literary A...

• Pan Mac signs memoir from Chinese social activist

  Pan Macmillan has acquired ...

• Irvine Welsh to speak at Stoke Newington Literary Festival

  Irvine Welsh, Tariq Ali and...

• Gollancz editorial undergoes “significant” restructure

  Simon Spanton has been prom...

From garden to kitchen expertly done

04.11.10 | Charlotte Williams

Transworld is expanding its Expert series, taking Dr D G Hessayon’s expertise from the vegetable patch to the stove, with The Garden to Kitchen Expert.

For this latest addition to the Expert series, Dr Hessayon, author of bestsellers including The Fruit Expert, The Vegetable and Herb Expert and The Greenhouse Expert, is teaming up with cookery writer Judith Wills, author of titles such as The New Home Larder (Eden Project Books).

The book will include more than 680 recipes, and is billed as the “cookery companion” to the gardening books. It considers each ingredient it is possible to grow in the UK, with the book divided into chapters of recipes, covering fruit, vegetables, herbs, ornamentals—including lavender and sunflowers—and weeds—such as bramble, chickweed and plantain. Each individual ingredient, such as blackcurrants, has several recipes, from the simple—pureed blackcurrants—to the more complicated—blackcurrant and pistachio trifle. The pages include photographs of finished dishes and additional storage or seasoning tips.

Gareth Pootle, Expert Books manager, highlighted Middle Eastern classic “The Priest Fainted” as his favourite recipe from the book. With 52 million copies of the 24 gardening Experts in print in 22 langauges, Pootle said that this new direction for the series seemed “a logical way to go. Dr Hessayon has shown people how to grow from cuttings to crop, and then it stops. But this book goes beyond that. It’s one of those ideas that seems obvious once you’ve had it.”

He added that it was a case of “wait and see” whether any more Expert cookery titles would follow. “The core market is going to be grow-your-own gardeners. But there is a much bigger market out there, it’s the only book I know that shows you how to boil potatoes and salt aubergines—there are 13 aubergine recipes. Every variety is covered. I cook quite a lot and there are very few books that have simple and complicated recipes together. It’s an ideal reference book to have in your kitchen.” 

The Garden to Kitchen Expert will be published on 3rd March priced £9.95.

• Charlotte Williams
• expert
• Gareth Pootle
• Hessayon
• The Garden to Kitchen Expert
• Transworld