I’m not sure any of us need a good reason to sit down and eat, more like a good reason not to, but it takes a Frenchman to remind us that food should be fun and not a visit to church. Here are 365 good reasons never to go to a restaurant again. Bon Appetit!

The idea behind the book is to enable home cooks to recreate the flavours and dishes that they would get from their local restaurants and takeaways. Overall, this is a thoroughly researched, informative and – most importantly – useful book for anybody with an interest in curry and the desire to re-create the flavours from their favourite restaurant in their own home.

This book was written before the recession, so is not another knee-jerk reaction to the crisis. It’s about approaching food in a thoughtful way; using leftovers, thinking ahead, making something interesting from unpromising ingredients, being seasonal and not paying a fortune at Farmers’ Ripoffs, sorry Markets.

Recently published, The Great Book of Yorkshire Pudding takes a look at this British culinary institution, including its history and folklore, myths and myriad uses. Although a mainstay of British cooking for almost 300 years, Yorkshire pudding has an uncertain provenance and it seems that there is no one, definitive, recipe.

As the book that accompanies Jamie Oliver’s Channel Four series of the same title, Jamie’s 30 minute meals has received a lot of publicity. Lots of people have tried cooking along with the show, and failed. Qin Xie too has watched in awe as Oliver apparently peeled and chopped an entire tray of fruit in about two minutes, gawping at the impossibility of the task at hand. And yet here she is testing out the paper version.

When Willie Harcourt-Cooze first burst on to our TV screens in 2008, immersed in a bath of chocolate, it was the stuff of children’s books. This was a man so passionate about chocolate that at the start of his journey, he sold his home in London and moved to Venezuela where he bought a cacao farm – Hacienda El Tesoro. Qin Xie reviews his latest book.

Open mind or not, I won’t be converted to drinking Coca-Cola any time soon, but this book has left me very open to its possibilities as an ingredient. When You Entertain charmed me with cheery presentation, accessible recipes and its ethos that good food is for sharing.

The beauty of this book, apart from the tell-it-like-it-is photographs, is its simplicity. Anjum starts by explaining the secrets of making great curries. It isn’t just that there are five important stages; it’s the point of them and how to make them work – that’s what turns this book into a revelation.

Against my expectations, I really liked the Giraffe Family Cookbook. It’s unfussy, well-presented and has a lot of interesting recipes. It would make an excellent addition to the family bookshelves, although there really is something here for everybody.

Georgia Pellegrini’s book, Food Heroes: Sixteen Culinary Artisans Preserving Tradition, givesa wonderful insight into the world of foodies who have given their all to preserving traditions.