Fancy an Indian? A lot of people who watched Indian Food Made Easy on BBC certainly did. A new world record of men watching cookery programmes, unbeaten since Nigella’s early days of licking her fingers and simpering at the camera.

I’ll tell you How to be a Better Foodie. Get a better job, one that allows you to afford all this stuff, yet which doesn’t stop you from shopping for it whenever you feel like it. Freelance food writer would be a good one. Hah sorry Sudi, just my little joke, you know me. And I do know Sudi and she knows her stuff to a frightening degree.

John Torode’s face gazes out of the front cover of this book looking like a cow benignly watching a farmer approach with a shotgun. No doubt it was a deliberate design decision, but it does make you question the wisdom of eating as much meat as John clearly has done. He looks, to be blunt, a bit beefy himself.

Go into the Dorchester for a bite to eat and you can turn one of two ways; into Ducasse at the Dorchester for a some wallet-busting and, in my opinion pretty ho-hum, fine dining or you can swing into The Grill where Aiden Byrne, Michelin starred maestro of the cunningly simple, brilliant dish, is in charge.This book’s title says it all.

Wine. The final frontier, this is the place where there is still trepidation to tread despite so many books on the subject by so many people. Even my old boss Malcolm Gluck has written one, having first in his smart ad-man way spotted a gap in the market with his Superplonk series. And of course there is Oz and Jilly and all the others who seem to come and go like bottles in the evening. I’m still none the wiser really

It’s really rather hard to get a handle on this author. She comes across at first as the usual boarding-school educated, Catholic, upper middle class girl who thinks the correct term for the evening meal is ‘supper’, is rather inclined to be matrician with the housekeeper and has swanned through life in general. So far then this book is ideal to give as a present to your aunty this Christmas.

Even though you can’t bring Henrietta Green home with you to help prepare your Christmas celebration, you can still have access to the regional food writer’s advice twenty-four-hours a day at Foodloversbritain.com. Her regular feature, the “Little Green Book” has turned into the overflowing “Big Green Christmas book.” The online resource is bubbling over with suggestions for finding everything you need for the holidays.

This really is the funnest cookbook that has ever crossed my desk. Things suddenly pop out, charts and tables are stored in pockets, and a double page of a cupboard opens up to reveal the contents. It’s like those books we had as children, where every page was a revelation inside hard-backed covers that boasted a solidity that was reassuring and comforting.

A brand new free guide published by the Guild of Fine Food lists every one of the five-hundred and ninety-six top tasting food and drink products awarded gold in this year’s Great Taste Awards along with their star rating.

To celebrate National Curry Week, Brick Lane based recipe website Mydish.co.uk are releasing a one off ‘Brick Lane’ curry book special – with all the profits going to Oxfam.

The idea behind the book is simple; we all know and love Brick Lane, but what are the favourite dishes of the people behind the UK’s top curry houses?