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London’s restaurants are reopening, but for those not willing to dine out just yet, there’s always alternatives — like copping some hypebeast-worthy merch. There’s also home cooking, so consider purchasing one of London’s best restaurant cookbooks, packed with recipes not just for meals and dishes, but many stocks, sauces, condiments, and base preparations primed to keep fridges and freezers full.
Restaurant Cookbooks from the Eater London 38
Black Axe Mangal — Black Axe Mangal
Lee and Kate Tiernan’s heavy metal grill strikes a balance between project cookery and a rich array of seasonings, powders, sauces, and other flavour-lifters that are perfect for mixing into a plain base.
Quality Chop House — The Quality Chop House
Stock. Yes, there’s the recipe for the city’s most contested potato dish, mince on toast, and how to really cook a pork chop, but it’s the basics and building blocks that are king. Seriously. Make the stocks. Freeze. Congratulate yourself.
St. John — The Book of St. John
Green sauce to freeze, trotter gear, stocks, pies ... A book of comfort and culinary baselines, with the bonus of a very serious baking section and another bonus in Fergus Henderson’s singular approach to instruction.
Trullo — Trullo
It’s widely documented that pasta stockpilers are ransacking shelves and being quite curious in the shapes they leave behind. Probably time to get a book that shows to make pasta ... and sauce.
Moro — Moro: The Cookbook
An enduring classic approaching 20 years old, Sam and Sam Clark’s seminal work is less a collection of singular dishes and more a sweeping, faithful exposition of thousands of miles of culinary tradition.
Honey & Co — Honey & Co: Food From the Middle East
Many of these recipes are long prep-time, large dishes suitable for storing and reheating, and a brilliant guide to the versatility and ease of “jazzing” up staples. Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich are also wonderfully escapist storytellers.
The River Cafe — The River Cafe Cookbook
Another absolute classic, with recipes designed for surplus and an assuredness of instruction that will soothe cooks of all levels.
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