Reluctant Cook: The non-cook's cookbook

Publisher: Adlard Coles Nautical Reissued 2003 (1st ed. 1991) £ 8.99

Anyone remember “Cooking in a Bedsitter”? This is a modern and nautical version of that student standby of the ‘60s. The recipes are based on the best of principles - avoid refrigeration, tins, meat, packaging and residues. Use vegetables, pulses, cheese, seasoning - and imagination. Each recipe is followed by a list of variations, to allow for ringing the changes, or substitution according to whatever is on board. There are wise recommendations on every aspect of catering, as separate chapters, and also as a continuous flow of suggestions which make for easy reading. The author is in touch not just with sail-aways, but also the cook making a shorter voyage. At first I thought, this is sexist, all this women in the galley and men expecting food, but probably it is the division of labour that prevails, and works too, if like the author you take a pride in making it work.

The author’s illustrations of implements are clear, and the cartoons jolly. Oddly, the cover picture looks more like a kitchen, although much can be extrapolated to land-based use. The binding looks as if it will last, the size is compact and there is an index. - JT

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