My first real cookbook was Elizabeth David's "French Country Cooking", originally a gift from my paternal grandmother to my mother and quickly re-gifted to me as none of its recipes can be adapted to use Campbell's canned soup. Her recipes made me the cook I am today, largely because she always emphasized the taste and feel of the dish and its ingredients and insisted that a cook should learn how food works rather than relying on formulae. "Enough cold water to make a rough dough -- half a cup or a little more", not "add half a cup of cold water and knead for three minutes".

Lamb stew is my favourite winter food, bar none. I must look up that Italian guy ...