News

Absolute Press is delighted to announce that as of September 1st it has become the specialist food imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. The imprint will be managed by Janet Murphy, specialist publisher at Bloomsbury. Jon Croft will continue to work for the list as a consultant for Bloomsbury, commissioning authors and titles, and will employ Absolute Press commissioning editor Meg Avent and art director Matt Inwood in a freelance capacity. The team will design and package the books for Bloomsbury, with a very strong 2012 programme already in place.

Jon Croft said, ‘It’s a dream tie-in and after 32 years it’s the perfect new home for Absolute Press and its authors.’

Janet Murphy added, ‘It’s a terrific list… the books are of such high quality and it will join the other specialist books that we aim to be the best in their field.’

Bloomsbury’s executive director, Richard Charkin, commented: ‘Publishing of any kind only works with the right authors, the right publisher and the right market. Absolute Press combines all three beautifully.’

A full news feature can be read on the Bookseller website:

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/bloomsbury-cooks-deal-absolute-press.html

A couple of weeks ago, when Press Gazette announced the results of their survey to find the best 50 UK food and drink journalists — a piece of research that surveyed many specialist journalists and 1,000 members of the nationwide general public — it was no surprise to many that Fiona Beckett’s name was very high on that list. She is one of the most prolific of food writers, with columns, blogs and a vast number of books to her name. Equally at home writing about food or wine, or food and wine via her food-and-wine-matching articles, she has a knowledge and passion that are the equal of few in the business.

Over the years, Fiona has written several books for Absolute Press. (She’s also nudged us in the direction of one or two others for commissioning!) The fact that she can turn her hand to writing on almost any food subject is quite something; what’s more remarkable is that she can write with such passion and erudition on those subjects, and that’s certainly the case with all of the books she has written for Absolute. Her first book for Absolute, Beyond Baked Beans (2003) was the beginning of something huge. Two more books would follow in a series dedicated to ensuring that students understood good food and were given good recipes to practice that knowledge: Beyond Baked Beans Green (2004) and Beyond Baked Beans Budget (2006).

In 2004, we published Fiona’s Sausage and Mash (2004), which explored one of the great comfort foods and an array of wonderful dishes that incorporated it. Her follow-up of sorts, Meat & Two Veg (2006), was an extension of the comfort food theme, enlarged to explore a Great British institution.

In 2008, we commissioned Fiona to write The Frugal Cook. A relevant and significant book we thought it would be, but no one could have better-timed its arrival, coming as it did as the country officially fell into recession towards the winter of that year. It reprinted instantly and Fiona became one of the more prominent and respected spokespeople for frugal eating, not least via the blog she set up alongside the book, which is still going strong today.

And in 2009, we released an edited and enhanced collection of Fiona’s student recipes into one book, The Ultimate Student Cookbook, with lots of new content and introducing three new hugely talented food writers in the process (step forward Signe Johansen, James Ramsden and Guy Millon). The book cemented what most already knew: that Fiona was the most relevant and talented writer on student cooking around.

Testimony to the fact that Fiona’s writing remains so important and her recipes so worthwhile is this year’s rerelease of The Frugal Cook, looking better than ever and priced more keenly than before. She is arguably the most knowledgeable voice writing on the subject of food frugality today.

If you aren’t already familiar with Fiona and her work, then give one of the above a try and/or follow her musings on food via her Twitter account.

It’s almost twenty years since we published a book of recipes by Simon Hope, ‘Entertaining With Friends’. It was a book of restaurant recipes. Believe it or not, there weren’t actually that many of those kind of books around at the time. Rarer still, it was a book of vegetarian recipes. Food For Friends was a legendary institution in its day; and Simon Hope was one of the most inspiring figures on the vegetarian scene. Incredibly, Brighton was to boast a second wonderful vegetarian restaurant, one which in time would eclipse all others and be regarded far and wide as the very best in the country. That restaurant was Terre à Terre.

So, a few years ago, a publisher and his commissioning editor booked a table at this restaurant and enjoyed some of the most incredibly original and flavoursome food they could remember. Before they left, they managed to grab a few minutes with the restaurant’s owners and told them how very wonderful that meal was. They innocently asked had they ever thought about writing a book of Terre à Terre recipes. Turns out they had… just a bit. Another meal and another meeting later and a few ideas had been batted around and fleshed out (if you’ll pardon the non-vegetarian expression). Handshakes all round and Terre à Terre owners Amanda Powley and Phil Taylor were about to embark on their first book together.

And it was quite some time in the making. But then restaurant recipe books so often are: there is much to think about when putting to page recipes that will work in a home kitchen as effectively as they do a restaurant kitchen… but work effectively they did. Reading through the recipes was every bit as unique an experience as a visit to the place itself. The fun and curiously named dishes that appeared on the restaurant menus were uncompromisingly copied over verbatim to the book; introductions to each recipe painted an enchanting story of how ideas had come to life, how exciting flavours balanced one another in the dishes and how alternative ingredients and elements from other dishes could be brought together to take things off in a different direction. Lisa Barber came on board to photograph the food and managed to beautifully capture the sheer wit and brilliance of each and every dish over about eight days of location shooting at both the restaurant and Amanda’s home.

It was an incredibly long process, but by the winter of 2009, we had produced a book. It was a book that all of us were very proud of. It is, we believe, the best book of vegetarian restaurant recipes there is, but it is also quite simply one of the best vegetarian cookery books you’ll find. For vegetarians, it offers so many new and inspiring choices to cook. For meat eaters, it takes you to a place that is light years removed from dusty old stereotypes of lentil dishes and green salads. Above all, it is a book that gets you excited about food and about cooking, and in today’s world of cookbook publishing, that really is something to shout about. And so shouting about it we are, and since this week is National Vegetarian Week, there really is no better time to salute Terre à Terre and a cookbook which is nothing less than the perfect representation of the finest vegetarian restaurant in the country.

So, that’s London Book Fair done and dusted for another year. Always a very exciting time: exhibiting new books for the first time and taking in what everyone else in the publishing world is doing too. A big thank you to everyone who came to see us, especially for the enthusiastic response we received to the new books. We’ll be updating the site regularly with news and special previews for each of those new titles over the coming weeks and months. And if you haven’t already done so, be sure to download your copy of the catalogue from the homepage.

This from the introduction to our new 2011 catalogue: a précis of what this year’s new titles have in store (Download a copy of our 2011 catalogue)

2011 sees Absolute Press continuing to release strikingly original and significant books across many genres of food and drink.

Two of the most eagerly anticipated come from three of the most talented chefs working in Britain today. Two of those chefs are the Galvin brothers, Jeff and Chris, who have finally distilled the wonders of their take on French bistrot cooking into Galvin: Cookbook de Luxe, due for September. Linked by Michelin stars, culinary passion and prowess, Phil Howard is also finally set to reveal the secrets of his meticulous and extraordinary craft, when the exquisitely illustrated and monumental work that is The Square Cookbook lands in November.

Reiko Hashimoto’s debut book is here in October; Hashi: A Japanese Cookery Course is intended to demystify and celebrate the wonders of Japanese food like no other book before it. Two classic Absolute Press books are revamped for May. Anissa Helou’s Offal: The Fifth Quarter is reissued in a new edition with beautiful photography and new recipes and will reassert itself as the benchmark book on the subject, at a time when nose-to-tail eating is more fashionable and necessary than ever. Similarly, Fiona Beckett’s The Frugal Cook, first published at a time when credit was being crunched, is now more vital than ever. In these austerity-driven times this newly formatted, fully illustrated, purse-friendly edition is a timely release. Stew! is the follow-up title to the huge bestseller, Mince!: it is another book of practical and hearty food that we all love. It includes traditional favourites but also many new twists and turns on a food that is truly back in vogue. Melt is a book where sublime talents have combined to produce something of genuine beauty and originality. The most gorgeous book on chocolate it most surely is, courtesy of head chocolatier Chikako Watanabe and the magic of photographer Jean Cazals, but it is also one of the most exciting collections of chocolate recipes around. Years in creation, it is due in September. Staying on a sweet theme, Babycakes Covers the Classics is here for October, where more wonderful sugar- and gluten-free vegan delights will be on display from Erin McKenna.

Cook with Kids is a book that we are very proud to be releasing in September. It is a collection of mouthwatering recipes to be shared and cooked with children. This brightest and cheeriest of cookbooks is being sold to raise awareness and support for the School at Great Ormond Street Hospital to which all royalties will be donated.

And also this year, three gift-gilded gems as follows. Berger & Wyse, which is a collection of the ingeniously funny cartoons that have adorned the pages of the Guardian for the last few years: a real foodie treat. Foodie treat too in the form of Everything But The Oink!, a quiz book which is the perfect present for the trivia-loving gastronaut. And finally, The Marvellous Miniature Marmite Cookbook seeks to emulate the astonishing success of its big-brother predecessor, The Marmite Cookbook. Its small format and keen cover price belie a whole host of ingenious ideas for enhancing and rescuing everyday meals, snacks and treats.

Jon Croft
Publisher, Absolute Press