Two Greedy Italians - Still Hungry - second episode is on at 8pm, 26.04.12

David Chater’s preview of tonight’s programme in The Times

“First, the pair

cook red mullet with tomatoes, anchovies and porcini mushrooms.  Next they make a baked dish out of layers of potato and cabbage, and finally they serve up torn sheets of pasta tossed in freshly made pesto.  It would be worth buying the book

for these recipes alone.”

Denmark’s Delia - all about Trine Hahnemann and her books

Trine Hahnemann is a chef and food writer who writes for many magazines, including Denmark’s largest circulation weekly women’s magazine Alt For Damerne.

She has published many cookbooks in her native Denmark and two in English, The Scandinavian Cookbook (2008)

and The Nordic Diet (2009),

both with Quadrille.

Trine lives between Copenhagen and London with her husband and two children, but travels constantly around the world to bring Scandinavian food and cooking to a wider audience.

About The Scandinavian Cookbook

Scandinavia may be a small region of the world, but it has something large to offer in food and lifestyle. Having been influenced by the outside world for at least 500 years, external inspirations from the four corners of the world have entwined with the different Scandinavian cultures to produce an exceptional cuisine that is fast becoming of global interest.

With so many of us lead hectic lives, this presents a need to eat simpler, healthier food.  The Scandinavian Cookbook provides a modern version of traditional Nordic food.

The strong position of agriculture in this self-contained region means there is a demand for high-quality produce that has been well nurtured. Combining this with the long tradition for family meals and festivities, where food is of fundamental significance, it is of no surprise that the president of the Slow Food Movement predicted three years before this book that we could expect a great culinary phenomenon from the Nordics.

The cookbook is based around the food traditions of three main countries– Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, following the seasons and illustrating life in Scandinavia through Lars Ranek’s evocative photographs, reflecting the cycle of a full year comprising seasonal ingredients and dishes and festivals. Divided into months, each chapter will contain photographs and features on the lifestyle, together with approximately 10 recipes, making a total of 100 recipes.

Delivered with the same top quality, locally produced ingredients

are prepared using simpler, healthier techniques – the effect being to capture the essence of the old dishes in a lighter, more modern way. Where a very local product is used that is hard to get in other parts of the world, an alternative is recommended, allowing these recipes to be recreated with ease in kitchens anywhere in the world.

About The Nordic Diet

The world has suddenly discovered that the Nordic diet is comparable in terms of nutrition and healthiness to the well-known sun-ripened Mediterranean diet. The University of Copenhagen, sponsored by the Danish Government, has been researching a balanced diet that will both keep us healthy and at a normal weight, and their findings suggest that the traditional diet, lifestyle and foods produced in northern climates

are not only extremely healthy but also environmentally friendly.

The Nordic diet is all about eating locally sourced seasonal ingredients combined in a balanced diet of protein, carbohydrate and fat. The traditional diet of Northern Europe – with its emphasis on good, home-made and often home-grown, seasonal food – consists of a wide variety of grains, berries, vegetables, fish,

poultry and game (but very little meat). And the Scandinavian lifestyle is also a great way to keep the body in optimum health: northern Europeans tend to live an outdoor life, maintaining a connection with nature, walking and swimming, with cycling their preferred means of transportation in cities and the countryside. Most importantly, they still eat meals together, around a table, where the senses are nurtured and fulfilled by delicious food and friendly conversation.

In this ground-breaking book, Trine Hahnemann, doyenne of Scandinavian cooking, provides a succinct guide to the Nordic Diet, its elements, ingredients and basic philosophy and how to use it to lose weight. All these elements are then combined in 75 diverse and delicious recipes. Throughout the book there are nuggets of information on the seasonality and nutritional content of the ingredients. Photographed in Denmark by Lars Ranek, The Nordic Diet is an appealing and timely book.

And coming Autumn 2012, Scandinavian Christmas

In Scandinavia the whole period of Christmas, from the first Sunday in Advent to New Year’s Day, is marked by festivals and celebrated in traditional but beautifully contemporary style.

Hygge, the Danish word for cosiness, is about being inside with candles, great comfort food and lots of cakes and sweets.

The first week of December is baking week – enough has to be made to last the whole Christmas period. Jars of decorated cookies, gingerbread houses and clogs filled with little presents rub shoulders with simple wreaths, trees

and tables decorated with white candles

and fresh greenery – the perfect mix of ancient and modern. Brunches, cocktail and tea parties, lunches and dinners are celebrated with a mixture of traditional goodies and delicious modern recipes. Duck and pork rule on Christmas Eve, fish, ham and seasonal vegetables on Christmas Day. Sweets, biscuits, puddings and other treats abound – all washed down with gluwein and fruity cocktails.

In this glorious book, illustrated with Lars Ranek’s

evocative photographs, Trine Hahnemann provides a cornucopia of 70 Christmas recipes – all featuring ingredients which are common to all northern climes – showing us how we, too, can decorate our homes and make delicious dishes to celebrate Christmas the Scandinavian way. 

All food photography (C) Lars Ranek

The three books mentioned above are all published in the U.K. by Quadrille

Stop Press! Michel Roux sr. signing at Waterstones, St Helier

Michel Roux sr.

will be signing his cookbooks such as ‘Desserts’ et al

at 10am on Monday 20th February at the Waterstones in Jersey.

To reserve a signed copy, please ring the store on 0843 290 8413.