The Culinary Chronicle books have been published annually for some eight years now. They are a chef's dream - apart from the price of about 100 a throw, that is - but a home cook's nightmare. Why? Because the dishes featured in it use ingredients that you're not going to find down at your local shop - and the recipes are not the kind that you can rustle up in 20 minutes.
The books are produced in Germany and showcase some of the best chefs working in Europe and around the world. Personally, this year's volume (number eight in the series) is of particular interest to me as I have been lucky enough to work in two of the restaurants featured in its European entries - namely El Bulli in Cala Montjoi, Spain, and L'Auberge de L'Ill in Alsace.
It also features my current favourite chef in Europe, Santi Santamaria of El Rac de can Fabes. When I first went to work in Spain it was an eye-opener to a kind of food that at that time I didn't even know existed. Santamaria cooks inventive food that starts off in simple Spanish roots, using food indigenous to the area, which then takes off into something fantastic. I call it Spanish freestyle - modern, but identifiably Spanish.
Kiyomi Mikuni of Hotel de Mikuni in Tokyo, whom many people believe should be placed alongside the three-Michelin-starred chefs of Europe, seems to me to be doing a similar thing: using Japanese ingredients in an uninhibited way to create something new. Reading his recipes made me want to go to Japan.
The best way to keep being inspired by food is to travel, but this book is the next best thing, enabling you to keep up with everything that's happening in our world. The photography is mind-blowing and there's the added bonus of an accompanying DVD. I wouldn't say it's the best DVD I've ever sat through, but the recipes are clear and easy to follow for a professional chef.
If you're looking for a Christmas present to give a chef, then this is it.
Jason Atherton, head chef, Maze, London
The Culinary Chronicle (8th Edition): The Best of Tokyo and Europe
Edited by Christine Messer Hausch (Translation by Claudia Spinner)
OptArt, 139 (93.50)
ISBN 3-003-00125-4