Here are some places I go for culinary inspiration. Have a read and check them out!
Foodgawker – A real surprise I actually managed to graduate university considering I spent about 3/4 of all my lectures just on this website. It is essentially a picture index of lots of different recipes from a variety of blogs and websites, and you can search through these by selecting cuisines you’re interested in/ingredients you may have to hand and so on. A great spot to kill some time and soak in some foodie inspiration.
BBC Good Food – This website holds an absolutely mammoth collection of recipes, featuring recipes by famous chefs and also has many thematic food collections, such as Halloween and valentines day.
Delia online – The woman is an inspiration, and her word is gospel. Really, no more should be said on the matter! Easy to follow recipes, this website contains almost all my favorite recipes out of her cookbooks, including some of her classic collections, such as the summer and winter books.
How to cook the perfect… – For me, sheer joy would be the prospect of cooking for friends, choosing some form of a classic recipe, and then reading up on it on this page. Writing for The Guardian, Felicity Cloake takes various recipes from different chefs and eventually lands on what she deems to be the perfect recipe for these classic dishes. A great way to read up on different chefs recipes, it’s also a chance to learn about the background of some of our best-loved meals.
Jamie Oliver – A bit like marmite, I get the feeling people either love him or hate him. Yet I find myself somewhere in between. Yes, he can be slightly annoying, but he’s done great things in regards to educating people about the importance of home cooking and real food, and for this he wins points with me. His website contains a whole host of recipes and there really does seem to be something for every occasion.
Ottolenghi – Yotam Ottolenghi is a genius. An Israeli-born chef, his recipes are creative, often a little bit fiddly, but completely worth it. The flavours he combines are truly delicious, and while some of the ingredients may be slightly harder to source, a lot of them can be found in international supermarkets these days – give one of his dishes a go, and I guarantee you’ll return to them again and again. The website only contains a few recipes, but if you’re interested the cookbooks are a real treat.
Nigel Slater – Described as ‘a cook who writes’, I am a huge fan of Nigel Slater. He really is a great writer, and here I’ve attached a link to his page at The Guardian, which includes not only his recipes but a lot of his columns too. His book Eat is brilliant and contains so many recipes which can all be whipped up quickly at the end of a long day…there’s no excuse for beans on toast for dinner ever again.
Diana Henry – Two of my absolute favourite cookbooks are “Simple” and “A Bird in the Hand” – the latter being an entirely chicken-based publication. Genius doesn’t cover it – she creates simple recipes with classic flavour combinations as well as incorporating a real mix of different cultural influences. She’d be my go-to cook for any kind of roasted meat recipe.