where due

While sifting through my meagre web statistics recently I noted that one of the hits I had received had been via a Google search for Tess Kiros - Tess Kiros of wonderful cookbooks fame.

I have thus been inspired to properly recognise Ms. Kiros in a post of her own. She well and truly deserves it and if this post inspires but one reader to buy one of her books I will be happy.

Twelve - A Tuscan Cook Book, and Falling Cloudberries are my two favourite, and most used, cook books. These are books written by...well, a cook. As opposed to a chef. Actually, a chef Tess may be, but her heart is that of a cook - someone who cooks for herself and others, someone not motivated, or prompted, by an order and a result.

Tess is also not a rockstar getting around putting her name on anything and everything. Her focus is obviously elsewhere, and for mine, that attention pays off. I do enjoy J.Oliver and Nigella, and most other faces on the box, but I like Tess and her quiet foodie ways more. Much more.

For all one has to do with her books is pick a page and away you go. Success after simple success. Hit after hit. Smile after smile. Compliment after compliment. Most importantly, great night after great night. Some of the most enjoyable times I have had have come from Ms. Kiros' pages, and for this I owe her a great debt.

Both of the books I have mentioned above are a delight to own and I hope you at least pick up one of them at your bookstore and have a read. Twelve covers the months of the year in Tuscany and how produce and meats are used seasonally to great effect. Falling Cloudberries is an epicurean investigation of the various countries from which Tess has a link to. Both are great gifts, for yourself or others, and so engaging are they that it will be almost impossible not to benefit from their purchase: whether you cook the recipes, or the recipient does, no one will lose.

My hat is off, Ms. Kiros. I can't wait for your next installment.