''A successful kitchen never knows what it is to be cold''

Being a Devout Foodie you can imagine I have a lot of cookery books. I do. Loads. But that doesn't mean I will stop buying them, despite rapidly running out of shelf space. In the college library there is a very substantial section on cookery that will keep me in reading for the entire course. It was in there that I stumble upon this fascinating book called The Ivy: The Restaurant and its Recipes by AA Gill. I have always loved cooking at home but since my move towards professional cookery I have a new interest in anything slightly chefy. The library's copy has even been signed by the executive chef Mark Hix, who you may recognise from the BBC's Great British Menu. The descriptions of this famous restaurant's kitchen are so rich in imagery, it inspires a would-be chef:

'A commercial kitchen is as different from a domestic one as a tiger is from a tabby. There are none of the small rustic niceties of a family home and hearth here...There is not a single chair here-no time for one. This is a war room, a factory that manufactures hand-made food with dozens of moving parts, dozens of temperatures, textures, liquid, solid, fire, ice, propelled with pinpoint accuracy and machine gun rapidity, plate after plate, the same and unique.'

'It's a masculine place, incorrect, unfair, hierarchical. A hard-knock, sharp-edges, fat-and-fire place. That's not to say that women don't fit in here, or are not respected, it's just that kitchens don't say please, and thank you for a reason...This is not a place to have doubts, want a view, miss fresh air, be squeamish or become a vegan. Kitchens are tough because nobody can fail alone in them: everybody works together or they all fail together. It's not that too many cooks that spoil the broth, it's one-the one who forgets the salt.'

The recipes are actually quite simple and will be just as successful at home as they are on a much sought after table at The Ivy. I now find myself looking on Amazon for a cheap copy, I don't mind if it's been splattered with food, wine or even better champagne (reading this book gets you in the mood for some of the bubbly stuff). With '13 weeks until Christmas' being posted by some excited friends on Facebook, it also makes me think it would make the perfect gift for fellow foodies, I know I would have been very happy to get this under the tree.