There are so many people living alone for whom food – even buying food in small enough quantities – is a major problem.  And often the pleasures of cooking for one are overlooked.

Amy Willcock

Amy Willcock’s [she should be called Willcook] enchanting little book Cooking for one is a treasure trove of 150 recipes which includes anything from Good Morning Muffins, and such mouth teasers as Portobello Mushrooms with Melted brie [makes me want to start cooking now] & there are stir fries, pasta dishes & gratins.

There are cocktails and other drinks to keep you happy while you are cooking, some delicious desserts, fish and seafood dishes, meat and poultry, snacks and soups.

Quirky and fun illustrations by Melvyn Evans make it a gay and colourful affair.

Only sadness for me is that there is nothing in the book about the author other than her name on the front cover.

But a quick trawl of the internet gives me a picture of her and tells me that Rick Stein says of her “Amy Willcock has brought confident modern cooking to the Aga”.  Immediately I am in love with her – she is an AGA freak!!  She “runs Lifestyle and Aga Know How workshops on the Isle of Wight and all over the UK.  Amy is a vivacious “Scrummy Mummy” married with two young daughters.  Born in Chicago, she moved to the UK with her family in 1980 and soon discovered a new form of oven – the Aga!  For the past decade, Amy has held regular Lifestyle, Cookery and Aga Workshops.  The lifestyle and Aga workshops have been described as ‘finishing schools for people in their 30’s’ and Nigella Lawson wrote in Vogue, “Amy Willcock, hand holder to Aga owners everywhere”.

Available in good bookshops for R215.00, Cooking for One is published by Ebury Press.

Click on the cover to buy the book now.

ISBN no 9780091926717