Le Repertoire de la Cuisine by Lewis Saulnier (Leon Jaeggi & Sons, 1985) £14.99
Recommended by Jamie Oliver, who found it very useful as a basic reference for professional chef's training. If you wish to follow traditional French recipes, this is the book for you. Buy this book from Amazon.

Oxford Dictionary of Food and Nutrition by Arnold and David Bender (Oxford Paperbacks, 1995) £9.99
Recommended by Jamie, this dictionary is ideal for anyone who enjoys food and would like a handy, non-technical guide to the terms they encounter on food labels, in advertising, or in the media. Invaluable to consumers, cooks, and students and practitioners of catering, home economics, food technology, and health care. Buy this book from Amazon.

The Wordsworth Dictionary of Culinary and Menu Terms by Rodney Dale (Wordsworth, 2000) £2.99
Contains over 12,000 entries and should prove useful to budding chefs and gourmands, and a handy companion for hungry travellers or those wishing to avoid the potential pitfalls of self-catering and ordering meals in restaurants in foreign lands. Buy this book from Amazon.

The World Encyclopaedia of Meat and Poultry by Lucy Knox, Keith Richmond (Lorenz, 2000) £20
A comprehensive guide with information on every type of meat, poultry and game, with advice on choosing meat and the different cuts. Includes essential information on cooking and preparation techniques and over 100 recipes with illustrated instructions. Buy this book from Amazon.

Jamie's Kitchen by Jamie Oliver (Michael Joseph, September 2002) £25
Jamie Oliver is setting up a new restaurant, which is also a training school for young chefs, and you're invited to find out how he gets along. This guide features recipes from Jamie's cookery course as well as from the restaurant menu. Available from the Channel 4 shop.

Elizabeth David Classics by Elizabeth David (Grub Street, 1999) £16.99
Collection of Elizabeth David's first three books: A Book of Mediterranean Food, French Country Cooking and Summer Cooking, first published in 1950. Top chefs, including Jamie Oliver, use Elizabeth David's work as their bible and their inspiration. Buy this book from Amazon.

Moro: The Cookbook by Sam Clarke (Ebury Press, 2001) £25
Nigella's favourite cookbook – the menu of the Moro restaurant explores the exotic flavours of the Mediterranean. This cookbook encompasses dishes that originated in Spain and the Muslim Mediterranean. As well as recipes it has details about the romance and tradition inherent in every dish. Buy this book from Amazon.

Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson (Channel4 Books, 2002) £20
Fresh, innovative, versatile and delicious; easy cooking and easy eating, laid-back recipes that keep you feeling like summer never ended. Buy this book from Amazon.

The New Tastes of India by Das Sreedharan (Headline, 2001) £17.99
Inspirational vegetarian cooking from the owner of the award-winning Rasa restaurants, whose recipes reflect the food of his childhood in a small village in Kerala. Foreword by Jamie Oliver. Buy this book from Amazon.

The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent by Jessica B Harris (Simon & Schuster, 1998) £20
Gathers information on the unique foods of Africa and the lands they come from, and provides more than two hundred traditional and new recipes. Buy this book from Amazon.

Food of Jamaica: Authentic Recipes from the Jewel of the Caribbean by John Demers and Norma Benghiat (Tuttle, 1998) £14.95
Beautifully illustrated with a wide range of Jamaican recipes, mainly traditional but given an up-to-date slant. Buy this book from Amazon.

Brit Spice by Manju Malhi (Michael Joseph, June 2002) £16.99
Recipes that cross the cultural divide. Manju's recipes concentrate on being good value and easy to prepare, using ingredients from both British and Indian cultures. Buy this book from Amazon.