I’ve tagged umpteen pages in food writer Skye McAlpine’s inspiring new book, A TABLE FOR FRIENDS: THE ART OF COOKING FOR TWO OR TWENTY (Bloomsbury £26). I’ve long been a fan of Skye’s recipes, not to mention her dreamy Instagram feed @skyemcalpine - take a look and you’ll soon see why she has more than 168,000 followers
WHAT’S GOOD Skye has a magical way with her: lifestyle, table settings, flowers and of course the food - yet she is real and warm, never smug. The book is a window onto her world and why she loves to cook, but it’s also practical. As well as recipes, Skye gives advice on putting together menus - and there are ready-curated ones, too.
Dappled sunlight floods the pages and you want to be there, picking jars off higgledy-piggledy shelves, helping to chop at the table (made from floorboards, apparently, and adorned by a jug of blowsy blooms).
Skye asks you to imagine you’re sitting with her planning a meal; the tone throughout is just like that - friendly. She talks about the art of setting the scene, of not seeking perfection when people come over, embracing a bit of mess but also planning what to cook in a way that doesn’t leave you with tottering piles of washing up after the last guest has departed (them replete and happy, you wishing you hadn’t used every pot, pan and glass in the house).