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Sacre Cordon Bleu: What the French know about cooking By Michael Booth Cape Pounds 12.99
If you've ever wanted to better yourself in the kitchen, Michael Booth's gloriously funny account of his nine months in a French cookery school may inspire you - or at least make you feel less guilty for using pre-grated cheese.
With a childhood diet of chips and Tunnock's tea cakes, a pre-teen Booth approached a family trip to France with a dread of eating "slugs' brains and horse doings". The discovery that he liked French cuisine was a revelation. As an adult travel writer and journalist with a more conventional palate, Booth became increasingly disappointed by cookbooks ("Recipes don't work. There. I have said it"). So he decided to enrol himself on the famously challenging Le Cordon Bleu cookery course in Paris.
The resulting chronicle begins with Booth throwing Delia, Jamie and other cookbooks on the bonfire and moving his family to France. At the school...