Cooks & Books: Michele Roberts for French Cooking for One

"Part of the beauty of the art of cooking is that it involves transience, making something delightful that then vanishes... Cooking for yourself makes you feel spoiled and cherished." - Michele Roberts

Acclaimed novelist Michele Roberts has always written about food and cookery in her novels and short stories, and was previously a food columnist for the New Statesman.

She is the author of an array of acclaimed books, including Daughters of the House (shortlisted for the Booker Prize) and her memoir Negative Capability: A Diary of Surviving. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, a Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Michele joins us for French Cooking for One. Half-French and half-English, she learned to cook at her grandparents' home in Normandy. A unique work of literary and culinary joie de vivre, part food memoir, part recipe book, French Cooking for One is Michele's first cookbook, and a personal and quirky take on Edouard de Pomiane's ten-minute cooking classic.

More than a handbook of classic French dishes, this book does something that few, if any, cookbooks do: it bears testimony to a singular literary life.

Gorgeously written vignettes of Roberts' childhood in Normandy and of her years living in Pays de la Loire are peppered with anecdotes about intellectual and artistic luminaries: an omelette prepared by Gertrude Stein's cook for Picasso; a simple pasta dish calling to mind the French philosopher Julia Kristeva and the Scottish poet Alison Fell's images of female orgasm; and Emma Bovary's extraordinary wedding cake, among others.

With over 160 delicious recipes, the majority of which are vegetarian, combined with piquant storytelling and feminist wit, French Cooking for One is a working cook's book with French flair, bursting with life and illustrated with the author's original ink drawings, full of charm and humour.

'Michele Roberts' enchanting book French Cooking for One proves la cuisine francaise can be enjoyed alone, when there is nothing to interrupt the joy of preparing good ingredients and turning them into enticing dishes. Her anecdotes and notes of wisdom that accompany the recipes make her the perfect companion in the kitchen.' - Carolyn Boyd, author of Amuse Bouche