A Cook's Library

My name is Karen Homer. I am an ex-fashion writer turned food writer and I am PASSIONATE about real food: seasonal, sustainable and slow food for the whole family.

Slow food is about buying local, supporting small producers and preserving heritage breeds of animals and species of plants. It is about allowing artisans who are devoted to their traditional method of food production to stay in business. It is about cooking simple food from scratch the way your grandmother or even great-grandmother used to. But above all it is about ENJOYING food and teaching our children that good food equals good health and a good life.

As Michael Pollan wrote recently, ‘…the most humane and most environmentally sustainable choices frequently turn out to be the most delicious choices’.

For starters, if you want to know what good food is click on What to Eat and Why. Stock your cupboards with dry goods from the Green Pantry then go to the local farmer’s market and buy some good, fresh food from someone who grows it. Go home and cook it, it doesn’t have to be fancy. Pour yourself a glass of wine, gather your family round the table and sit down and eat . . . and talk. . . and listen . . . and savour. This is what it means to eat The Slow Food Way (more under this post).

Through my recipes, food features and occasional rant, I would love to share my cook’s library with you: books about food culture and food travels, the odd, consciousness-raising book on food politics and, of course the cookbooks I devour as hungrily as the food I buy in the farmer’s markets, produce markets and specialist food shops of London.

I cook for a family so plenty of recipes are for family food, of the kind that will show your children how to eat food that is good for them without feeling deprived (well, mostly).  I cook simply too – I’d rather spend the money on good ingredients and let them speak for themselves so nothing is difficult and little is time consuming. If nothing else I hope you’ll find this site good reading, teach you a little about food and maybe inspire you a to cook something new.

For more about the way I shop, cook and eat click here

Lastly, if you like my style of writing about food you might like my sustainable attitude to fashion – buy quality, keep it forever. My previous books include  Things a Woman Should Know About Style and
Things a Woman Should Know About Shoes