Day 17 – Books for Cooks

London Bookshop Advent

Day 17 – Books for Cooks

If you choose to visit Books for Cooks anytime from 11am, you may struggle to get inside the door. This is the time that would be visitors to the bookshop cafe begin to queue in the hope of getting a prized seat at the large farmhouse style table set up in the middle of this small shop.  No bookings are taken so it really is first come first served.  The Menu is taken from which ever cook book is book of the day, so you never know what you are going to eat, and it is all prepared in the open plan test kitchen at the back of the shop. So when you do enter this shop apart from the welcoming table, and shelves stacked with books you will be greeted with the aromas of the recipes of the day.

Back to the books.  The shelves from floor to ceiling are crammed with cookery books from every country and cuisine you could imagine.  The books are all carefully chosen and many have earned a place on the shelves by being tried out in the test kitchen. This is a small shop and and one I would definitely recommend visiting earlier in the day before lunch is served if you want to peruse the extensive collection at ease.

I discovered Books for Cooks when I moved to London almost 28 years ago by way of the cookery demonstrations which take place in a small room above the shop.  Here you could watch the chef and proprietor Eric Treuille show you how to prepare dishes and then get to taste test.

The shop is situated on Blenheim Crescent in Notting Hill where the famous blue door and travel book shop featured in the film Notting Hill is just across the road, so it can get quite crowded.

Nearest Tube: Ladbroke Grove / Notting Hill Gate