The famous bookshop is situated in Notting Hill on Blenheim Crescent, and is an absolute favourite to local, eager cooks due to the large variety of cookbooks and detailed workshops on a whole range of different cuisines. Many regulars also enjoy the mouth-watering food samples which the store’s numerous chefs create from testing recipes featured inside the store’s cookbooks.
The unique bookshop was founded in 1983 by Heidi Lascelles, upon seeing the lack of cookbooks featured inside London bookshops. However cooking wasn’t very popular in London at the time, so it seemed unlikely that the store would succeed. Lascelles also wasn’t a professional chef or bookseller so she didn’t have a lot of experience. But despite the odds, she was able to build up the store’s international clientele by sourcing books from all over the globe and then delivering them to clients. This made it possible for Lascelles to move to a larger store across the road (which she later installed a kitchen inside), allowing her and her new test kitchen cook, Annie Bell, to actually test the recipes which they were selling.
Bell's cooking was extremely popular and drew the attention of Clarissa Dickinson Wright, who ended up working at the bookshop for the next four years. Wright’s cooking, and expansive knowledge of food, allowed the bookshop to grow even more and also lured the cameras towards the store.
The current owners of the store are Eric Treuille and Rosie Kindersley, and have been since 2001. When speaking to Treuille about the bookshop’s future, and his and Kindersley’s plans, he said: "We wanted to polish the gem by delivering an even better, more personal experience for the shop’s customers.” He also went on to say how they weren’t interested in creating a chain of ‘Books for Cooks’ ’ across London, as it wouldn’t allow them to focus on improving those aspects of their store, which they had already been prevented from doing by COVID.
‘Books for Cooks’ also have a number of cookbooks of their own, which are available on their website. According to the owners, they hand-selected the best recipes which they have discovered over the years, and placed them all inside their cookbooks, while also including lots of tips and stories. Two of my absolute favourite recipes inside the cookbooks are the Double Ginger Cake and the Aromatic Pork Belly Hotpot. The aromatic pork belly is a perfect dish for the family in the winter, but both dishes are full of luscious flavours and taste absolutely divine. Proving that this one of a kind bookshop is definitely worthy of a visit when in Notting Hill.
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