The Kitchen and the Cook, by the crime writer and creator of Van der Valk, Nicolas Freeling, are two culinary classics, originally published in the early 1970s and now back in print in a single volume for the first time in over ten years.

The Kitchen is the story of Freeling's years working as a cook in hotel and restaurant kitchens in France and Britain. It's a colourful gastronomic memoir, and its tales of the tyrants, misfits and layabouts who work in the industry does for the kitchens of the era what Anthony Bourdain has done for the swank restaurants of eighties New York. The Cook is less of a story than a meditation on food and life, complete with French recipes and cooking tips. It tells you how to make classic bouillabaisse and boeuf bourguignon, turn out the perfect chicken risotto, and ruminates on the ingredients of a good breakfast. Like all the best food books, it's laced throughout with a great sense of humour and - Freeling's trademark - an extraordinary love of life.