Mark Diacono – författare

‘Ingredients are at the heart of everything we do at River Cottage. By gathering our all-time favourites together, I hope to inspire you to look at them with fresh eyes and discover new ways of cooking them’ Hugh Fearnley-WhittingstallThe definitive River Cottage kitchen companion. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and his team of experts have between them an unprecedented breadth of culinary expertise on subjects that range from fishing and foraging to bread-making, preserving, cheese-making and much more. In this volume they profile their best-loved and most-used ingredients. With more than three hundred entries covering vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices, meat, fish, fungi, foraged foods, pulses, grains, dairy, oils and vinegars, the River Cottage A to Z is a compendium of all the ingredients the resourceful modern cook might want to use in their kitchen.Each ingredient is accompanied by a delicious, simple recipe or two: there are new twists on old favourites, such as cockle and chard rarebit, North African shepherd’s pie, pigeon breasts with sloe gin gravy, or damson ripple parfait, as well as inspiring ideas for less familiar ingredients, like dahl with crispy seaweed or rowan toffee. And there are recipes for all seasons: wild garlic fritters in spring; cherry, thyme and marzipan muffins for summer; an autumnal salad of venison, apple, celeriac and hazelnuts; a hearty winter warmer of ale-braised ox cheeks with parsnips.With more than 350 recipes, and brimming with advice on processes such as curing bacon and making yoghurt, the secret of perfect crackling and which apple varieties to choose for a stand-out crumble, as well as sourcing the most sustainable ingredients, this is an essential guide to cooking, eating and living well. More than anything, the River Cottage A to Z is a celebration of the amazing spectrum of produce that surrounds us – all brought to life by Simon Wheeler’s atmospheric photography, and Michael Frith’s evocative watercolour illustrations.

Drawing directly from his experience as an acclaimed climate-change gardener, and of setting up a kitchen garden from scratch for River Cottage, Mark explains the practical aspects of organic growing, introduces us to a whole world of vegetables we may not have previously considered, and does away with alienating gardening jargon once and for all. Mark begins with a catalogue of vegetables that will grow in this country, explaining for each their benefits, what varieties to go for, dos and don'ts, and popular culinary uses. He then invites us to create a wish list of foods, and shows us his own list from his early gardening days. Next, he explains how to turn this wish list into a coherent kitchen garden plan appropriate for our space, whether it be a patch of acidic soil, a roof-top garden or an allotment, whether we put on our wellies in every free moment or are 'time-poor' gardeners. Then he puts all the theory into practice, showing us how to look after nutrients in the soil, how to resist pests and diseases, and how to make our garden sustainable and organic.In clear, concise sections we learn about seed trays, supporting plants with climbing structures, mulching, composting, companion planting, irrigation and promoting pollination, and there are additional tables showing sowing and harvesting times, plant sizes, and alternative varieties of plants for different sites. About thirty recipes and a directory of useful addresses finish the book, and the handbook is complemented by bright colour photography throughout. Practical and inspiring, with a textured hard cover and an introduction by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Veg Patch is destined to join Handbooks No. 1, 2 and 3 as an indispensible household reference.

Growing fruit at home is a delicious and altogether more enjoyable alternative to buying it in the shops. Mark Diacono offers a practical and accessible guide to making the most of your garden and what it has to offer.The first part of the book is an A-Z of the different varieties of fruit, with old favourites like apples, cherries, plum, blackcurrants, white currants, redcurrants, strawberries, blueberries, gooseberries, raspberries and rhubarb as well as more exotic species like figs, grapes, cranberries, Japanese wine berries and apricots. Each is accompanied by a photograph, with detailed advice on when and how to grow and harvest.In the second part of the book, Mark gives straightforward guidelines on techniques like pruning and training, as well as how to deal with problems or pests. There is a section dedicated to growing under covers and in containers.Introduced by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and with 30 delicious recipes, beautiful, full-colour photographs and a directory of useful addresses, this is the ideal reference for any aspiring fruit grower.

Chickens are a fantastic addition to a garden or outdoors space - you don't have to live in the back of beyond to have a few clucking around and giving you fresh eggs. They come in all shapes and sizes: some are layers, some are just born to strut. Mark Diacono begins at the basics, showing how you can raise chickens from eggs, and look after them once they start laying their own.The first part of Chicken & Eggs explains how to think ahead about what kind of chickens you want and how many to get, whether you are going for a breed that lays eggs regularly, or that you might eventually use for eating, or that simply looks decorative. You can choose from Orpingtons, Derbyshire redcaps, Muffed Old English Game, Leghorns and many more. Mark then goes on to show how you can breed chickens, encourage them to lay, work out what kind of eggs you have (are they destined for the eggcup, or will they hatch into baby chicks?), and take care of them day to day, as well as how you can go about getting the birds on the table. The final part of the book is a recipe section that goes far beyond the roast, with lots of delicious ideas for fresh eggs or home-reared chicken. With an introduction by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, this is an essential guide for anyone who can't stop thinking about chicks.

The content of this book originally appeared in The New Kitchen Garden, published in 2015. 'An endless selection of delicious produce you can plant, grow and then cook with.' Raymond Blanc OBENow you can create your own delicious edible garden at home!More and more people are being inspired to grow a little of what they eat at home. But while starting your own kitchen garden may seem like a daunting task at first, Grow & Cook makes it easy.Award-winning author and gardener, Mark Diacono, has distilled years of knowledge into this pocket-sized book. Whether you are new to gardening and only have a small window box or you are much more experienced with the space to experiment, this user-friendly handbook will inspire and help you. Mark is here to show you that there are plenty of options for everyone and lots of exciting new varieties to discover.Each variety in the book includes a wealth of information on when to sow, growing tips, potential problems, harvesting and plenty more. There are hundreds of varieties to pick from that can be grown and then used in your kitchen. Mark separates the growing guides into three groups:* Vegetables* Fruit & Nuts* Herbs & SpicesWhatever you choose to grow should suit your lifestyle. You might prefer something tough and sturdy that doesn't need too much love or time commitment, or you might get pleasure from the steady graft of looking after your veg patch. Whichever your circumstances, your kitchen garden should bring you joy both in the growing process and then in the kitchen.Grow & Cook is the essential pocket guide for modern gardeners.

Guild of Food Writer’s Awards, Highly Commended in ‘Specialist Subject Cookbook’ category (2022)André Simon Awards shortlisted (2022)"A beautiful book, and one which makes me want to cultivate my garden just as much as scurry to the kitchen." — Nigella Lawson"At its core this book is about cooking, but it's an essential and valuable resource for folk who love to grow their own herbs and cook. Sorted by individual herbs with detailed notes on how to grow and use them, it's going to be a book I will turn to a lot over the years." — Nik SharmaHerb is a plot-to-plate exploration of herbs that majors on the kitchen, with just enough of the simple art of growing to allow the reader to welcome a wealth of home-grown flavours into their kitchen.Author Mark Diacono is a gardener as well as a cook. Packed with ideas for enjoying and using herbs, Herb is much more than your average recipe book. Mark shares the techniques at the heart of sourcing, preparing and using herbs well, enabling you to make delicious food that is as rewarding in the process as it is in the end result. The book explores how to use herbs, when to deploy them, and how to capture those flavours to use when they might not be seasonally available. The reader will become familiar with the differences in flavour intensity, provenance, nutritional benefits and more. Focusing on the familiars including thyme, rosemary, basil, chives and bay, Herb also opens the door to a few lesser-known flavours. The recipes build on bringing your herbs alive – whether that’s a quickly swizzed parsley pesto when short of time on a weekday evening, or in wrapping a crumbly Lancashire cheese in lovage for a few weeks to infuse it with bitter earthiness. With a guide to sowing, planting, feeding and propagating herbs, there are also full plant descriptions and their main culinary affinities. Mark then looks at various ways to preserve herbs including making oils, drying, vinegars, syrups and freezing, before offering over 100 innovative recipes that make the most of your new herb knowledge.

"Mark Diacono… has such a friendly, self-deprecating and comfortable voice you want to follow him into the kitchen." - Diana Henry’s Autumn 2022 Best Cookbooks, The TelegraphSpice is a vibrant exploration of flavour, fragrance and heat that majors on the kitchen, with a celebration of over 50 spices that will fill your kitchen with a wealth of heady aromas and tastes.Packed with ideas for enjoying and using spices, Spice is much more than your average recipe book. Mark Diacono shares the techniques at the heart of sourcing, blending and using spices well, enabling you to make delicious food that is as rewarding in the process as it is in the end result. Focusing on the familiars including cumin, turmeric, vanilla, pepper and cinnamon, Spice will also open the door to some lesser-known spices such as grains of paradise, asafoetida, tonka beans and passion berries. The recipes build on bringing your spices alive – whether that’s creating blends to easily enhance your food when short of time on a weekday evening, or in infusing and blooming spices to bring out the very best of these treasured ingredients. The reader will become familiar with the differences in flavour intensity and provenance and discover how, through the use of spice, we can applaud and appreciate cuisines from around the globe. Beginning with a guide to 50 of Mark’s much-loved spices and blends, the book then offers over 100 innovative recipes that make the most of your new spice knowledge. With additions throughout from chefs and food writers of whom spices are an integral part of their cooking identity, including José Pizarro, Honey and Co, Maunika Gowardhan and Yuki Gomi, Spice is sure to inspire and uplift.

'The perfect capsule guide to the hows and whys of fermentation. Mark Diacono is an excellent teacher.' – Diana HenryFrom Scratch: Ferment is the no-nonsense guide to fermenting at home.From homemade kimchi to kombucha, shrub cocktails, and making your own pickles, award-winning food writer Mark Diacono tells the story of fermentation, and offers recipes that maximise the transformative power of this amazing process.From Scratch: Ferment offers a gentle guiding hand on a natural process that would happen without you, encouraging largely invisible activity of bacteria to work to your advantage. These skills take little of your time, they are particular yet simple, and the results are extraordinary.Packed with useful, accessible information and focussing on back-to-basics skills, the From Scratch series is designed to inspire you to slow down and create. Titles include: Sourdough, Brew, Charcuterie.Text is extracted and updated from Sour, with new recipes, by Mark Diacono.

'This amazing book will bring sunshine into your life. Mark is such a knowledgeable and fabulous writer who takes the simplest of vegetables and recipes to another level.' – Angela Hartnett  'Mark puts vegetables in their place, and that’s right at the centre of the table. Follow him on a journey through the seasons, feasting on your way. Simple, soulful, seasonal.' – Yotam Ottolenghi   'This is a wonderful book. Mark Diacono has combined his exceptional skill and passion for growing and cooking along with his own superb photography to create something truly inspiring and beautiful. I am deeply jealous!' – Monty Don    'This is such a joyful and beautiful book. Mark Diacono make me yearn to eat more seasonal vegetables, not because they will be good for me but because his recipes are so full of colour, flavour and excitement that I can't imagine a better way to eat and to cook. He is also one of the wittiest food writers in Britain.' – Bee Wilson  'In a world where the way we eat is becoming ever more important, this inspiring veg bible is absolutely brilliant.' –​ Julius RobertsEnjoy the best of veg, all year long, with this must-have vegetarian cookbook. Vegetables showcases almost 100 inventive vegetarian recipes that encourage you to celebrate the seasons, switch up your diet, upgrade your sense of vitality and health and tread more lightly on the planet. From Spring Onion and Tarragon Tart and Radicchio and Chestnut Risotto to Baked Aubergines with Spiced Rosemary Cream and Stuffed Tomatoes with Coconut Rice, this book makes our most-loved veg the main event. Packed with recipes for generous lunches and hearty dinners, these crowd-pleasing dishes will leave everyone deliciously nourished, and with ‘seasonal swaps’, plus vegan and gluten-free options, you’ll never run out of mouth-watering variations to bring to the table.Whether you have a few sad carrots at the bottom of the fridge, are a veg-box advocate in need of inspiration, or a keen gardener with a glut of produce, Vegetables will show you just how easy it is to pack plenty of tasty plants onto your plate, every week of the year.

‘A joy from cover to cover.’ – Nigella Lawson.‘His best book yet. Abundance is an absolute delight.' – Diana Henry.'This book is extremely special. Sublime writing, sublime recipes, sublime photography - it is a triumph. I'm buying it for myself and for everyone I love.’ – India Knight.Abundance is a record of one man’s year living on the south-west coast of England as he quietly contemplates life, nature and his next meal.With his days distracted by the ping of communication and the tug of commitments, Mark Diacono wondered how he might better savour this one precious life. He started to write and photograph each week, hoping that this simple commitment might sharpen his appreciation of the magic in the everyday and his time spent in the kitchen. It reminds us that abundance comes in many forms – the passing of the seasons, our connection to the world around us, and the wealth that a garden, a town and its surrounding landscapes offers.With over 80 recipes like Early summer shakshuka, Salsify and radicchio gratin, Onion seed and oregano flower focaccia, Fig leaf and olive oil ice cream, and a Mulberry martini, there are dishes to inspire and satisfy every week as the year unfolds before you.

Not everyone has access to outside space or what we traditionally think of as a garden, but we all have window ledges, shelves, stairways and unloved spots in our homes. My Tiny Indoor Garden is bursting with exciting ideas and savvy solutions to help you transform any indoor nook or cranny into a peaceful plant paradise.Whether you’re looking for a mini kitchen garden or a sun-loving terrarium, we’ve unearthed an amazing collection of indoor and covered spaces. Among the 20 gardens featured in the book you’ll find a jungle in a south London sitting room, a colourful cacti collection and a conservatory come orchid house.You’ll pick up all the best tips and tricks as each indoor gardener shares their small-scale expertise, from using an array of bottles and jars to create a display of tiny botanical treasures to turning an antique chair into a lavish plant pot. Packed with practical advice, the latest title in Pavilion's exciting gardening series also provides pointers on key aspects of green interiors – from caring for leaves to propagating succulents. Plus, practical projects will help you make the most of every inch, whether you decide to master the art of kokedama or create your own terrarium.Blur the line between your indoor space and the great outdoors, get inspired, let your imagination grow and enjoy your tiny indoor garden.

Food can be grown just about anywhere, and lack of space should not put you off growing and enjoying the taste of your own fresh vegetables.Not everyone has access to outside space or what we traditionally think of as a garden, but we all have window ledges, doorways, often stairways, sometimes even a balcony or roof space. This book offers solutions and inspirations for these tricky spots that we frequently overlook or neglect, and highlights some unusual growing spaces such as a minuscule balcony in Bristol, an innovative installation of hexagonal polytunnels full of salad leaves in Amiens, France, and an ingenious self-sufficient growing system that provides a wealth of vegetables in an old swimming pool in Phoenix, Arizona.Filled with practical advice, inspiration and planting and design ideas, My Tiny Veg Plot tells you how to prepare your beds whatever the size and situation; there is advice on filling containers, creating ingenious planters, using planting mediums, soil and water and which fruit and vegetables will thrive in which spot. My Tiny Veg Plot contains straightforward information on what to grow and how to grow it, from seed to ready to eat.