[Chadford]

I think there's a lot of people like me and the missus that have dozens of cookery books acquired over the years (we probably got about 3 meters of them), all the usual suspects Jamie, Delia, Nigel Slater etc. etc. most of which never get used.

The favourites though...

The 'Ballymaloe Cookery Course'. - Superb.
Darina Allen's Ballymaloe Cookery Course: Amazon.co.uk: Darina Allen: Books

'Delia's Complete Cookery Course' - Also superb.
Delia's Complete Cookery Course - Classic Edition: Vol 1-3 in 1v: Amazon.co.uk: Delia Smith: Books


But the real winners are.... any of the 'BBC Good Food 101' series eg...
"Good Food": 101 Mediterranean Dishes Good Food 101: Amazon.co.uk: Angela Nilsen: Books
101best Ever Chicken Recipes ("Good Food"): Amazon.co.uk: Jeni Wright: Books
101 Fish & Seafood Dishes: Tried-and-tested Recipes Good Food 101: Amazon.co.uk: B.B.C. "Good Food Magazine": Books

I normally cook about four meals a week out of these little books (I cook Mon to Fri, the missus cooks at the weekend).
The recipes usually are very quick to do and are pretty much dinner party fodder in terms of taste and quality. Since I've started planning meals rather than just filling the shopping trolley with random stuff, I'm saving a small fortune (and wasting very very little). Can't recommend these books enough, oh and they cost under a fiver each.

[dan1979]

River cottage meat book; informative as well as lots of great recipes.

[indianwells]

Cooking-James Peterson. An American book with all you need to know. Only if you are quite serious about cooking though..
Delia is always a good back up. Well, she's not let me down yet!
Another excellent buy is Darina Allen's Ballymaloe Cookery Course, pricey but probably the only book you'll ever need.

[huwg]

Delia's Winter Collection. - try the Moroccan baked chicken
Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible
Floyd on India
The Prawn Cocktail Years - this one is great, all the classics (lasagne al forno, spag bol, coq au vin, boeuf borguinion etc) which may be out of favour in many restaurants but when done properly (like in this book) are simply stunning.

[krish]

the internet ... usually under a £0.01

[pumbaa]

Gennaro Contaldo - Passione.

[ducattigezzer]

French Laundry -Thomas Keller

La Cocina de los Postres -Oriol Balaguer

Highlights der Kochkunst -Heinz Winkler

El Bulli 1998-2002 -Adria Ferran

just a few good ones

and dont forget any Charlie Trotter