Cooking with Craft Beer by Torsten Goffin and Stevan Paul

Goffin and Paul are from the home of the great home brew, and I don’t mean our own fine country, but Germany. These two beer loving blokes have scanned the entire world for beer inspired recipes. These are truly delicious and informal dishes that draw from the very best yeasty delights from all over the world including Italy, Australia, Germany and of course Belgium. The dishes are a hearty contrast to fine dining and elicit a more generous meal notion. There are dishes of stews, pizzas and heavy lush cakes all with a shared key ingredient. I like that different breweries are highlighted, as well as beer making techniques.The book is illustrated with images of backyards breweries and small businesses all over the world. Cooking with Craft Beer is perfect for anyone who has a drum bubbling away in their bathroom or shed and needs to know they are not alone.

New Pizza by Stefano Manfredi

Manfredi has said: ‘The making of a great pizza is simple but behind the tradition is dedication, a ton of work and single-mindedness in striving for perfection.’ Manfredi, as you know, is known here in Australia as the ‘godfather’ of modern Italian cuisine. He has made his mark as chef, restaurateur, an inspired coffee blender, successful cookbook and food writer and an ambassador of sustainability. His latest book is an ode to one of the greatest meals of all time; there are recipes for thinly crusted delights, desserts, dough balls and thick lathered-with-delicious-rocket-and-cheeses type pizzas. Basically everything you have ever wanted to know about pizzas is in this book. It will become the manual, or should I say, challenge, for every home chef with their own backyard pizza oven.

Around the World in 80 Cocktails by Chad Parkhill

Chad Parkhill is a Melbourne-based cultural critic and bartender who writes about sex, booze, music, history, and books. He is the enviably the cocktail columnist for The Guardian and his first book, Around the World in 80 Cocktails celebrates the globetrotting history of the cocktail through eighty (the title is a dead giveaway) different cocktails; each with its own story of origin to tell. It’s a brilliant idea for all of us that yearn for far flung adventures but in reality only make it the corner bottle shop. Here is the guide to take you and your friends to new places of joy. Each cocktail is accompanied by gorgeous vintage-styled illustrations. This part travel, part recipe book is a remedy for those of us caught here in the Melbourne winter.

Chris Gordon