COOKING THE BOOKS

JACOB Kennedy is the genius behind the famed Bocca di Lupo, the Italian restaurant twice named London's best since it opened in 2008. Kennedy writes about food like an angel, and cooks and eats it like the devil.

His first sentence says it all: ''I don't eat food, I devour it."

After reading the 200-plus recipe tome Bocca Cookbook, you'll want to either marry the man or adopt him.

Before opening Bocca, Kennedy set out for a year to scour Italy for the most delicious recipes. These are the dishes inspired by that tour and served at Bocca di Lupo.

The weird thing is the book makes you desperately want to visit Italy to eat and eat, more than it inspires you to make the recipes or book a table at Bocca di Lupo. No wonder perhaps; the pictures are luscious and maddeningly evocative.

My new favourite book is published by Bloomsbury, R519.

YET ANOTHER BRILLIANT BROWNIE

I have a slight brownie obsession . But this recipe, let me tell you, is very fine indeed. It would be outrageously selfish not to pass it on.

These wonderful, velvety chocolate and beetroot brownies come via Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I always like what Fearnley-Whittingstall does; he has his head screwed on straight.

This recipe makes 20 small brownies: 250g butter, cut into cubes / 250g dark 70% chocolate, chopped or buttons / 3 eggs / 250g castor sugar / big pinch good salt / 150g self-raising flour / 250g beetroot, boiled until tender, cooled, peeled and grated on the "cheese-for-sandwiches" size holes.

How: line a 20cm x 25cm brownie tin and preheat oven to 180C. Put butter and chocolate into heat-proof bowl in oven for few minutes to just melt. Stir and make sure all is melted. Whisk eggs and sugar together in new large bowl, then add chocolate mix. Sift in flour and salt, fold in gently, then add the grated beetroot and mix in. Don't over-mix. Pour into brownie tin and bake for 20 minutes. Take them out when a skewer stuck into the middle still has damp squodge and crumbs attached.

These are slightly more cakey than some brownies, but damp and rich. And with the generous quantity of beetroot, they are not even all that evil.