Delicious More Please

delicious More Please

The latest cookbook from the team behind Australia's bestselling glossy food magazine, Delicious. More Please is an all-new recipe collection you'll turn to time and again. Inspired by the best seasonal produce, delicious. food director and bestselling author Valli Little has created 120 exciting recipes based on the seasons, which are all achievable for the home cook. You're sure to find dishes for every occasion, whether it's an easy family meal of Greek meatball salad and blueberry pudding, or an impressive dinner party menu of French-style fish soup, roast pork with Marsala sauce and a chocolate hazelnut tart. Each recipe is beautifully photographed and arranged by ideas for summer, autumn, winter and spring - with a menu planner for each season. And why the title? You'll understand when everyone around the table holds out their plates and says, "More, please!"

Valli Little is the food editor for delicious. magazine. She is dedicated to inspiring the home cook.

delicious More Please
Harper Collins Australia
Author: Valli Little
ISBN: 9780733328930
Price: $39.99

Interview with Valli Little

Question: What is a typical day like for you as the editor of delicious magazine?

Valli Little: Mainly food (laughing). I seem to eat food and sleep food. I wake up in the morning and plan my day basically around what I am either going to cook or write about. I am shooting, on average, three days a week either from my home or from studios, in Sydney. Shoot days are pretty frantic; I have a great team including two girls who do most of the shopping, for me. I am a very hands-on food editor, which means I am there cooking with them and I like to cook the food, for photography. We normally do on average, eight or nine shots a day. On the days, when I'm not shooting, I am either writing or editing the recipes that we have in the magazine. Or, writing a cookbook.


Question: How do you go about having the food presented so wonderfully?

Valli Little: I do have a stylist, on board, all the time and I work with a very talented team. It is really about the amazing stylist and fantastic photographers. People always ask 'do you trick the food?' or 'do all sorts of weird and wonderful things like using hairspray' - it's not like that at all. The success of Australian food magazines, worldwide, is really been that we show it exactly as it is; it is beautiful, fresh, food that is beautifully presented. The stylist will source props such as nice plates, glasses and they have a special talent for plating food and making it look delicious and then it's over to the photographer to get that light perfect, so that you end up with a stunning looking dish, for the magazine.


Question: Is it about practice too?

Valli Little: It is about practice, I think when you're entertaining you use those tried and tested recipes, the ones that you are confident with and if you've had a go at, a few times, before you know what works and what doesn't. Don't do a ridiculously high stack of food that is going to fall over, when you walk it to the table. Keep it nice and simple.

Question: What inspired you to put together the latest cookbook, delicious More Please?

Valli Little: I love writing books and I have completed five, now. I really wanted to do a seasonal cookbook that was divided up into the four seasons. I am passionate about trying to use seasonal produce, whenever you can. I love going to the farmers markets and finding great seasonal produce and coming home and creating a recipe, around what I have found and that is exactly what I did with the cookbook. delicious. More Please goes through lovely light summery dishes such as a Greek Meatball Salad and a beautiful Mango Trifle - for summer. Then, we have some really warm and comforting dishes for autumn and winter. The book flows through, with the seasonal feel, it's nice, dark and moody for autumn and winter; and lovely, fresh and bright for spring and summer.


Question: Do you have a favourite recipe in the latest cookbook, delicious More Please?

Valli Little: I have to say the Peach Melba Tart, which is in the summer section, it is really beautiful. The recipe is poached peaches in an almond frangipane with raspberries; all the flavours that you would have with the 'melba' but I have put it in a tart, I think the Peach Melba Tart is probably my favourite recipe, in the book. This recipe is perfect, for now, because peaches are in season.


Interview by Brooke Hunter