Cooking with Coco

As featured in a BBC documentary

Coco is Anna Del Conte's 12-year-old granddaughter and her tireless helper in the kitchen. From a very early age, Coco showed an interest in food and cooking - Anna taught her to smell and taste food, and soon enough Coco was able to start helping, progressing from decorating cakes to making pasta to conjuring up her favourite tagines. Taking us from the simple dishes of the early stages, through to more complex cooking for older children - by way of meatballs, Coco's first biscuits, lamb with couscous and sweet ricotta pancakes - and illustrated with beautiful photographs, Anna Del Conte brings us the best of all the recipes they have cooked together.

In a relaxed, informal style, she shows how to teach children the importance of seasonal food, how to introduce new skills and techniques, and how to choose the best ingredients. But Cooking with Coco is also an inspirational reminder of how much fun families can have together in the kitchen. Written by an internationally renowned cook, food writer and grandmother, for all the eager - and sometimes mischievous - faces around her table, Cooking with Coco is a book for anyone who wants to introduce children to simple, healthy and delicious cooking and the joy and satisfaction of making it themselves.

About the Author

The best writer on Italian food in the UK and perhaps the world, Anna Del Conte has written 12 books including the acclaimed Portrait of Pasta, Gastronomy of Italy and Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes. She won the Duchessa Maria Luigia di Parma award for Gastronomy of Italy, and was shortlisted for the Andre Simon award with Entertaining All'Italiana. The Classic Food of Northern Italy won awards from the Guild of Food Writers and the Accademia Italiana della Cucina. She has contributed to Sainsbury's magazine and received the Glenfiddich award for her journalism. Her memoir, Risotto with Nettles, was published by Chatto in 2009. This year Anna was awarded the honour of Ufficiale dell'Ordine al Merito della Repubblicao Italiana in recognition of the work she does for Italy and Italian food in this country. She lives in Dorset.