This book is the result of Jake's lifelong passion. Teeming with recipes and references, it recounts Jake's lifelong adventures with food. It dips into cuisines as varied as Tuscan, Mexican, Scottish and American, selecting wonderful - and above all, easy - dishes for family cooking. Jake looks at food in a completely fresh way, as something which binds all the bits of life together - family, work, journeys, homes, holidays, thoughts and memories. He may return to his mother's recipes or observe how breakfast is served in a New York diner and how well it goes with jetlag. Or he'll share his experience of plucking a duck in the snow, choosing a pie in a Scottish bakery with his daughter, or locating an exotic ingredient in Peckham. A TALE OF 12 KITCHENS will become one of those rare books which is equally enjoyable to read and to cook from.