Annie's Farmhouse Kitchen is a window on the bucolic world of acclaimed Victorian chef Annie Smithers.

A handsome, gifty package, it includes a best-of selection of three and four-course menus collected by Annie over the three years of her restaurant, du Fermier, in Trentham. While part of du Fermier's appeal is undeniably its charming central Victorian location, this farmhouse-style eatery is the sort of place intrepid food lovers might equally stumble across in rural France or Dorset or California.

Annie's food is classic French Provincial, presented with a distinct pared back, accessible aesthetic (no fuss, with preparation, anyone can do this!), and determined very much by whatever is thriving in her rambling home vegetable garden in Malmsbury. As well as being fully illustrated with delightful watercolours by Robin Cowcher meet the cat 'Kitten', meet the geese, meet the dog Tommy, Annie's Farmhouse Kitchen also includes photographs that offer another valuable visual dimension to this compelling package.

In addition to seasonal recipes (four menus per season), Annie's Farmhouse Kitchen presents readers with four standout feasts: deep mid-winter; summer solstice; spring bounty; and autumn harvest. Annie's distinct voice features throughout both guiding readers with advice about getting the best results from her recipes (what went wrong? what about leftovers? why, exactly, is this pastry so good?), and via occasional entertaining vignettes that tell the story of the daily challenges and victories inevitably associated with running a successful small restaurant in a country town, solo.

BOOK REVIEWS

"Annie is the best chef in Australia to reproduce properly the traditional countryside food of France. Going to her kitchen is, for me, stepping back to my village with all the natural local products on hand, and the aromas of real food that excite your palate and your senses."
- Chef Jacques Reymond

"Smithers takes us into her one-acre vegie patch to build her seasonal menus from the ground up. You can smell the wood smoke, see the first asparagus spears pushing up through the straw, as she writes about the work involved in cooking at a level so palpably connected to the earth, the changes in the weather, "and my moods.""
- Australian Financial Review

"I want to cook every single recipe in this book. And I want to do it the way Annie Smithers intended"
- The Northsider, Jo Rittey