This is a cookbook that embraces all aspects of food, teeming with recipes and references – the result of Jake Tilson’s lifelong passion for food.

Whether visiting his wife’s family in the rich farmlands of Aberdeenshire in north-east Scotland where food is an essential part of hospitality, or working his way through the entire breakfast menu in two West Broadway diners, or foraging hill-fresh herbs from his parents’ garden in Tuscany, or finding the best second-hand cooking utensils in southern California, his unquenchable interest in every aspect of food is unstoppable.

Jake is always alive to the possibilities food offers in any context. His acute eye, and enticing culinary experiments and recipes make this a book, to be read, savoured, used – and above all enjoyed

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.