Oh Cook!: The cookbook from James May with simple, easy recipes that any idiot can make.

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When I was a student in the 1980s, I tried to do a roast Sunday lunch but forgot to turn the oven on and we ended up eating it at 3am. While unhealthy snacking is somewhat inevitable during filming for Top Gear and the Grand Tour, it seems May and co have not been entirely fuelled by Liquorice Allsorts. It used to be a camping food staple and we used to do camping a lot when I was a child, so it's partly sentimentality, plus Spam is a funny word. Lucy Mangan for The Guardian gave the series three out of five stars, saying it was "occasionally charming – and mostly slightly dismal".

His descriptions are more extensive, and his interactions with the crew and resident “food economist” Nikki range from charming to hilarious. In this TV tie-in, he seeks to unpack the mysteries of the industry from kitchen basics to haute cuisine, covering everything from poaching eggs to preparing the perfect Sunday Roast. Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). The whole point of the show, and the accompanying book (which, as May points out in the introduction, was written after the show was filmed), is to teach people who can’t cook the basics of making a satisfying meal. None of them have actually been something I want to sit down and read when I’m not using it to cook.to the 1970s because that’s when cooking on TV took off with shows like Graham Kerr’s The Galloping Gourmet. I collect really cool cookbooks, including many signed copies by well-known celebrity foodies such as the late Julia Child and Anthony Bourdain. It seems quaint now, but back then it was the way to impress your boss, unless you set fire to the tablecloth. Those of you who lived through it will remember the height of luxury in those days was going to a Berni Inn for Sunday lunch.

Or should we all put on our bravest faces and continue the charade until he can no longer muster the energy himself? He casually starts the “Chicken Cheater Marsala” with “Bung all the marinade ingredients in a bowl…” for instance, and his “Minging Hot Dog” recipe concludes with “repeat until old people tell you how they had one like this when they went to see Towering Inferno in 1974. I have a passing familiarity with the series with which this book is associated which is moderately entertaining (less so than some of his others such as Toy Stories or The Reassembler) I think I like the book better and was surprised to find it mouthwatering and useful, although less discursive on the scientific angle than I had anticipated.Easy Recipes Any Idiot Can Make, arrived as a post-Christmas gift, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share my enthusiasm for it. He shows us the electric Lazy Susan the cameraman uses to get the final shots of the food in the round, and when the director has him cleave to a particular chopping position on the counter. There was enough to serve with my kids’ lunch the next day, which is a bonus while she’s still doing remote school. The programme features May attempting to cook a variety of different dishes, with each episode focusing on a particular cuisine or meal. I used to occasionally watch a cooking programme and think, 'Oh Gordon, stop being such a big diva, standing around swearing'.