Whilst the name reminds me a little of the legendary CBGB music club in New York’s Bowery district, where I was fortunate enough to catch Television, The Ramones, Lou Reed, Patti and others, no, it’s not that. Not an acronym for another CIA driven over-thrower of lawful socialist governments this one, or even the latest iteration of the Russian secret service.
Nope, it’s an app and a web-site, offering — for a very reasonable £39.99 per year — digital copies of, as at December 2022, 118,727 recipes from 671 books. So whilst it doesn’t have every book you’d like to see — and often for reasons on the part of the publishers almost too dumb to be believed — it’s a fascinating offering and one that gets better and better as more book rights are agreed. Digital as it is, it’s easily as useable in the kitchen or equally on your lap when looking for ideas. You can even sample it for 2 weeks before deciding whether or not to stump up your hard-earned.
The publisher, Matt Cockerill, got in touch and asked me to write a short piece on my choice of my top-10 cookbooks. And this is the result.
