I have long admired Rose Levy Beranbaum's books, including The Cake Bible, The Pie and Pastry Bible and The Bread Bible. In them, she explains the thought processes behind her recipes and techniques. And judging by the number of comments on her blog, Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum (realbakingwithrose.com), she has a lot of other fans, too.

You'd think such a famous cookbook author would selfishly keep her recipes to herself; she could say, 'Read about my no-knead bread in my next cookbook,' and we'd probably run out and buy it. But her blog posts are generous: she not only gave us the recipe for the no-knead bread but also updated it three years later, with a technique for cooking the bread on a grill, rather than in an oven.

The majority of her posts are about baking - after all, that's what made her famous. But she occasionally gives tips and recipes for savoury dishes: cast-iron eggs; Suvir Saran's peanut chaat and lemon rice; and Zarela Martinez's chile rellenos.