A cookbook written by an unknown has been selected by a panel of experts as the best buy

Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver have seduced television viewers with their intimate approach to food, but their cookbooks don’t cut the mustard, according to a panel of food experts.

Celebrity chefs, including Ainsley Harriott and Antony Worrall Thompson, have also been omitted from a list of the most useful cookbooks compiled by chefs and critics including Aldo Zilli and Giles Coren, food writer for The Times.

Even Delia Smith was relegated to second place by a ten-year-old cookbook written by a chef who has never presented a television programme.

The best kitchen companion, according to Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine, is Roast Chicken and Other Stories, written by Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham. Buy it here from Amazon – Roast Chicken and Other Stories (Ebury Paperback Cookery Series)

Mr Hopkinson, the founding chef at Bibendum restaurant in Kensington, Central London, was praised as having “such good taste and sense that the result is a little blueprint for British cooking through the year”.

The magazine added: “Once you have followed Hopkinson’s recipes for salad nicoise or roast potatoes, you’ll never want to do them any other way. Who needs a 500-page doorstopper when you’ve got the essence of modern British cooking in a volume you could almost fit in your pocket?”

Delia Smith, whose name has entered the Collins English Dictionary, was ranked second for her Complete Cookery Course, first published in 1978.

Her 576-page volume was praised for the reliability of its recipes. “Size doesn’t always equate with usefulness, but in this case the sheer scope of the recipes, from a simple omelette to Christmas dinner, provides a kitchen comfort blanket.” Real Fast Food, Nigel Slater’s first book, came third for its perfect bacon sandwich and variations on cheese on toast.

Instructions on how to skin a rabbit helped Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall earn fourth place for The River Cottage Meat Book. Giles Coren, who voted for the book, said: “It really makes you want to eat meat. The only disappointing thing is that it has recipes for sheep’s testicles, but not rooster’s testicles, which as every gastronome knows are the tastiest testicles of all.” The title of Most Useless Cookbook went to the Larousse Gastronomique, a “stuffy” 1,200-page encyclopaedia that costs £60, although you can buy it here via Amazon for £40 — Larousse Gastronomique: The World’s Greatest Cookery Encyclopedia