JAMIE Oliver has a lot of talented mates. There's his oldest childhood friend, Jimmy Doherty, author of the rather good A Taste of the Country.

There's also Matt Skinner, "London's funkiest sommelier" (so his website says) and author of The Juice, a wine guide aimed at urban wine drinkers who want the facts without the fluff. And now meet Tobie Puttock, author of a new book called Daily Italian and godfather to Jamie's daughter Daisy Boo. Like Jamie, he's worked in the famous River Cafe in London and he's fanatical about Italian food. He was head chef at Fifteen in London, the restaurant that employed young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, and then returned home to establish Fifteen Melbourne, which has been open for nine months. He skateboards and he snowboards. He married his girlfriend of five years, Georgia Katz, in April. And his cooking is a far remove from what Jamie, in his introduction to Daily Italian, calls "architectural penis-extensions that look pretty on a plate". This is tasty, flavoursome, unpretentious and unintimidating stuff.

Does the world need another Italian cookbook? you're probably thinking as you look at your kitchen compendium, heaving with The River Cafe Easy, Jamie's Italy, The Silver Spoon and others. In the case of Daily Italian, the answer is yes. It does that rare thing . . . inspires you to step out of your culinary comfort zone without being daunting. And it's certainly not the kind of book that is only dug out on rare occasions when you want to wow at a dinner party.

Puttock says he's been less inclined of late to spend hours in the kitchen than he has looking for the right produce, which fits in perfectly with the generation who will only shop for the best produce in the right shops, only to get home and wonder what on earth to do with a bulb of fennel.

Also, what makes this book different is the fact that all the recipes offer ingredient substitutions for those who are dairy, lactose or gluten intolerant, or for those who have irritable bowel syndrome, which his wife Georgia suffers from. The other appealing aspect to this book is that what you cook from the book will look like (hopefully) the photographs in the book.

"When I first started doing cooking demonstrations and stuff I overheard this quite famous chef . . . an Australian guy . . .

saying, 'You know, we're doing my new book at the moment and we had to cook this one dish 13 or 14 times.' And this is a team to chefs to get the dish absolutely right? I thought, my God, if my mum and dad are going to buy this book, or Georgia or you or anyone, how the hell are they going to get it to look like that?" he says.

"One of the main things with the book which we do is we had a really small team, we'd no food stylists or anything, and we all got along really, really well, which was cool. I was literally in the kitchen constantly cooking and as soon as it was read, I'd put it down and shoot it while it's hot and that was it. So, there were no food stylists with blow torches. . "

Puttock fell into his current occupation by chance. He needed money to buy skateboards, as well as going snowboarding in Europe, and his dad suggested he get a job washing dishes. He got a job at Caffe e Cucino, where he started doing food prep, and stayed there for six years, in between his snowboarding trips. It was here that he fell in love with Italian food, as well as Italian culture, moving to Lake Como in 1994 where he underwent a baptism by fire in terms of doing double shifts six days a week and learning the language in record time. It wasn't quite the Campari-sipping, gorgeous girl-goggling experience he had anticipated but it was educational. He was a sous-chef at the age of 24 when he moved to London, working at the River Cafe with Jamie, who calls Puttock "one of the best".

Considering Puttock has no Italian lineage . . .his parents are from France and the UK but a couple of generations back . . . what is it about Italian food that enthrals him?

"For me, I really like the no-nonsense approach with Italian cooking. It's about going out and finding really good quality produce and not doing too much to it really.

As a chef I really like simple, uncomplex dishes and I would much rather eat a nice piece of mozzarella with olive oil and some pepper than a plate that's all been stacked up with the sauce. I think Italian cooking, for me, is a bit more than food, it's the culture as well." Despite his lack of Italian heritage, he points to his heart and says he gets a feeling there when he cooks. "I've cooked for Italians a lot now and they will always say it's kind of similar to something they've seen in Italy and it's not necessarily something I've seen before."

Although he was approached by several publishers to do a book, witnessing Jamie's experiences initially put him off the whole idea. "I actually thought, right, well, why the hell would I want to do this? There's umpteen different young chefs out there all doing cookbooks and it seems like a fashionable thing. For me it was really important personally that there was a point of difference in the book and I think I've done that." Is his next move into television?

He doesn't think so. "Doing a TV show to get famous? No, it's got to have a purpose like hopefully getting people to demand that they know where the products they're buying in the supermarket is coming from.

If I can use my experience as a chef to push those things, it's worth it for me, " he says.

Celebrity chefs have a huge responsibility, he thinks. "I think it's really great because, hopefully, by people being on TV, people who mightn't normally cook and people who might just go get fast food, might feel a bit more of a connection with the person. If that can give them a reason to go out and buy some ingredients and cook from the book, it's great, isn't it? If we can somehow change someone's life a little bit like that . . .

from eating pizza to buying a rabbit! It would be brilliant, wouldn't it?"

ROASTED POTATOES WITH MILK, ROSEMARY AND GARLIC

THE milk here is the key. It curdles as it heats, creating a tasty coating around the potatoes. Use full-cream milk for this one; lowfat varieties tend to go watery when heated.

Serves 4 250 ml (9fl oz) milk 2 tbs rosemary, roughly chopped 4 garlic cloves, finely sliced olive oil for greasing 6 medium potatoes, peeled sea salt Freshly ground black pepper Lay the potatoes on the baking tray in rows . . . a little bit of overlap is fine but not too much.

Cook in the oven for about 30 minutes. Flip occasionally to make sure the slices brown evenly. Serve hot.

ariations for wellbeing: Gluten intolerance, IBS . . . enjoy as is.

Dairy intolerance . . . use goat's or sheep's milk instead of regular milk.

Lactose intolerance . . . use lactose-free milk instead of regular milk

SALMON CARPACCIO

THIS wonderful dish relies on the age-old combination of horseradish and salmon. The other key to the recipe is to use seasoned thyme as a rub, which adds extra flavour and an interesting texture.

Serves 4 1 X 500g (1lb) salmon fillet, skin removed 5 tbs olive oil sea salt freshly ground black pepper 1 tbs thyme leaves 1 knob horseradish, freshly grated 4 tbs creme fraiche, plus extra for dressing juice of 1/2 lemon a handful of flatleaf parsley, torn 10 mint leaves 1 fresh chilli, finely sliced extra-virgin olive oil for dressing and serving Rub the salmon with as much of the five tablespoons of olive oil as needed. Combine the salt and pepper and thyme in a bowl, then sprinkle over the salmon. Use your hands to pat the mixture firmly onto the fish.

Heat a chargrill pan, barbecue or frying pan and sear the salmon for about 30 seconds on each side. You want the salmon still very raw but with a little bit of crust.

Set aside. Put the grated horseradish in a bowl with the creme fraiche, a pinch of salt and pepper and the lemon juice. Mix lightly and set aside.

Slice the salmon into 1cm (half-inch) thick pieces, using a very sharp, thin-bladed knife.

Arrange the slices on plates; use your fingers to press down on the salmon so that it sits flat on the plate.

Mix the parsley, mint and chilli with a splash of extravirgin olive oil. Make sure the herbs are well coated with the oil, then scatter over salmon.

Drizzle salmon with a little creme fraiche and olive oil, and finish with a grind of pepper.

Variations for wellbeing: Gluten intolerance, IBS, lactose intolerance . . . enjoy as is.

Dairy intolerance . . . use goat's cheese creme fraiche instead of regular creme fraiche.

TOBIE ON. . . .

OLIVE OIL

For varieties I could name thousands but I don't know what's available here really. I think the best thing with things like olive oil is to go into your delicatessen or your grocer store and just talk to the people who are running the place. Always go for a new-harvest, coldpressed olive oil and, I guess, we use heaps of different olive oils depending on what dishes we're using them in. For a goodquality olive oil you're probably going to spend a bit of money. You shouldn't fry with it. As soon as you get a good coldpressed olive oil above 24, 26 degrees, you lose most of the flavour and then it's just like a normal oil, so what's the point then?

MAKING YOUR OWN PASTA

I think it's a very therapeutic experience doing it. It makes you appreciate what you're eating just that little bit more. I think that's something that's really been lost with the whole fastfood generation; they just eat to fill themselves so that they don't die. Of course premade pasta is very convenient and I'm not preaching that people do it every single day, but it's a nice thing to learn how to do.

Everybody I've taught it to absolutely loves it. It's a good touchy-feely thing and it gets you in contact with yourself and what you're eating.

ON WHETHER THERE'S BALSAMIC VINEGAR OVERKILL

I like balsamic vinegar, but there's balsamic vinegar and there's balsamic vinegar. A lot of people say 'This is balsamic vinegar' and they expect you to be impressed but the balsamic vinegar tastes like s**t because it hasn't been aged enough. I use a lot of white balsamic vinegar, which is really lovely. It's lighter and it's not as full on in your mouth . . . it's a lot smoother.

ON HIS ITALIAN WINE RECOMMENDATIONS

Drink as much of them as possible!

Matt Skinner is one of my closest friends and I always call him up even though he's on the opposite side of the world. Just get chummy with people who know a lot about wine.

ON WHETHER HE SPEAKS ITALIAN

Si.