Favorite Cookbooks & Cookbook Reviews

November 28, 2011

The Treats Truck Baking Book

by Kim Ima

Food trucks are all the rage these days and author/food truck owner Kim Ima, reinforces the belief that if you are passionate about something and can visualize it, you can make it happen and be successful.

“I want to make it real,” I told my friend. It was love. And when it’s love, what else can you do? Find a truck, learn how to drive in the city, learn how to make your favorite brownie recipe, times ten, and open for business.” ~ Kim Ima, The Treats Truck Baking Book

May 31, 2011

My Father’s Daughter

by Gwyneth Paltrow

So, it would appear that Gwyneth Paltrow can add successful cookbook author to her CV along with her many other talent. As skeptical as I was going in to the review for My Father’s Table,  I was actually pleasantly surprised by the number of dishes that not only sparked my own culinary recollections, but I was pretty eager to prepare for my own family…

May 31, 2011

Paella

by Alberto Herraiz

Dust off your paella pans, finally a definitive collection of recipes for this classic Spanish dish. Paella is the first cookbook in English by paella master, Alberto Herraiz, and he brings all of his knowledge of tradition and technique to the table. There are 108 recipes, including some rarely seen ‘sweeter’ versions. Want to create a memorable party? Take the largest paella pan you can carry outside to create your dish in the open air…

April 21, 2011

Tartine Bread

by Chad Robertson

Tartine Bread is my ideal bread book. No more excuses, no more stalling, time to expand beyond pizza dough and brioche. Bread baking is very personal by nature. We all take to the ovens with varying degrees of enthusiasm, skill, and expectations. Not to mention time commitments. The most important element of a bread book, apart from the inclusion of recipes for breads you want to make and henceforth eat, is finding one that complements…

November 16, 2010

How to Roast a Lamb

by Michael Psilakis

At last, a cookbook to take me back to meals I savoured in family-owned restaurants while visiting the Greek Islands. Occasionally one finds a Greek restaurant that touches on some of the authentic flavours, ingredients and moods of Greek feasting- and yes, the ouzo helps. However, my cookbook shelf has held a hopeful space for a book that would allow me to recreate those dishes at home. It was with great satisfaction that I flipped through Michael Psilakis’ How to Roast a Lamb…

November 09, 2010

Flour

by Joanne Chang

As cliché as this might sound, I really want to bake everything in Joanne Chang’s new baking book, Flour, Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Café. Really, there’s not a recipe I don’t want to try. She makes it all look easy, delicious and impossible to resist. There’s nothing over-the-top and too showy in this collection; just good old-fashioned treats…

November 01, 2010

Noma

by Rene Zedzepi

Rene Redzepi who is credited with bringing ‘new Nordic’ cuisine to the world stage while literally shaking the foundations of haute cuisine. Redzepi has an uncompromising approach to local eating, seasonal and wild foraged ingredients are not just the stars - they make the dish. Rather than luxury standards like foie gras and tuna tartare, guests dine on truly Nordic ingredients as musk ox…

November 01, 2010

Coco

by Editors of Phaidon Press

With Coco, publisher Phaidon Press has created a must-have reference for professional chefs, instructors, culinary students and culinary enthusiasts. To compile this list of who’s who in the international culinary scene, the editors asked 10 World-Leading Masters of the art to select and profile 100 of the best emerging chefs from around the world. The 10 chef-curators are: Ferran Adria…

November 01, 2010

Esalen Cookbook

by Charlie Cascio

Only a lucky few get the opportunity to spend time recharging themselves at the world-renowned Esalen Institute, perched on the cliffs above the ocean in Big Sur, California. Esalen is a place of peace and beauty, where people can contemplate, think, and discover. And wouldn’t you know, the kitchen (along with the kitchen garden of course) is the heart of this tranquil get-away…

July 20, 2009

Alfalfabet A to Z

by Carol Watterson & Michela Sorrentino

A wonderful new kid’s book! More info at the official Alfalfabet website.

January 08, 2009

Martha Stewart’s Cooking School

by Martha Stewart

Who better to produce a culinary course for home cooks than Martha Stewart? Not only is she is a consummate teacher and perfectionist; she is backed by the best cooking assistants and test kitchen around, and afterall, she started her career in the kitchen. In a nutshell, Martha Stewart’s Cooking School is a book of general cooking techniques and classic recipes…

December 02, 2008

How to Cook Everything Completely Revised 10th Anniversary Edition

by Mark Bittman

Has 10 years really gone by since Mark Bittman published his groundbreaking tome, How to Cook Everything? Judging by the state of the yellow dust jacket on my copy I can believe it. Do I really need this 10th anniversary edition? I’ve grown quite attached to my yellow book and am reluctant to believe it can be improved upon. Well good news, Mark Bittman has indeed improved and expanded…

More Recent Reviews...

• Spain - by Mario Batali and Gwyneth Paltrow

• Baking for All Occasions - by Flo Braker

• Turquoise - by Greg and Lucy Malouf

• Food Festivals of Italy - by Leonardo Curti and James Fraioli

• La Paella - by Jeff Koehler

• Italian Grill - by Mario Batali

• The River Cottage Fish Book - by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Nick Fisher

• Whole Grains Every Day Every Way - by Lorna Sass

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - by Barbara Kingsolver

• Fine Cooking Annual - by Fine Cooking Magazine

• Veganomicon - by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero

• American Masala - by Suvir Saran

• Further Adventures in Search of Perfection - by Heston Blumenthal

• Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper - by Lynne Rossetto Kasper & Sally Swift

• Terrine - by Stephane Reynaud