Cook Books
By: Teresa Genaro;
Recently I was at a local charity event that featured a silent auction as its main fundraiser. As I wandered the tables looking at the items, I was struck by the number of food-related items that had been offered:
• A gift certificate to a high-end grocery story in the area
• A beautifully sculpted and decorated spoon rest
• Upscale oil and vinegar combos
• At least two baskets full of cooks’ toys: cooking tools,
ingredients, cookbooks, etc.
• Several cookbooks
Each was awfully tempting (I did make a couple of bids, but things got out of my price range pretty quickly), and it struck me how easy it is to give lovely gifts to the cooks or food-lovers in your lives this holiday season. I love to give cookbooks (really, could you ever have too many?), and here are a few of my favorites:
Cookbooks
I offer here the prices as found on Amazon, but try to buy these in your local bookstore, if you can.
OK, fine, make fun of me, but as a single woman who often cooks for herself, I love Rachael Ray. As she says of herself, she’s a cook, not a chef, and she makes life easy and tasty for me. Last year for Christmas I was given 365: No Repeats (2005, Clarkson Potter, $13.57), and while I haven’t made all of her recipes, I’ve tried a number of them, all successfully. They don’t take me thirty minutes, but they don’t take a heck of a lot longer than that.
My friend Liz turned me on to Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything (1998, MacMillan, $14.93). I was a little behind the curve on Bittman, but I have fallen in love with this big yellow book. I find fancy recipes and simple recipes, and great advice on cooking techniques, and interesting information about ingredients. Have I said that I love this book? I love this book.
Several years ago my mother gave me Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins’ The New Basics Cookbook (1989, Workman Publishing, $13.57). These are the good folks who brought us The Silver Palate Cookbook, and while their idea of “basics” doesn’t always mesh with mine, I’ve found a number of recipes that I go back to again and again. I don’t use it as often as I use the other two, but the food stains on it will attest to its usefulness.
Last year, I turned the tables on my mother and bought her Ruth Reichl’s The Gourmet Cookbook (2006, Houghton Mifflin, $32). I read a lot about it, but I can’t offer much insight into what’s in it because I don’t own it; I do know that my mother has given it as a gift to at least two people in the last year, and it’s within arms’ reach of her stove.
Most bookstores now have extensive food sections, and a trip to your local should offer you plenty of selection. If you prefer to do your shopping from home, here are a few websites worth a look:
• Jessica’s Biscuit, an absolute orgy of cookbooks.
• The cookbook section of The Reluctant Gourmet comments on a wide variety of cookbooks; you don’t buy them from this site, but it’s a great overview.
• Induction Cooking reviews cookbooks by theme and type. It provides probably more information than you need, but it’s good for browsing and getting ideas.
A good cookbook should do more than provide a series of directions; it should teach readers about food, offer a sense of context for recipe, and provide a voice and tone that tell readers something about the person who wrote or edited the cookbook. It should inspire you to cook, and it should make you feel at ease in trying new things. Best wishes to you and yours through the holidays, and here’s hoping that your palates are tantalized and your tables laden through these weeks.