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Lynne's Picks:
The Best Food Books of 2005
December 13, 2005
Good food books were coming out of the woodwork this year. I want to laud the ground breakers, the pros who plumb how we really live with our food and make it easier, the writers who turn food into great reads, and the seeker cooks who don't stop researching until they can bring us peoples and their foods with authority and humanity. So here, plucked from so many deserving titles, is something for everyone on our gift lists, from non-cooks to the kitchen obsessed.
The Splendid Table Book of the Year:
1. Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluiso (Material World Books and Ten Speed Press, 2005) $40.
Arresting, beautiful, enlightening and infinitely human, this is a collection of full-page photos of families around the world surrounded by what they eat in a single week—from Bhutan to San Antonio. Read the illuminating statistics and the essays. Each time you look you see something new. This is a book for the family and for the classroom. You won't see the same old "aren't we better than them" attitude, nor will you be shamed. "Hungry Planet" reminds us that what we eat is the simplest yet most profound thread that ties us together.
2. Molto Italiano: 327 Simple Italian Recipes to Cook at Home by
Mario Batali (Ecco, 2005) $34.95.
As usual, Mario delivers the irresistable in the easiest way possible. You want to know how truly simple real Italian food is? Take a look at this tome. Lots of photos, lots of vegetarian dishes and fast supper ideas—Mario Batali knows what we home cooks want and serves it up brilliantly.
3. Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen by Elizabeth Andoh (Ten Speed Press, 2005) $35.
This is the most impressive Japanese work I've seen in years, by an American food professional who's lived in Japan for decades. Really several books in one, you have a cookbook of solid, often easy recipes, a definitive guide to ingredients and techniques, and a cultural syllabus of Japanese home life. This is one for the reference library.
4. The Herbal Kitchen: Cooking with Fragrance and Flavor by Jerry Traunfeld (William Morrow, 2005) $34.95.
Jerry Traunfeld redefines "deft," as in small touches and fresh ideas that make dishes sing. I love that I can look up "rosemary" and can run the gamut from a gin and tonic to a warm maple banana split. This chef of The Herbfarm Restaurant outside Seattle is living proof that restaurant cooks can write great books for us home types. You'll thumb this every day, and you will be applauded by all those you give it to.
5. Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen by Julie Powell (Little Brown, 2005) $23.95.
This is a funny, infuriating and utterly entertaining true story of self-rescue with Julia Child as fairy godmother. Author Julie Powell is a restless 20-something who is stuck in a dead-end job, has no goals, and is terrified of being another "housewife in a rut." So in a deranged moment she decides to cook her
way through every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I in a single year. Oh, and she is not a cook. You will enjoy this one.
The Splendid Table Book of our Times:
Apocalypse Chow: How to Eat Well When the Power Goes Out by Jon Robertson with Robin Robertson (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2005) $12.95.
Written by a cookbook author and editor couple who've been there themselves, this little book may reflect the past year more than any other. Surprisingly, there's nothing maudlin or depressing here. You have solid, well-thought-out advice on how to keep your head and health together through difficult times. From stocking the pantry for a blackout to cooking without fuel, to comforting ourselves, to dealing with having our lives turned upside down, the Robertsons deliver the goods.
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