Cookbooks
Lucy Waverman’s favourite cookbooks of 2010
The cookbook market is cyclical. Some years see chefs publishing larger-than-life tomes, while other years it is all about the trend. The selections are more eclectic this year, but it is the knowledge-based books that have won me over. My two favourites are photograph-free and one has no recipes, but both offer masses of pertinent information as well as an excellent read.
Here are the best of the best: my favourite books and several more deserving honourable mention.
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THE ESSENTIAL NEW YORK TIMES COOKBOOK
Classic Recipes for a New Century, by Amanda Hesser, Norton, $45Amanda Hesser, food columnist for The New York Times, has produced the book of the year. This compendium of more than 1,000 notable recipes from the past 150 years of the Times’ food section arrives 50 years after the influential Times cookbooks of Craig Claiborne. The title of Hesser’s book may be similar, but she has taken a much wider view as she tests and tastes her way through recipes from the earliest archives right up the present. From the 6,000 she started with, she selected 1,400 to test before making her final choices.
“American cooking has seen monumental changes through the intervening decades,” Hesser says. Tastes have shifted even over 50 years, going from classic French through Italian, on to bistro, flirting with tapas, then to local cooking and sustainable food. To illustrate the changes and give context, Hesser uses timelines in each chapter to illustrate the transformation of recipes and ingredients. Her analysis helps us understand how food trends come in waves and how food in the 1950s, for example, differs greatly from food today. It is interesting to note that nose-to-tail cooking, all the rage now, was also trendy in the 1850s.
Hesser has reinterpreted many of the recipes to make them readable and cookable. Included are updated basic recipes, classic recipes and recipes from chefs. Each chapter has an index and each recipe an introduction to place it in context. There are serving suggestions too – a boon for the busy cook. Hesser’s writing is also witty and irreverent. The book cooks as beautifully as it reads (we had no recipe failures). There are no pictures and you will not miss them. It should take its rightful place between Julia Child and The Joy of Cooking on your bookshelf.
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KEYS TO GOOD COOKING
A Guide To Making The Best of Foods and Recipes, by Harold McGee, Doubleday, $42Harold McGee is one of my culinary heroes. When his seminal On Food and Cooking was published in 1984, it was one of the first to approach cooking from a scientific point of view and remains an iconic book for food professionals.
His new book addresses the needs of the home cook. McGee is not a scientist by training; he taught literature and writing, but his common-sense approach and his understanding of science make him a great aide in your kitchen. This is the companion to all other cookbooks because it answers all your cooking questions. It will help you be a better cook, dispel myths and is a great bedside read.
Here, for instance, is McGee on pastry dough:
“Use a mister and spray the pastry dough to incorporate the liquid. Best-before dates are arbitrary. Most things might lose a little flavour, but they won’t hurt you. Preheat an oven 25 degrees higher than the recipe calls for. When you open it to add the dish it falls immediately. Then turn it down.”
This fascinating book is your best kitchen friend.
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CHEWY GOOEY CRISPY CRUNCHY MELT-IN-YOUR-MOUTH COOKIES
By Alice Medrich, Artisan, $31.95Say “gooey” and my mouth waters. And this book in all its chewy, crispy, flaky and crunchy sections will make you want to bake and bake.
This is a modern cookie book. Ingredients from the worldwide pantry include Thai curry paste, garam masala and spices such as star anise and five-spice powder. Among my favourites were Medrich’s famous lemon bars along with a lighter version.
Medrich plays with textures and tastes, testing her recipes until they reach her own high standards. Easy-to-follow instructions and lots of tips make this a book for both the neophyte and the experienced baker.
A few gluten-free cookies, some dairy-free and some lower in fat finish this very fine collection. It has lovely photographs, although I would have liked a few more. Every cookie we baked came out picture perfect.
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AROUND MY FRENCH TABLE
More than 300 Recipes From My Home To Yours, by Dorie Greenspan, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $49.95Greenspan has written award-winning baking books with Julian Child and Pierre Hermé, but this is a personal book that explores her joy in French home cooking. Greenspan has chosen an eclectic group of her own recipes. She has a distinctive voice that guides you through each recipe as if she were beside you. She offers lots of advice, including serving and storing suggestions. Her skills in recipe writing and presentation have been well honed over the years. Her profiteroles were the best I have made, perhaps because she uses milk instead of water.
There are easy recipes, recipes that use shortcuts, more complex recipes and fabulous baking. Marie Helene’s Apple Cake is itself worth the price of the book. The photography is the antithesis of the Donna Hay school of white. It is very warm and uses wood and darker backgrounds, a trend I noted in several cookbooks. This is a lovely book on sharing the pleasure of the table.
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KITCHEN
Recipes From The Heart of The Home, by Nigella Lawson, Knopf, $55The warmth of Nigella Lawson’s kitchen comes through in this lively, entertaining cookbook. This is her most personal book, a kind of kitchen memoir with stories about her life. It is full of practical comforting recipes, speedy weeknight food and longer leisurely weekend dinners. Lots of anecdotal information about food and recipes help the cook.
The book is arbitrarily divided into two sections: Kitchen Quandaries – problem solving in different food situations such as “Hurry up I’m hungry,” and the longer Kitchen Comforts, which relates to many different scenarios in cooking and Lawson’s own personal choices. You feel you really know Nigella after reading and cooking from the book.
It is a British cookbook, so you’ll need a scale to master the recipes. We tested the sensational marmalade pudding and the dark Guinness Cake. A comforting book for reading and cooking.
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HEART OF THE ARTICHOKE
And Other Kitchen Journeys, by David Tanis, Artisan, $42This is the kind of book I really admire and enjoy, with seasonal menus featuring sophisticated food with a simple touch.
Tanis is the chef at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, Calif., and has been tutored by Alice Waters, the doyenne of fresh, local organic food. His menus are well chosen, starting with simple meals for one or two people to more complex entertaining menus, and finishing with feasts for 12 to 20.
The writing and the recipes pull you into the book; Tanis is a warm man with a passion for cooking for others. We made his tasty foccacia, which perhaps requires a little bread-making experience to accomplish properly. His fragrant, superb, easy-to-make Beef Pho is the perfect winter dish.
This book is like a tonic with its fresh approach and flavours when you are tired of too much complex cooking.
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3 CHEFS
The Kitchen Men, by Michael Bonacini, Massimo Capra and Jason Parsons, Whitecap, $26.95)I wrote the intro to this book because I was associated with CityLine before the three chefs became part of that show. Michael Bonacini, Massimo Capra and Jason Parsons are the chefs and they have meshed their different styles, camaraderie and experience to make an impressive, enjoyable book.
Massimo’s recipes are more flamboyant and are steeped in his Italian heritage. Michael is more restrained and classical in his approach, and Jason is the person you would love to have in the kitchen because his style is simple, yet elegant and easy.
Tested recipes worked well, although there is occasionally a missing oven temperature. I liked the dramatic appeal of Jason’s Maple Roasted Salmon with Bacon, Corn and Blueberry Potato Cake; the succulence of Massimo’s Roasted Mediterranean Sea Bass on a Seafood and Green Pea Ragout; and Michael’s classic and simple Pan Fried Snapper with Artichoke, Mushroom and Black Olive Ragout. Each recipe illustrates a chef’s particular style. This is best for a cook with a bit of experience.
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AT HOME WITH MADHUR JAFFREY
Simple, Delectable Dishes from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, by Madhur Jaffrey, Random House, $40Madhur Jaffrey has been writing about Indian food for many years. She was the first Indian TV chef in her native England and has graciously given us the benefit of her culinary talents in many books. Here, she has deconstructed more complicated cuisine, employing simpler techniques, but still producing delectable results.
This is the book for Indian food lovers who want to cook inventive but easy recipes and save the more complex for dining out. Only a master could produce a book that delivers this ease and taste. A simple dish like South Indian Style Green Beans was superb with a grilled hanger steak. Her Chicken Baked with an Almond and Onion Sauce needed nothing more than brown basmati rice for a tempting main course. Jaffrey includes lots of tips and information that answer most of your questions before you can even think of them.
