The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments


David Lebovitz - 2007
    Fragrant vanilla, toasted nuts, and spices. Heavy cream and bright liqueurs. Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. Every luscious flavor imaginable is grist for the chill in The Perfect Scoop, pastry chef David Lebovitz’s gorgeous guide to the pleasures of homemade ice creams, sorbets, granitas, and more. With an emphasis on intense and sophisticated flavors and a bountiful helping of the author’s expert techniques, this collection of frozen treats ranges from classic (Chocolate Sorbet) to comforting (Tin Roof Ice Cream), contemporary (Mojito Granita) to cutting edge (Pear-Pecorino Ice Cream), and features an arsenal of sauces, toppings, mix-ins, and accompaniments (such as Lemon Caramel Sauce, Peanut Brittle, and Profiteroles) capable of turning simple ice cream into perfect scoops of pure delight.

Honey from a Weed: Fasting and Feasting in Tuscany, Catalonia, the Cyclades and Apulia


Patience Gray - 1986
    Within a few months of its first appearance in 1986 it was hailed as a modern classic. Fiona MacCarthy wrote in The Times that, ‘the book is a large and grandiose life history, a passionate narrative of extremes of experience.’ Jeremy Round called Patience Gray ‘the high priestess of cooking’, whose book ‘pushes the form of the cookery book as far as it can go.’ Angela Carter remarked that ‘it was less a cookery book that a summing-up of the genre of the late-modern British cookery book.’ The work has attracted a cult following in the United States, where passages have been read out at great length on the radio; and it has been anthologized by Paul Levy in The Penguin Book of Food and Drink. It was given a special award by the André Simon Book Prize committee in 1987.

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table


Molly Wizenberg - 2009
    But when she tried going back to her apartment in Seattle and returning to graduate school, she knew it wasn't possible to resume life as though nothing had happened. So she went to Paris, a city that held vivid memories of a childhood trip with her father, of early morning walks on the cobbled streets of the Latin Quarter and the taste of her first pain au chocolat. She was supposed to be doing research for her dissertation, but more often, she found herself peering through the windows of chocolate shops, trekking across town to try a new pâtisserie, or tasting cheeses at outdoor markets, until one evening when she sat in the Luxembourg Gardens reading cookbooks until it was too dark to see, she realized that her heart was not in her studies but in the kitchen.At first, it wasn't clear where this epiphany might lead. Like her long letters home describing the details of every meal and market, Molly's blog Orangette started out merely as a pleasant pastime. But it wasn't long before her writing and recipes developed an international following. Every week, devoted readers logged on to find out what Molly was cooking, eating, reading, and thinking, and it seemed she had finally found her passion. But the story wasn't over: one reader in particular, a curly-haired, food-loving composer from New York, found himself enchanted by the redhead in Seattle, and their email correspondence blossomed into a long-distance romance.In A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, Molly Wizenberg recounts a life with the kitchen at its center. From her mother's pound cake, a staple of summer picnics during her childhood in Oklahoma, to the eggs she cooked for her father during the weeks before his death, food and memories are intimately entwined. You won't be able to decide whether to curl up and sink into the story or to head straight to the market to fill your basket with ingredients for Cider-Glazed Salmon and Pistachio Cake with Honeyed Apricots.

Caribbean Food Made Easy


Levi Roots - 2009
    This book's 100 recipes include many Caribbean favourites, often modernized with a delicious twist.

The Southern Pantry Cookbook: 105 Recipes Already Hiding in Your Kitchen


Jennifer Chandler - 2014
     Nothing can discourage a home cook quite like being unprepared—running to the store for that one item, getting halfway through a recipe and realizing something is missing, or simply not knowing quite where to begin. Kitchen pro and popular cookbook author Jennifer Chandler returns with The Southern Pantry Cookbook, a fail-safe game plan for ensuring mealtime success. Chandler helps readers stock their shelves with ingredients that will get them out of the kitchen quickly and around their table with family and friends. From rice and beans to sauces and seasonal produce, Chandler demonstrates how to turn basic recipe supplies into memorable Southern-style meals. With just a little bit of planning and a whole lot of down-home flavor, Chandler has some pretty delicious answers to the question, “What’s for supper?” Recipe highlights include:  Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Dried Cranberries and Pecans  White Bean and Country Ham Soup  Braised Chicken with Mushrooms and Grits  Pan-Seared Pork Chops with Drunken Peaches  Cheesy-Jalapeno Hushpuppies  Blackberry Skillet Cobbler

Tapas Revolution


Omar Allibhoy - 2013
    Using everyday storecupboard ingredients, Omar offers a new take on the classic tortilla de patatas, making this iconic dish easier than ever, and brings a twist to pinchos morunos and pollo con salsa. With sections covering vegetables, salads, rice dishes, meat, fish, cakes and desserts, the emphasis is on simplicity of ingredients and methods – reinforcing the fact that absolutely anyone can cook this versatile and accessible food.TAPAS NOT PASTA!

Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes from the Culinary Heart of China


Fuchsia Dunlop - 2016
    In Land of Fish and Rice, Fuchsia Dunlop draws on years of study and exploration to present the recipes, techniques, and ingredients of the Jiangnan kitchen. You will be inspired to try classic dishes such as Beggar’s Chicken and sumptuous Dongpo Pork, as well as fresh, simple recipes such as Clear-Steamed Sea Bass and Fresh Soybeans with Pickled Greens. Evocatively written and featuring stunning recipe photography, this is an important new work celebrating one of China’s most fascinating culinary regions.Winner, 2016 Andre Simon award (UK)Winner, 2017 Cookbook of the Year (British Guild of Food Writers)

My Life in France


Julia Child - 2006
    Although she would later singlehandedly create a new approach to American cuisine with her cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking and her television show The French Chef, Julia Child was not always a master chef. Indeed, when she first arrived in France in 1948 with her husband, Paul, who was to work for the USIS, she spoke no French and knew nothing about the country itself. But as she dove into French culture, buying food at local markets and taking classes at the Cordon Bleu, her life changed forever with her newfound passion for cooking and teaching. Julia's unforgettable story--struggles with the head of the Cordon Bleu, rejections from publishers to whom she sent her now-famous cookbook, a wonderful, nearly fifty-year long marriage that took the Childs across the globe--unfolds with the spirit so key to Julia's success as a chef and a writer, brilliantly capturing one of America's most endearing personalities.

The Classic Italian Cook Book: The Art of Italian Cooking and the Italian Art of Eating


Marcella Hazan - 1973
    May be plastic wrapped for additional protection

The Taste of Country Cooking


Edna Lewis - 1976
    With menus for the four seasons, she shares the ways her family prepared and enjoyed food, savoring the delights of each special time of year:• The fresh taste of spring—the first shad, wild mushrooms, garden strawberries, field greens and salads . . . honey from woodland bees . . . a ring mold of chicken with wild mushroom sauce . . . the treat of braised mutton after sheepshearing.• The feasts of summer—garden-ripe vegetables and fruits relished at the peak of flavor . . . pan-fried chicken, sage-flavored pork tenderloin, spicy baked tomatoes, corn pudding, fresh blackberry cobbler, and more, for hungry neighbors on Wheat-Threshing Day . . . Sunday Revival, the event of the year, when Edna’s mother would pack up as many as fifteen dishes (what with her pickles and breads and pies) to be spread out on linen-covered picnic tables under the church’s shady oaks . . . hot afternoons cooled with a bowl of crushed peaches or hand-cranked custard ice cream.• The harvest of fall—a fine dinner of baked country ham, roasted newly dug sweet potatoes, and warm apple pie after a day of corn-shucking . . . the hunting season, with the deliciously “different” taste of game fattened on hickory nuts and persimmons . . . hog-butchering time and the making of sausages and liver pudding . . . and Emancipation Day with its rich and generous thanksgiving dinner.• The hearty fare of winter—holiday time, the sideboard laden with all the special foods of Christmas for company dropping by . . . the cold months warmed by stews, soups, and baked beans cooked in a hearth oven to be eaten with hot crusty bread before the fire.The scores of recipes for these marvelous dishes are set down in loving detail. We come to understand the values that formed the remarkable woman—her love of nature, the pleasure of living with the seasons, the sense of community, the satisfactory feeling that hard work was always rewarded by her mother’s good food. Having made us yearn for all the good meals she describes in her memories of a lost time in America, Edna Lewis shows us precisely how to recover, in our own country or city or suburban kitchens, the taste of the fresh, good, natural country cooking that was so happy a part of her girlhood in Freetown, Virginia.

Thomas Jefferson's Creme Brulee: How a Founding Father and His Slave James Hemings Introduced French Cuisine to America


Thomas J. Craughwell - 2012
    The founding father was traveling to Paris and wanted to bring James along “for a particular purpose”— to master the art of French cooking. In exchange for James’s cooperation, Jefferson would grant his freedom. 
 
   Thus began one of the strangest partnerships in United States history. As Hemings apprenticed under master French chefs, Jefferson studied the cultivation of French crops (especially grapes for winemaking) so the might be replicated in American agriculture. The two men returned home with such marvels as pasta, French fries, Champagne, macaroni and cheese, crème brûlée, and a host of other treats. This narrative history tells the story of their remarkable adventure—and even includes a few of their favorite recipes!

Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone: Recipes to Put You in My Favorite Mood


Curtis Stone - 2009
    . . But I know that for a lot of people, putting together a meal, especially for guests, is the opposite of relaxing . . . I'm here to tell you: It doesn't have to be that way."--from the IntroductionAussie Curtis Stone, host of TLC's Take Home Chef, is best known for his laid-back approach to cooking. Though he's worked as head chef in several Michelin-starred London restaurants, some of his most memorable meals are the ones he's shared with friends at home. Now, Curtis shows you how to have as much fun in the kitchen as your guests are sure to have over a comfortable, unforgettable meal.In Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone, you'll find everything from "First Thing in the Morning" bites and "Brunches to Blow Their Minds" to "Weekend Lunches" and "Something to Eat on the Sofa." With the home cook in mind, Curtis avoids off-putting culinary lingo and hard-to-find ingredients. Instead, he picks what's in season and just around the corner. This down-to-earth approach results in wonderfully interesting and flavorful taste combinations that are perfect for parties or just hanging out with a close friend or loved ones.Recipes include:- Caramelized Nectarines with Yogurt and Honey- Crispy Tortilla with Ham, Chile, Spinach, and Fried Eggs- Heirloom Tomato and Burrata Salad with Pepper-Crusted New York Steak- Pan-Fried Calamari with Roasted Asparagus Salad- Homemade Salted Caramel Popcorn- Baby Baked Potatoes with Sour Cream and Chives- Sticky Chicken Drumsticks- Red Curry with Lobster and Pineapple- Veal Cutlet Coated in an Aged Jack Cheese Crust- Slowly Cooked Brisket with a BBQ Bourbon Sauce- Creamy Mascarpone and Parsley Polenta- Brownie CupcakesThese delicious recipes and Curtis's infectiously easygoing attitude are all it takes to end your entertaining stress and get you and your guests into a relaxing mood.

The Pillsbury Cookbook


Pillsbury - 1989
    From the name that generations have grown to trust.This new paperback edition brings together the tools we need to prepare quick and nutritious meals and includes nutritional information with every recipe. More than 150 color photos, step-by-step drawings, and easy-to-use charts make this the complete cookbook for the busy 90s!

Twain's Feast: Searching for America's Lost Foods in the Footsteps of Samuel Clemens


Andrew Beahrs - 2010
    With the help of a chef and some friends, Nick Offerman presents the story of Twain’s life through the lens of eight of Mark Twain’s favorite foods. As we explore these foods’ role in Samuel Clemens’ life, we also discover a surprising culinary and ecological history of America. The biggest celebrity of his time, Twain was a witness to a transforming country, and with historian and writer Andrew Beahrs as a guide, Beahrs and Offerman take documentary excursions across America, illuminating each dish and bringing to life a broad sampling of Twain’s writing. Twain’s Feast is a rollicking information-packed journey into the rich culinary history of America, with the sharp eye and unmistakable wit of Mark Twain himself.Portions of this audiobook contain mature language and themes. Listener discretion is advised.This audiobook is 4 hours 27 minutes long.©2018 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2018 Audible Originals, LLC

Thug Kitchen: The Official Cookbook: Eat Like You Give a F*ck


Thug Kitchen - 2014
    Beloved by Gwyneth Paltrow ("This might be my favorite thing ever") and named Saveur's Best New Food blog of 2013—with half a million Facebook fans and counting—Thug Kitchen wants to show everyone how to take charge of their plates and cook up some real f*cking food.Yeah, plenty of blogs and cookbooks preach about how to eat more kale, why ginger fights inflammation, and how to cook with microgreens and nettles. But they are dull or pretentious as hell—and most people can't afford the hype.Thug Kitchen lives in the real world. In their first cookbook, they're throwing down more than 100 recipes for their best-loved meals, snacks, and sides for beginning cooks to home chefs. (Roasted Beer and Lime Cauliflower Tacos? Pumpkin Chili? Grilled Peach Salsa? Believe that sh*t.) Plus they're going to arm you with all the info and techniques you need to shop on a budget and go and kick a bunch of ass on your own.This book is an invitation to everyone who wants to do better to elevate their kitchen game. No more ketchup and pizza counting as vegetables. No more drive-thru lines. No more avoiding the produce corner of the supermarket. Sh*t is about to get real.