The Language of Food: A Linguist Reads the Menu


Dan Jurafsky - 2014
    Thirteen chapters evoke the joy and discovery of reading a menu dotted with the sharp-eyed annotations of a linguist.Jurafsky points out the subtle meanings hidden in filler words like "rich" and "crispy," zeroes in on the metaphors and storytelling tropes we rely on in restaurant reviews, and charts a microuniverse of marketing language on the back of a bag of potato chips.The fascinating journey through The Language of Food uncovers a global atlas of culinary influences. With Jurafsky's insight, words like ketchup, macaron, and even salad become living fossils that contain the patterns of early global exploration that predate our modern fusion-filled world.From ancient recipes preserved in Sumerian song lyrics to colonial shipping routes that first connected East and West, Jurafsky paints a vibrant portrait of how our foods developed. A surprising history of culinary exchange—a sharing of ideas and culture as much as ingredients and flavors—lies just beneath the surface of our daily snacks, soups, and suppers.

The Art of Eating


M.F.K. Fisher - 1954
    Fisher, whose wit and fulsome opinions on food and those who produce it, comment upon it, and consume it are as apt today as they were several decades ago, when she composed them. Why did she choose food and hunger she was asked, and she replied, 'When I write about hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth, and the love of it . . . and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied.

Lidia's Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine: Everything You Need to Know to Be a Great Italian Cook


Lidia Matticchio Bastianich - 2015
    Teaching has always been Lidia’s passion, and in this magnificent book she gives us the full benefit of that passion and of her deep, comprehensive understanding of what it takes to create delicious Italian meals. With this book, readers will learn all the techniques needed to master Italian cooking. Lidia introduces us to the full range of standard ingredients—meats and fish, vegetables and fruits, grains, spices and condiments—and how to buy, store, clean, and cook with them. The 400 recipes run the full gamut from classics like risotto alla milanese and Tagliatelle with Mushroom Sauce to Lidia’s always-satisfying originals like Bread and Prune Gnocchi and Beet Ravioli in Poppy Seed Sauce. She gives us a comprehensive guide to the tools every kitchen should have to produce the best results. And she has even included a glossary of cuisine-related words and phrases that will prove indispensable for cooking, as well as for traveling and dining in Italy. There is no other book like this; it is the one book on Italian cuisine that every cook will need.

Twelve Recipes


Cal Peternell - 2014
    Based on the life-altering course of instruction he prepared and honed through many phone calls with his son, Twelve Recipes is the ultimate introduction to the kitchen. Peternell focuses on the core foods and dishes that comprise a successful home cook’s arsenal, each building skill upon skill—from toast, eggs, and beans, to vinaigrettes, pasta with tomato, and rice, to vegetables, soup, meats, and cake.Twelve Recipes will help home cooks develop a core repertoire of skills and increase their culinary confidence. Peternell tells you what basic ingredients and tools you need for a particular recipe, and then adds variations to expand your understanding. Each tip, instruction, and recipe connects with others to weave into a larger story that illuminates the connection between food and life. A deeply personal book, it was written by the chef alone and it glows with warmth and humor as he mulls over such mundane items as toast and rice to offer surprising new insights about foods that only seem exceedingly ordinary. It’s a book you’re as likely to keep by your bedside as your stovetop. With Peternell as your guide, the journey is pure pleasure and the destination is delicious.Twelve Recipes features gorgeous color photos and inset illustrations by Peternell’s wife and sons (all artists), and forewords by celebrated chef Alice Waters and New York Times columnist and bestselling author Michael Pollan.

Raw Food: A Complete Guide for Every Meal of the Day


Erica Palmcrantz Aziz - 2010
    No one should have to sacrifice time, money, or flavor to enjoy the astounding health advantages of going raw. Learn how to soak and sprout vegetables and nuts to increase the nutritional value, what types of kitchen tools are best for preparing raw food, and which foods to have on-hand for use in raw recipes. Recipes include:Broccoli Saad with RaisinsIndian Cauliflower MashBeet Burgers on Romaine BunsI Can’t Believe It’s Not Salmon PatePapaya CarpaccioStuffed PeppersAnd much more!From creative salads to spicy burritos to chocolate mousse, every recipe will broaden your raw-food horizons. Complete with recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, desserts, and side dishes, Raw Food is an innovative approach to a wholesome way of eating.

Make the Bread, Buy the Butter: What You Should and Shouldn't Cook from Scratch -- Over 120 Recipes for the Best Homemade Foods


Jennifer Reese - 2011
    She had never before considered making her own peanut butter and pita bread, let alone curing her own prosciutto or raising turkeys. And though it sounded logical that "doing it yourself" would cost less, she had her doubts. So Reese began a series of kitchen-related experiments, taking into account the competing demands of everyday contemporary American family life as she answers some timely questions: When is homemade better? Cheaper? Are backyard eggs a more ethical choice than store-bought? Will grinding and stuffing your own sausage ruin your week? Is it possible to make an edible maraschino cherry? Some of Reese's discoveries will surprise you: Although you should make your hot dog buns, guacamole, and yogurt, you should probably buy your hamburger buns, potato chips, and rice pudding. Tired? Buy your mayonnaise. Inspired? Make it. With its fresh voice and delightful humor, Make the Bread, Buy the Butter gives 120 recipes with eminently practical yet deliciously fun "Make or buy" recommendations. Reese is relentlessly entertaining as she relates her food and animal husbandry adventures, which amuse and perplex as well as nourish and sustain her family. Her tales include living with a backyard full of cheerful chickens, muttering ducks, and adorable baby goats; countertops laden with lacto-fermenting pickles; and closets full of mellowing cheeses. Here's the full picture of what is involved in a truly homemade life -- with the good news that you shouldn't try to make everything yourself -- and how to get the most out of your time in the kitchen.

Surprise-Inside Cakes: Amazing Cakes for Every Occasion--with a Little Something Extra Inside


Amanda Rettke - 2013
    Whether it's a striking all-white cake with a secret rainbow heart baked inside, a birthday cake complete with a surprise balloon in the middle, or the gorgeous rose cake that took the blogging world by storm, Amanda's creations are downright revolutionary—and tons of fun! In Surprise-Inside Cakes, she gives us fresh new ways to enjoy life's greatest occasions, with themes and cakes including:Celebrating Family—Stripe Birthday Cake, Paw Print Cake, Rainbow Cake Celebrating You—Leopard Cake, Herringbone Cake, Cowboy Boot Cake Celebrating Love—Kiss Cake, Ring Cake, Sunset Cake Celebrating Holidays—Jack-o'-lantern Cake, Rudolph Cake, Holiday Candle Cake Celebrating Life—Football Cake, Cherry Cake, Smiley Face CakeFeaturing a few classic favorite cakes from her blog and more than forty brand-new cakes—along with her easy-to-follow instructions and step-by-step photo tutorials—Surprise-Inside Cakes shows you how to replicate these incredible designs in your own kitchen.To make these dazzling cakes, you can start with one of Amanda's delicious, foolproof recipes for cakes and frostings, or use a boxed cake mix or favorite family recipe. With tips on how to bake a level cake, tricks using household items such as rulers, biscuit cutters, and cookie cutters to carve and shape cakes, and Amanda's simple yet stunning frosting and decorating ideas, you'll not only be re-creating these amazing cakes for occasions large and small, you'll soon be using her techniques to create your own surprises!And your friends and family will be thrilled and delighted when a beautiful cake opens to reveal a special gift inside.

Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor


Peter Reinhart - 2007
    So Reinhart, with his decades of experience crafting amazing artisanal breads, has made it his mission to create whole grain breads that are nothing short of incredible. In this follow-up to his award-winning book The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Reinhart offers groundbreaking methods for making whole grain breads that taste better than any you’ve ever had. And because his approach is also simpler and less labor intensive than conventional techniques, you’ll choose to make and eat these breads. His fifty-five recipes for whole grain sandwich, hearth, and specialty breads, plus bagels, crackers, and more, incorporate widely available whole wheat flour as well as other flours and grains such as rye, barley, steel-cut oats, cornmeal, and quinoa. Each is so rich with flavor and satisfying texture that white-flour counterparts pale in comparison.Written in Reinhart’s famously clear style and accompanied by inspiring photographs, these recipes were perfected with the help of nearly 350 testers. Introductory chapters provide a tutorial, with step-by-step photographs, of the delayed fermentation method that is at the heart of these recipes, as well as a crash course in baking science, discussions of grains other than wheat, and more. Advanced bakers will relish Reinhart’s innovative techniques and exacting scientific explanations, and beginning bakers will rejoice in the ease of baking wholesome breads with such extraordinary flavor.Peter Reinhart is a baking instructor and faculty member at Johnson and Wales University in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was the cofounder of Brother Juniper’s Bakery in Santa Rosa, California, and is the author of six books on bread baking, including Brother Juniper’s Bread Book, Crust and Crumb, and the 2002 James Beard Cookbook of the Year and IACP Cookbook of the Year, The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

Cooking Solo: The Joy of Cooking for Yourself


Klancy Miller - 2016
    While making single servings from other cookbooks means scaling down ingredients, adjusting cooking times, or being stuck with leftovers, Cooking Solo gives readers just what they need to make a delicious meal—all for themselves. Among the few other “cooking for one” books, this is the first by a hip young woman, whose vibrance and enthusiasm for cooking for herself comes through in the 100 attractive recipes like Tahitian Noodle Sandwich, Smoked Duck Breast Salad, Spicy Pork Burger with Coconut, and Mackerel with Lemon and Capers. Klancy also includes a chapter on entertaining at home, because being single still means having fun with friends.

Dinner: A Love Story: It All Begins at the Family Table


Jenny Rosenstrach - 2012
    Even when they work long days. Even when their kids' schedules pull them in eighteen different directions. They are not superhuman. They are not from another planet.With simple strategies and common sense, Jenny figured out how to break down dinner—the food, the timing, the anxiety, from prep to cleanup—so that her family could enjoy good food, time to unwind, and simply be together.Using the same straight-up, inspiring voice that readers of her award-winning blog, Dinner: A Love Story, have come to count on, Jenny never judges and never preaches. Every meal she dishes up is a real meal, one that has been cooked and eaten and enjoyed at least a half dozen times by someone in Jenny's house. With inspiration and game plans for any home cook at any level, Dinner: A Love Story is as much for the novice who doesn't know where to start as it is for the gourmand who doesn't know how to start over when she finds herself feeding an intractable toddler or for the person who never thought about home-cooked meals until he or she became a parent. This book is, in fact, for anyone interested in learning how to make a meal to be shared with someone they love, and about how so many good, happy things happen when we do.

Healthy Cooking for Two (or Just You): Low-Fat Recipes with Half the Fuss and Double the Taste: A Cookbook


Frances Price - 1997
    Healthy Cooking for Two (or Just You) by Frances Price offers:* More than 200 creative, low-fat recipes for today's smaller households* Unique two-column recipe format for hassle-free preparation* Tips on shopping for one or two, and streamlining your kitchen* Full nutrient analysis with every recipe* Special chapter of delicious, no-fuss menus* Plenty of 30-minute recipes-- plus meatless meals, divine desserts, tip-packed boxes and more

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats


Sally Fallon Morell - 1995
    Nutrition researcher Sally Fallon unites the wisdom of the ancients with the latest independent and accurate scientific research. The revised and updated Second Edition contains over 700 delicious recipes that will please both exacting gourmets and busy parents.

The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life


Timothy Ferriss - 2012
    It’s a choose-your-own-adventure guide to the world of rapid learning.#1 New York Times bestselling author (and lifelong non-cook) Tim Ferriss takes you from Manhattan to Okinawa, and from Silicon Valley to Calcutta, unearthing the secrets of the world’s fastest learners and greatest chefs. Ferriss uses cooking to explain “meta-learning,” a step-by-step process that can be used to master anything, whether searing steak or shooting 3-pointers in basketball. That is the real “recipe” of The 4-Hour Chef.You'll train inside the kitchen for everything outside the kitchen. Featuring tips and tricks from chess prodigies, world-renowned chefs, pro athletes, master sommeliers, super models, and everyone in between, this “cookbook for people who don’t buy cookbooks” is a guide to mastering cooking and life.The 4-Hour Chef is a five-stop journey through the art and science of learning:1. META-LEARNING. Before you learn to cook, you must learn to learn. META charts the path to doubling your learning potential.2. THE DOMESTIC. DOM is where you learn the building blocks of cooking. These are the ABCs (techniques) that can take you from Dr, Seuss to Shakespeare.3. THE WILD. Becoming a master student requires self-sufficiency in all things. WILD teaches you to hunt, forage, and survive.4. THE SCIENTIST. SCI is the mad scientist and modernist painter wrapped into one. This is where you rediscover whimsy and wonder.5. THE PROFESSIONAL. Swaraj, a term usually associated with Mahatma Gandhi, can be translated as “self-rule.” In PRO, we’ll look at how the best in the world become the best in the world, and how you can chart your own path far beyond this book.

The Butcher's Guide to Well-Raised Meat: How to Buy, Cut, and Cook Great Beef, Lamb, Pork, Poultry, and More


Joshua Applestone - 2011
    The butcher has reemerged in American culture as an essential guide in avoiding the evils of industrial meat—which not only tastes bad, but is also bad for one’s health and for the environment. Joshua and Jessica Applestone, a former vegan and vegetarian, are trailblazers in this arena. They run Fleisher’s, an old-school butcher shop with a modern-day mission—sourcing and selling only grass-fed and organic meat. The Applestones’ return to the nearly lost tradition of the buying and nose-to-tail carving of whole animals—all humanely raised close to their shop in New York’s Hudson Valley—has helped to make them rising stars in the food world.             The Butcher’s Guide to Well-Raised Meat is a compendium of their firsthand knowledge. This unique book—a guide, memoir, manifesto, and reference in one—shares everything one needs to know about well-raised meat, including why pastured meats are so much better than conventional ones and how to perfectly butcher and cook them at home. Readers will learn which cut of steak to look for as an alternative to the popular hanger (of which each steer has only one), how to host a driveway pig roast, and even how to break down an entire lamb (or just butterfly the shoulder)—all with accompanying step-by-step photographs. Differences among breeds and ideal cooking methods for various cuts and offal are covered, and the Applestones’ decoding of misleading industry terminology and practices will help consumers make smarter, healthier purchases that can also help change what’s wrong with meat in America today.             Complete with color and black-and-white photographs, illustrations, and more than a dozen recipes, The Butcher’s Guide to Well-Raised Meat is the definitive guide to eating great meat—responsibly.

Sunday Suppers: Recipes + Gatherings


Karen Mordechai - 2014
    Sunday Suppers features Karen's achingly beautiful photography and 100 recipes centered around get-togethers (a beach lunch, an urban picnic, Valentine's Day breakfast in bed) with easy preparations (you can actually make the whole menu!) and simple, elegant styling.