Dishoom: From Bombay with Love


Shamil Thakrar - 2019
    You'll discover the simple joy of early chai and omelette at Kyani and Co., of dawdling in Horniman Circle on a lazy morning, of eating your fill on Mohammed Ali Road, of strolling on the sands at Chowpatty at sunset or taking the air at Nariman Point at night.This beautiful cookery book and its equally beautiful photography will transport you to Dishoom's most treasured corners of an eccentric and charming Bombay. Read it, and you will find yourself replete with recipes and stories to share with all who come to your table.'This book is a total delight. The photography, the recipes and above all, the stories. I've never read a book that has made me look so longingly at my suitcase' Nigel Slater

The Secret Lives of Baked Goods: Sweet Stories & Recipes for America's Favorite Desserts


Jessie Oleson Moore - 2013
    Moore has put her sweet-sleuthing skills to work uncovering the fascinating histories and tastiest recipes for America's favorite sweets, including whoopee pies, chocolate chip cookies, Baked Alaska, and New York cheesecake. From romantic musings on how desserts got their names to sugar-fueled scandals, these classic recipes and photographs are guaranteed to offer food for thought and leave you with plenty of room for dessert.

As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto: Food, Friendship, and the Making of a Masterpiece


Joan Reardon - 2010
    But despite that familiarity, how much do we really know of the inner Julia?   Now more than 200 letters exchanged between Julia and Avis DeVoto, her friend and unofficial literary agent memorably introduced in the hit movie Julie & Julia, open the window on Julia’s deepest thoughts and feelings. This riveting correspondence, in print for the first time, chronicles the blossoming of a unique and lifelong friendship between the two women and the turbulent process of Julia’s creation of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, one of the most influential cookbooks ever written.Frank, bawdy, funny, exuberant, and occasionally agonized, these letters show Julia, first as a new bride in Paris, then becoming increasingly worldly and adventuresome as she follows her diplomat husband in his postings to Nice, Germany, and Norway.   With commentary by the noted food historian Joan Reardon, and covering topics as diverse as the lack of good wine in the United States, McCarthyism, and sexual mores, these astonishing letters show America on the verge of political, social, and gastronomic transformation.

Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days


James Salter - 2006
    Life Is Meals is rich with culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors' own memories of successes and catastrophes.For instance: The menu on the Titanic on the fatal night? Reflections on dining from Queen Victoria, JFK, Winnie-the-Pooh, Garrison Keillor, and many others? The seductiveness of a velvety Brie or the perfect martini? How to decide whom to invite to a dinner party?and whom not to? John Irving's family recipe for meatballs; Balzac's love of coffee? The greatest dinner ever given at the White House? Where in Paris Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter had French onion soup at 4:00 a.m.? How to cope with acts of God and man-made disasters in the kitchenSophisticated as well as practical, opinionated, and indispensable, Life Is Meals is a tribute to the glory of food and drink, and the joy of sharing them with others. "The meal is the emblem of civilization," the Salters observe. "What would one know of life as it should be lived, or nights as they should be spent, apart from meals?"

Bon Appetempt: A Coming-of-Age Story (with Recipes!)


Amelia Morris - 2015
    It was also a revelation. Both delicious and damaged, it seemed a physical metaphor for the many curious and unexpected situations she's found herself in throughout her life, from her brief career as a six-year-old wrestler to her Brady Bunch-style family (minus the housekeeper and the familial harmony) to her ill-fated twenty-something job at the School of Rock in Los Angeles. As a way to bring order to chaos and in search of a more meaningful lifestyle, she finds herself more and more at home in the kitchen, where she begins to learn that even if the results of her culinary efforts fall well short of the standard set by glossy food magazines, they can still bring satisfaction (and sustenance) to her and her family and friends. Full of hilarious observations about food, family, unemployment, romance, and the extremes of modern L.A., and featuring recipes as basic as Toasted Cheerios and as advanced as gâteau de crêpes, Bon Appetempt is sure to resonate with anyone who has tried and failed, and been all the better for it.

The Art of Eating in: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove


Cathy Erway - 2010
    An underpaid, twenty-something executive assistant in New York City, she was struggling to make ends meet when she decided to embark on a Walden- esque retreat from the high-priced eateries that drained her wallet. Though she was living in the nation's culinary capital, she decided to swear off all restaurant food. "The Art of Eating In" chronicles the delectable results of her twenty-four-month experiment, with thirty original recipes included. What began as a way to save money left Erway with a new appreciation for the simple pleasure of sharing a meal with friends at home, the subtleties of home-cooked flavors, and whether her ingredients were ethically grown. She also explored the anti-restaurant underground of supper clubs and cook-offs, and immersed herself in an array of alternative eating lifestyles from freeganism and dumpster-diving to picking tasty greens on a wild edible tour in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Culminating in a binge that leaves her with a foodie hangover, "The Art of Eating In" is a journey to savor. Watch a Video

The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens


Lynne Rossetto Kasper - 1999
    Written by Lynne Rossetto Kasper, author of The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food (winner of both the James Beard and Julia Child/IACP Cookbook-of-the-Year Awards), it is every bit the equal of its celebrated predecessor.Read its exuberant pages, eat its lusty dishes, and you enter a landscape vibrant with rural life. You are one with the terrain. In some sense, you are home. That, of course, is the miracle of Italy—no matter where we come from, we want to be a part of it. And the miracle of The Italian Country Table is its ability to take us there.And what a journey! You will never be as impatient to get into your kitchen as when you are planning a meal from this book. Two hundred recipes, personally collected from home cooks throughout the length and breadth of Italy, will keep calling you back.Who could resist the “Gatto” di Patate, a mashed-potato “lasagna” from the Neapolitan countryside? Or a Tuscan Mountain Supper of warm beans tossed with an herbed tomato sauce and eaten with tart greens? Or Pasta of the Grape Harvest, a Sicilian dish of grapes, red wine, orange zest, spices, pistachios and linguine? Or Chocolate Polenta Pudding Cake?Kasper, host of Public Radio's The Splendid Table, is a master teacher who thinks about cooking in a way that is radically distinctive. Her chapter on tomatoes and tomato sauces, a treasure by itself, will change the way you think about them—and cook them—forever. Her guide to buying and saucing pasta contains more useful facts than many books that devote themselves to pasta exclusively.Kasper, the grandchild of Italian immigrants, describes herself as someone with a love of lingering “in places where life changes slowly.” This personal book abounds with stories of artisans, farmers and family. It is a portrait of Italian country life.Where you read The Italian Country Table, cook from it or use it to plan a trip (there is an appendix that lists guest farms, country hotels, restaurants and museums), you have only to turn its pages to be transported to a rustic Italy that few of us know, but all of us long for.-16 pages of finished dishes in full color-50 black-and-white photographs of country life

Southern Plate: Classic Comfort Food That Makes Everyone Feel Like Family


Christy Jordan - 2010
    “The recipes in Southern Plate made my mouth water!...This wonderful cookbook made me feel like I was reading something of my own.”—Paula Deen, author of Paula Deen’s Savannah Style “I’ve been testing these recipes in my own kitchen and every single one turns out to be better than anything my grandmother ever made.”—Dorothea Benton Frank, author of Return to Sullivans Island and Lowcountry Summer Christy Jordan, the creator of SouthernPlate.com, serves up a collection of delicious recipes for “classic comfort foods that makes everyone feel like family.” Featuring scrumptious dishes passed down for generations through Jordan’s family, Southern Plate highlights the very best in southern cooking—for fans of Paula Deen and Ree Drummond’s The Pioneer Woman Cooks.

The Olive and the Caper: Adventures in Greek Cooking


Susanna Hoffman - 2004
    My Big Fat Greek Wedding, the upcoming epic Troy, the 2004 Summer Olympics returning to Athens--and now, yet another reason to embrace all things Greek: The Olive and the Caper, Susanna Hoffman's 700-plus-page serendipity of recipes and adventure.In Corfu, Ms. Hoffman and a taverna owner cook shrimp fresh from the trap--and for us she offers the boldly-flavored Shrimp with Fennel, Green Olives, Red Onion, and White Wine. She gathers wild greens and herbs with neighbors, inspiring Big Beans with Thyme and Parsley, and Field Greens and Ouzo Pie. She learns the secret to chewy country bread from the baker on Santorini and translates it for American kitchens. Including 325 recipes developed in collaboration with Victoria Wise (her co-author on The Well-Filled Tortilla Cookbook, with over 258,000 copies in print), The Olive and the Caper celebrates all things Greek: Chicken Neo-Avgolemeno. Fall-off-the-bone Lamb Shanks seasoned with garlic, thyme, cinnamon and coriander. Siren-like sweets, from world-renowned Baklava to uniquely Greek preserves: Rose Petal, Cherry and Grappa, Apricot and Metaxa.In addition, it opens with a sixteen-page full-color section and has dozens of lively essays throughout the book--about the origins of Greek food, about village life, history, language, customs--making this a lively adventure in reading as well as cooking.

A Baker's Life: 100 fantastic recipes, from childhood bakes to five-star excellence


Paul Hollywood - 2017
    Each chapter is filled with bakes that represent a different decade – learning the basics at his father's bakery; honing his pastry skills in the finest hotels; discovering the bold flavours of the Middle East while working in Cyprus; and finding fame with the phenomenally popular Great British Bake Off television series.Thanks to this book (and its clear step-by-step instructions), recipes that Paul has spent years perfecting can be recreated at home. Favourites include garlic baguettes; feta and chive bread; chorizo and chilli Scotch eggs; mum's ginger biscuits; double chocolate Danish twists; and hazelnut cappuccino cake.With photographs from personal family albums, plus many professional insights into and anecdotes that reveal what makes a great baker, A Baker's Life will show you how to bring the baking skills Paul has learnt over a lifetime into your own home kitchen.

Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses


Isabel Allende - 1997
    Under the aegis of the Goddess of Love, Isabel Allende uses her storytelling skills brilliantly in Aphrodite to evoke the delights of food and sex. After considerable research and study, she has become an authority on aphrodisiacs, which include everything from food and drink to stories and, of course, love. Readers will find here recipes from Allende's mother, poems, stories from ancient and foreign literatures, paintings, personal anecdotes, fascinating tidbits on the sensual art of foodand its effects on amorous performance, tips on how to attract your mate and revive flagging virility, passages on the effect of smell on libido, a history of alcoholic beverages, and much more.An ode to sensuality that is an irresistible blend of memory, imagination and the senses, Aphrodite is familiar territory for readers who know her fiction.

Apricots on the Nile: A Memoir with Recipes


Colette Rossant - 1999
    From the moment she arrives at her grandparents' belle époque mansion by the Nile, the five-year-old Colette finds companionship and comfort among the other "outsiders" in her home away from home -- the cooks and servants in the kitchen. The chef, Ahmet, lets Colette taste the ful; she learns how to make sambusaks for her new friends; and she shops for semits and other treats in the Khan-al-Khalili market. Colette is beginning to understand how her family's culture is linked to the kitchen...and soon she will claim Egypt's food, landscape, and people as her own. Apricots on the Nile is a loving testament to Colette's adopted homeland. With dozens of original recipes and family photographs, Colette's coming-of-age memoir is a splendid exploration of old Cairo in all its flavor, variety, and wide-eyed wonder.

Danielle Walker's Eat What You Love: Everyday Comfort Food You Crave; Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, and Paleo Recipes


Danielle Walker - 2018
     Beloved food blogger and New York Times best-selling author Danielle Walker is back with 125 recipes for comforting weeknight meals. This is the food you want to eat every day, made healthful and delicious with Danielle's proven techniques for removing allergens without sacrificing flavor. As a mother of three, Danielle knows how to get dinner (and breakfast and lunch) on the table quickly and easily. Featuring hearty dishes to start the day, on-the-go items for lunch, satisfying salads and sides, and healthy re-creations of comfort food classics like fried chicken, sloppy Joes, shrimp and grits, chicken pot pie, and lasagna, plus family-friendly sweets and treats, this collection of essential, allergen-free recipes will become the most-used cookbook on your shelf. With meal plans and grocery lists, dozens of sheet-pan suppers and one-pot dishes, and an entire chapter devoted to make-ahead and freezer-friendly meals, following a grain-free and paleo diet just got a little easier.Features include:  *  Four weeks of meal plans for breakfast, lunch, and dinner  *  Instant Pot, slow cooker, one-pot, sheet-pan, and 30-minute recipes  *  Packed lunch chart with creative ideas for school, work, and lunches on the go  *  Make-ahead meals, including freezer and leftover options  *  Dietary classifications for egg-, tree nut-, and nightshade-free dishes, plus designations for Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) and Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS)

Relish: My Life in the Kitchen


Lucy Knisley - 2013
    The daughter of a chef and a gourmet, this talented young cartoonist comes by her obsession honestly. In her forthright, thoughtful, and funny memoir, Lucy traces key episodes in her life thus far, framed by what she was eating at the time and lessons learned about food, cooking, and life. Each chapter is bookended with an illustrated recipe—many of them treasured family dishes, and a few of them Lucy's original inventions.A welcome read for anyone who ever felt more passion for a sandwich than is strictly speaking proper, Relish is a book for our time: it invites the reader to celebrate food as a connection to our bodies and a connection to the earth, rather than an enemy, a compulsion, or a consumer product.

The Fresh Egg Cookbook: From Chicken to Kitchen, Recipes for Using Eggs from Farmers' Markets, Local Farms, and Your Own Backyard


Jennifer Trainer Thompson - 2012
    Whether you’re collecting eggs from a backyard coop or buying them from local farms, Jennifer Trainer Thompson has 101 delicious recipes to help you make the most of them. With unique twists on breakfast classics like French toast, eggs Florentine, and huevos rancheros, as well as tips for using your eggs in smoothies, mayonnaise, and carbonara sauce, you’ll be enjoying the healthy and delicious joys of fresh eggs in an amazingly versatile range of dishes.