Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America


Laura Shapiro - 2004
    Big Business waged an all-out campaign to win the allegiance of American housewives, but most women were suspicious of the new foods—and the make-believe cooking they entailed. With sharp insight and good humor, Laura Shapiro shows how the ensuing battle helped shape the way we eat today, and how the clash in the kitchen reverberated elsewhere in the house as women struggled with marriage, work, and domesticity. This unconventional history overturns our notions about the ’50s and offers new thinking on some of its fascinating figures, including Poppy Cannon, Shirley Jackson, Julia Child, and Betty Friedan.

The Old World Kitchen: The Rich Tradition of European Peasant Cooking


Elisabeth Luard - 1986
    A rich oral tradition, passed down through generations, the peasant kitchen offers healthy, real food - the antithesis of fast-food catering - and is as relevant now as it was centuries ago.In this remarkable book, Elisabeth Luard sets out to record the principles of European cookery and to rediscover what has been lost in over-refinement. The recipes come from twenty-five countries, ranging from Ireland in the west to Romania in the east, Iceland in the north to Turkey in the south. It is an enormous compendium which covers Vegetables dishes, Potato dishes, Beans, Lentils, Polenta and Cornmeal, Rice, Pasta and Noodles, Eggs, Milk and Cheeses, Fish, Poultry, Small Game, Pork, Shepherd's Meats, Beef, Breads and Yeast Pastries, Sweet Dishes, Herbs, Mushrooms and Fungi, Oils, and Preserves. Written with the scrupulous attention to detail and authenticity that is the hallmark of Elisabeth Luard's cookery writing, the recipes are peppered with hundreds of fascinating anecdotes and little known facts about local history and folklore.

The Enchantingly Easy Persian Cookbook: 100 Simple Recipes for Beloved Persian Food Favorites


Shadi Hasanzadenemati - 2016
    Yet many assume that making favorites, like Pomegranate and Walnut Stew or Saffron Syrup Cake, is too difficult to do at home. Shadi HasanzadeNemati grew up in the kitchen of her Persian mother and can still remember being mesmerized by the sweet aromas of saffron and cinnamon. Inspired by her family’s heirloom recipes, Shadi has created a collection of simple, straightforward takes on authentic Persian favorites that are accessible enough for beginners, yet still fun for more seasoned cooks. The Enchantingly Easy Persian Cookbook brings the savory comforts and mystical essence of Persian home cooking to your dining table. The step-by-step instructions in this Persian cookbook make it easier than ever to create classic Persian mainstays in your own home. In this uniquely simple Persian cookbook, you’ll find: 100 recipes specifically designed to make Persian cooking fun and stress-free for beginners A handy how-to guide for preparing basic Persian ingredients—such as de-seeding pomegranates, making saffron-water, drying limes, and storing fresh herbs Practical grocery shopping recommendations for Persian pantry staples like cardamom and sumac, plus useful photos for identifying unique ingredients such as ghee and clotted cream Helpful labels that indicate each recipe’s level of difficulty, plus “worth the wait” labels for dishes that require more time Tried-and-true tips and tricks to make Persian cooking easier and more successful Memory sidebars that accompany especially treasured recipes, describing Shadi’s most cherished recollection connected to that dish With the ease and simplicity of The Enchantingly Easy Persian Cookbook you’ll have more fun (and less stress) as you find the magic in new Persian fare, and rediscover the enchantment of recipes you already love.

Near a Thousand Tables: A History of Food


Felipe Fernández-Armesto - 2001
     In this "appetizingly provocative" (Los Angeles Times) book, he guides readers through the eight great revolutions in the world history of food: the origins of cooking, which set humankind on a course apart from other species; the ritualization of eating, which brought magic and meaning into people's relationship with what they ate; the inception of herding and the invention of agriculture, perhaps the two greatest revolutions of all; the rise of inequality, which led to the development of haute cuisine; the long-range trade in food which, practically alone, broke down cultural barriers; the ecological exchanges, which revolutionized the global distribution of plants and livestock; and, finally, the industrialization and globalization of mass-produced food. From prehistoric snail "herding" to Roman banquets to Big Macs to genetically modified tomatoes, Near a Thousand Tables is a full-course meal of extraordinary narrative, brilliant insight, and fascinating explorations that will satisfy the hungriest of readers.

The American Plate: A Culinary History in 100 Bites


Libby H. O'Connell - 2014
    But American food, like its history, is a world of its own. This enticingly fresh book introduces modern listeners to lost American food traditions and leads them on a tantalizing culinary journey through the evolution of our vibrant cuisine and culture. Covering a hundred different foods from the Native American-era through today and featuring over a dozen recipes and photos, this fascinating history of American food will delight history buffs and food lovers alike.

In the Devil's Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food


Stewart Lee Allen - 2002
    Among the foods thought to encourage Lust, the love apple (now known as the tomato) was thought to possess demonic spirits until the nineteenth century. The Gluttony “course” invites the reader to an ancient Roman dinner party where nearly every dish served—from poppy-crusted rodents to “Trojan Pork”—was considered a crime against the state. While the vice known as Sloth introduces the sad story of “The Lazy Root” (the potato), whose popularity in Ireland led British moralists to claim that the Great Famine was God’s way of punishing the Irish for eating a food that bred degeneracy and idleness.Filled with incredible food history and the author’s travels to many of these exotic locales, In the Devil’s Garden also features recipes like the matzo-ball stews outlawed by the Spanish Inquisition and the forbidden “chocolate champagnes” of the Aztecs. This is truly a delectable book that will be consumed by food lovers, culinary historians, amateur anthropologists, and armchair travelers alike. Bon appétit!

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 City Tavern Cookbook: Recipes from the Birthplace of American Cuisine


Walter Staib - 2009
    City Tavern was the social, political, and economic center of late 18th-century Philadelphia. Called the “most genteel” tavern in America by John Adams, it gained fame as the gathering place for members of the Continental Congresses and the Constitutional Convention, and for officials of the early Federal Government.With more than 300 tempting, simple-to-make recipes and full-color photography, City Tavern will help home chefs and history buffs alike recreate the same dishes enjoyed by George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. Featuring traditional favorites such as West Indies pepperpot soup, roasted duckling with chutney, Martha Washington’s recipe for chocolate mousse cake, and Thomas Jefferson’s own recipe for sweet-potato biscuits, this book’s recipes are sure to entice adults and children alike, while simultaneously providing them with a wealth of fascinating American and culinary history!More than just a cookbook, City Tavern is a treasury of American history.

Rice, Noodle, Fish: Deep Travels Through Japan's Food Culture


Matt Goulding - 2015
    In this 5000-mile journey through the noodle shops, tempura temples, and teahouses of Japan, Matt Goulding, co-creator of the enormously popular Eat This, Not That! book series, navigates the intersection between food, history, and culture, creating one of the most ambitious and complete books ever written about Japanese culinary culture from the Western perspective.Written in the same evocative voice that drives the award-winning magazine Roads & Kingdoms, Rice, Noodle, Fish explores Japan's most intriguing culinary disciplines in seven key regions, from the kaiseki tradition of Kyoto and the sushi masters of Tokyo to the street food of Osaka and the ramen culture of Fukuoka. You won't find hotel recommendations or bus schedules; you will find a brilliant narrative that interweaves immersive food journalism with intimate portraits of the cities and the people who shape Japan's food culture.This is not your typical guidebook. Rice, Noodle, Fish is a rare blend of inspiration and information, perfect for the intrepid and armchair traveler alike. Combining literary storytelling, indispensable insider information, and world-class design and photography, the end result is the first ever guidebook for the new age of culinary tourism.

Ancient Brews: Rediscovered and Re-created


Patrick E. McGovern - 2017
    McGovern tells the enthralling story of the world’s oldest alcoholic beverages and the cultures that created them. Humans invented heady concoctions, experimenting with fruits, honey, cereals, tree resins, botanicals, and more. These “liquid time capsules” carried social, medicinal, and religious significance with far-reaching consequences for our species. McGovern describes nine extreme fermented beverages of our ancestors, including the Midas Touch from Turkey and the 9000-year-old Chateau Jiahu from Neolithic China, the earliest chemically identified alcoholic drink yet discovered. For the adventuresome, homebrew interpretations of the ancient drinks are provided, with matching meal recipes.

The French Laundry Cookbook


Thomas Keller - 1999
    The most transformative cookbook of the century celebrates this milestone by showcasing the genius of chef/proprietor Thomas Keller himself. Keller is a wizard, a purist, a man obsessed with getting it right. And this, his first cookbook, is every bit as satisfying as a French Laundry meal itself: a series of small, impeccable, highly refined, intensely focused courses. Most dazzling is how simple Keller's methods are: squeegeeing the moisture from the skin on fish so it sautées beautifully; poaching eggs in a deep pot of water for perfect shape; the initial steeping in the shell that makes cooking raw lobster out of the shell a cinch; using vinegar as a flavor enhancer; the repeated washing of bones for stock for the cleanest, clearest tastes. From innovative soup techniques, to the proper way to cook green vegetables, to secrets of great fish cookery, to the creation of breathtaking desserts; from beurre monté to foie gras au torchon, to a wild and thoroughly unexpected take on coffee and doughnuts, The French Laundry Cookbook captures, through recipes, essays, profiles, and extraordinary photography, one of America's great restaurants, its great chef, and the food that makes both unique. One hundred and fifty superlative recipes are exact recipes from the French Laundry kitchen—no shortcuts have been taken, no critical steps ignored, all have been thoroughly tested in home kitchens. If you can't get to the French Laundry, you can now re-create at home the very experience Wine Spectator described as “as close to dining perfection as it gets.”

Rasika: Flavors of India


Ashok Bajaj - 2017
    Inventive recipes like squash samosas, avocado chaat with banana, eggplant and sweet potato lasagna, and masala chai crème brûlée accompany reimagined classics including chicken tikka masala, grilled mango shrimp, and goat biryani, rounding out Rasika’s menu of beloved dishes and new favorites. With a wide range of vegetarian options and spanning the spectrum from beverages and appetizers to entrees, rices, breads, chutneys, and desserts, Rasika represents the finest of what Indian cuisine has to offer today. Authoritative and elegant even as it incorporates a diversity of flavorful influences, this is the essential cookbook for anyone seeking to cook groundbreaking Indian food.With over 120 recipes and stunning four-color photographs, Rasika showcases the cuisine of one of Washington, DC’s most popular and critically acclaimed restaurants, where visionary restaurateur Ashok Bajaj and James Beard Award—winning chef Vikram Sunderam transform Indian cooking into a fresh, modern dining experience.

Joy of Cooking


Irma S. Rombauer - 1931
    Rombauer self-published the first three thousand copies of Joy of Cooking in 1931, it has become the kitchen bible, with more than 20 million copies in print. This new edition of Joy has been thoroughly revised and expanded by Irma’s great-grandson John Becker and his wife, Megan Scott.John and Megan developed more than six hundred new recipes for this edition, tested and tweaked thousands of classic recipes, and updated every section of every chapter to reflect the latest ingredients and techniques available to today’s home cooks. Their strategy for revising this edition was the same one Irma and Marion employed: Vet, research, and improve Joy’s coverage of legacy recipes while introducing new dishes, modern cooking techniques, and comprehensive information on ingredients now available at farmers’ markets and grocery stores. You will find tried-and-true favorites like Banana Bread Cockaigne, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Southern Corn Bread—all retested and faithfully improved—as well as new favorites like Chana Masala, Beef Rendang, Megan’s Seeded Olive Oil Granola, and Smoked Pork Shoulder. In addition to a thoroughly modernized vegetable chapter, there are many more vegan and vegetarian recipes, including Caramelized Tamarind Tempeh, Crispy Pan-Fried Tofu, Spicy Chickpea Soup, and Roasted Mushroom Burgers. Joy’s baking chapters now include gram weights for accuracy, along with a refreshed lineup of baked goods like Cannelés de Bordeaux, Rustic No-Knead Sourdough, Ciabatta, Chocolate-Walnut Babka, and Chicago-Style Deep-Dish Pizza, as well as gluten-free recipes for pizza dough and yeast breads. A new chapter on streamlined cooking explains how to economize time, money, and ingredients and avoid waste. You will learn how to use a diverse array of ingredients, from amaranth to za’atar. New techniques include low-temperature and sous vide cooking, fermentation, and cooking with both traditional and electric pressure cookers. Barbecuing, smoking, and other outdoor cooking methods are covered in even greater detail. This new edition of Joy is the perfect combination of classic recipes, new dishes, and indispensable reference information for today’s home cooks. Whether it is the only cookbook on your shelf or one of many, Joy is and has been the essential and trusted guide for home cooks for almost a century. This new edition continues that legacy.

The United States of Arugula: How We Became a Gourmet Nation


David Kamp - 2006
    Kamp, a writer and editor for GQ and Vanity Fair, chronicles the amazing transformation from the overcooked vegetables and scary gelatin salads of yore to the current heyday of free-range chickens, extra-virgin olive oil, Whole Foods, Starbucks, and that breed of human known as the foodie.

The Chili Cookbook: A History of the One-Pot Classic, with Cook-off Worthy Recipes from Three-Bean to Four-Alarm and Con Carne to Vegetarian


Robb Walsh - 2015
    It is universally loved and perfect for nearly every occasion--a church potluck, sports- or TV-viewing party, casual dinner with the family, or late-night dorm room snack. Despite the evergreen popularity of chili, there are surprisingly few books on the subject. Enter The Chili Cookbook, written by veteran author and Tex-Mex sage Robb Walsh. With its impeccable recipes, fascinating and unexpected historical anecdotes,  affordable price, and whimsical package, The Chili Cookbook is sure to become an instant classic.