Epicurious's 10 Best Cookbooks of 2008

Long an advocate of sustainable seafood, trust chef/restaurateur Rick Moonen to navigate you through the confusion you find in today's fish store.

Anne Bramley might be the first 21st-century food journalist. She got her start not through magazines, newspapers, web sites or even blogging — no, she made a name for herself with audio podcasts. Her seasonal recipes are geared for farmers' market fans, with lots of squash, sage, beets and the like.

Many top food professionals call elBulli the single best restaurant in the world. That Ferran Adria would invite us into his kitchen like this is a gift.

While I love that cookbooks are getting better and better photography (think back to Julia Child or "The Joy of Cooking" — wow, have we come a long way!) it would traumatize me to get drips and splatters on a book this lovely.

Oh yeah, and the recipes are delicious.

This falls short of being "The 60-Minute Baker," but Nick Malgieri shaves a lot of time from a host of the old standards and a wide array of the unexpected.

I was supposed to have a food-oriented trip to Portland, Oregon this Summer. Alas, the trip fell through. Until I'm able to enjoy the cornucopia of Oregon, this book will have to do.

I've had Carmellini's roasted Brussels Sprouts three or four times. It shouldn't be legal for Brussels Sprouts to be that good. (They're so good that I've chosen to capitalize the words — Brussels Sprouts.)

If the rest of his food comes close to those Brussels Sprouts then this might be THE cookbook pick up.

50% cookbook/50% memoir. 100% worth reading.

Peter S. from Brooklyn, NY says:

This book isn't as stuffy as you might think. These women collectively have enough experience in the kitchen that they transcend stuffy and slide right over to downright clever and informative.