There's Gourmet magazine. They choose the best cookbooks every year. There's also Bon Appetit. And they also choose the best cookbooks every year. And then, just to make it really hard to keep up, the two magazines join forces online as Epicurious.com and chose yet another list of the best cookbooks of the year. Got that? Good. I'm exhausted. Anyone want to make me an omelette?
by Roy Finamore, Rick Moonen
Long an advocate of sustainable seafood, trust chef/restaurateur Rick Moonen to navigate you through the confusion you find in today's fish store.
by Anne Bramley, photography by Tina Rupp
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.
by Albert Adria, Juli Soler, Ferran Adria
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.
by Lucy Malouf, Greg Malouf
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.
by Nick Malgieri
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.
by Robert Reynolds, Kimberly Paley, Vitaly Paley
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.
by Gwen Hyman, Andrew Carmellini
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.
by Luke Nguyen, Pauline Nguyen
50% cookbook/50% memoir. 100% worth reading.
by Jennifer McLagan, photography by Leigh Beisch
Peter S. from Brooklyn, NY says:
Duck fat. Caul fat. Leaf lard. Bacon. Ghee. Suet. Schmaltz. Cracklings. Wipe the drool off your chin and lick — er, click that book cover to learn more.
by Pat Mozersky, edited by Marcella Rosene, photography by Tracey Maurer
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.
Flashlight Worthy
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About Peter
I've always been interested in topics of every kind, so what the heck, I built this website to recommend books of every kind. If you have ideas as to how Flashlight Worthy could be better, let me know.
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Fractured Novels that Mirror the Uncertainty of Everyday Life