The very first cookbook I ever received was a British children’s cookbook that I obtained as a gift from one of my nannies for my First Communion when we lived in London. There were recipes for all kinds of things including coconut ice, a very sugary sweet treat that is often dyed pink, and these adorable shortbread cookies that stood on a Cadbury chocolate button that seemed to be melted into the cookie. I also learned about something called Welsh Rarebit and these strange fried sausage meat wrapped hard boiled eggs from Scotland. I pored over that book for days on end and to this day, I’m still trying to find it to no avail.
My fondness for cookbooks of all kinds continues to this day and it’s a pretty big obsession. I don’t have too many vices, but I suppose this might be the one that I call mine. I have at least three bookshelves full of books and I keep trying to go through them and pare them down, but it's no good. I'm too attached to them! I only own a few books that do not contain pictures and those tend to be items that are absolute classics like Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck or the Food and Wines of Spain by Penelope Casas. When it has been pointed out to me that maybe I have too many of these books, I note that I look at them frequently. This is quite true. Sometimes I need inspiration, or I just want to gaze upon the photos and luxuriate in what I could make.
I don’t tend to like what I call “cheffy” books where the ingredients are too many or too hard to find. To me, that isn’t translatable to the home kitchen. Plus, I live in Annapolis and although I tend to drive to find unusual ingredients (I recently made my entire family go with me to a town 25 minutes away to grab Indian ingredients for something I wanted to make) I would prefer to shop in some of our local grocery stores, no matter how poorly stocked they may be.
There are certain writers of cookbooks that I eagerly await for new volumes, including Ina Garten and Lidia Bastianich. Ina has a talent for making baked goods that always turn out perfectly no matter how dubious I am about the list of ingredients. I recently made her chocolate peanut butter blobs and was a bit concerned about the consistency of the batter, but naturally they came out absolutely perfect and delicious. Lidia is also one of the few TV chefs out there who actually reminds me of my own Italian family and is the “real” deal in terms of what she cooks. I love her regional books and how she truly does the research to give her readers exactly what is made throughout Italy. So many people think of Italian food as being the red sauced pasta dishes, they see in American restaurants, but the cuisine is far more nuanced and truly uses the ingredients from the areas where the recipes originate. As one example, I absolutely love Calabrian peppers and sneak them into a lot of the meals I serve my family and the food that comes from that region is known for being spicy.
I am known for boring everyone in my immediate family with special trips to cookbook stores. In Manhattan, there are two that come immediately to mind, Kitchen Arts and Letters and Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks. You would think I was torturing my two boys when I insisted on spending time in Bonnie’s store for an hour. It specializes in historical books and is a treasure trove of items from the past, which as a child of the 1970s, I adored. But the kids were not interested in it at all. And in San Francisco a special trip had to be made to Omnivore Books. Fortunately, because the store offered free food samples the kids were more than fine with me spending a few moments there perusing the shelves. Most recently, I took my older son Ryan and my mom to DC, and we visited Bold Fork Books. I had a delightful conversation with the couple there who own the shop who, like me, also love cookbooks and had visited the aforementioned shops in their travels. Their intention is to ultimately to offer lectures and cooking sessions once they are able (and if COVID subsides). I ensured them I would be back with others in tow.
My biggest issue though is when I go to London. I spend hours in the bookstores there and I love all of the unique titles. Unlike here in the states where we have cookbooks by models like Chrissy Teigen or actresses like Gwyneth Paltrow, there is a real attempt to dissect cuisines from throughout the world. I have found some absolute gems there and learned so much. Sometimes the titles make their way over the pond, and I have been lucky enough to grab them, such as Grilling: Where There’s Smoke There’s Flavor, by Eric Treuille and Birgit Erath. Simple enough, right? A book on grilled foods. Not so fast. Here in the states, the focus would be on barbeque or burgers. In this particular book, it teaches you how to grill different types of meat, vegetables, and fish and to make something special and unique. I particularly like the attempt to share flavors of the world like Provencal seafood grill or spiced coconut lamb satays.
With the holidays soon coming, I have grabbed a few more cookbooks at the local bookstore and library to pore over to figure out what we will make. My husband John thinks I’m crazy since he just thinks a simple stuffing, some mashed potatoes and a turkey will suffice. I mean, come on. Does this man know who he has been with for nearly three decades? I’m already exploring a new sweet potato dish that will incorporate Asian flavors and will make the delicious Ina Garten banana trifle I tried last year again. My sister and I will also make corn pudding and a few other classics to play it safe, but as usual it will be far too much. And that’s okay! Because the best part of the holidays is enjoying the leftovers and making turkey curry!
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