Make way for chocolate!
It's been a while since we saw much in the way of serious chocolate books. For a while, the same chocolate book seemed to be published over and over: an introduction featuring the history of cacao's discovery and…
Susie
October 2013 Cookbook Roundup
Every month Susie Chang reviews new cookbook releases and notes trends in the United States. And she may also occasionally throw in a review of a "not-quite cookbook." And for our non-U.S. members, Jane and Fiona…
What's a winter cookbook?
The summer cookbook has always been a pretty identifiable creature: cocktails, grilling, entertaining, the odd picnic or camping book. But although you could argue that people enjoy cooking more in cold weather, I've…
Jewish cookbooks on the rise
The Jewish new year is well underway, and the calendar is heading into the frantic stretch before Thanksgiving and an early Hannukah. And it happens that cookbooks paying tribute to one of this country's most beloved…
Pastry! pastry! pastry!
It started a couple of weeks ago, when the third book on French pastry in two weeks arrived in the mail. What's up with that? I wondered. Was it a conspiracy? Some kind of vast plot by the butter export lobby? There was…
Don't judge a book by its cover...except just for a second, right now.
Lucky me - I just received a copy of The Photography of Modernist Cuisine - the art-book sibling of last year's Modernist Cuisine at Home and the previous year's Modernist Cuisine. It's impressive in every way,…
To the ovens! with, or without a mixer.
The fall baking books are trickling in, and a curious phenomenon seems to be cropping up: baking without a mixer. Yvonne Ruperti's One Bowl Baking is an example. Its promise of simplicity is somewhat disingenuous- one…
You Complete Me
Maybe because my life so often seems like a messy accumulation of loose ends, I'm a sucker for completion in cookbooks. When a cookbook claims to be "complete," I sigh with satisfaction and think "Ahhh...I will never…
September 2013 cookbook roundup
Every month Susie Chang reviews new cookbook releases and notes trends in the United States. And she may also occasionally throw in a review of a "not-quite cookbook." And for our non-U.S. members, Jane and Fiona…
Interview with Mollie Katzen
Author of the iconic Moosewood Cookbook, Mollie Katzen has been publishing almost continuously since the debut of that culture-changing first book. But her most recent title, The Heart of the Plate, stands as a…
We Are Family
Just as we saw with the words "table" and "kitchen" a while back, there's a battle going on for the soul of "family" in cookbook titles. What is a family cookbook, exactly? What, or who, counts as family, and what does…
Line cooks
When it comes to cookbook design, it's the Wild West out there! Maybe its because cookbooks, stalwart sellers in a digital age, have the luxury of experimentation as buyers hunt down increasingly charming and quirky…