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I'd like to get into collecting vintage and rare restaurant menus. Can anyone point me in the right direction on sourcing?

Wild Sweets: Chocolate Sweet, Savory, Bites, Drinks Has anybody checked it out yet? I was a big fan of their first book so I'll be grabbing this one as well, just wondered if anybody has taken a peek at it.

Maybe I should be posting this in the cookbooks forum, but I think it belongs here (if there's a moderator in the room, please change it if this is the case) Phaidon has released "1080 recipes" by Simone Ortega in a luxurious, one volume edition, illustrated by Javier Mariscal and with an addendum of menus by famous chefs. When I first saw the enormous book in Frankfurt's book fair my first reaction was a (very loud for the place and occasion, I have to admit) WTF?! In my heart, Ortega's book is the kind that gets stained and loses its spine after a lot of use in a real kitchen, not something you'd be scared to open in fear of anything happening to it. Phaidon seem to have wanted to dress up an old workhorse (even though we are speaking about a very valuable one here!) as something fancy, and I'm not sure how foreign audiences will react to it, or whether we could say 1080 recipes actually portrays everyday Spanish food. But, then again I may be wrong... Here's a review from Slate about this. What do you guys think? Have you had a chance to take a deeper look to the English version? What would your number one choice in cookbooks be when introducing non Spaniards to Spanish food? Mar (Edited for typos)

I haven't seen much mention of Middle Eastern cookbooks. I know that's a pretty wide range of foods, but I'm thinking Moroccan, North African, Turkish, etc. Anybody have books that they'd like to recommend?

I'm usually a word person, but when it comes to cooking, I've found that a few images have really planted themselves in my brain, such that I carry them with me and use them on a regular basis in the kitchen. Some cases in point: In The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking by Barbara Tropp, there's an image of a knotty piece of ginger that is squared off with dotted lines to form a perfect rectangular solid. Every time I need to julienne, mince, or chop ginger, I think of that little line drawing and proceed to make remarkably uniform bits of the root. Somewhere in the Jacques Pepin oeuvre there's a photograph of his knuckles bracing a chef's knife and protecting his fingertips. When I first learned knife skills, that image alone towered over lots of wordy explanations that simply didn't add up. Do you have any images like this? What are they?

Are there any recommended books out there with only chilli recipes? I love eating chilli at Mom's but have never made it myself...I'd like to get several recipes in one book to try, thanks.

I just heard about this site. Tastebook is a service that lets users take recipes from sites (I think just epicurious at the moment) and make a cookbook, which they can then pay to get printed copies of for themselves or to share. The site says it's $35 for a book with 100 recipes. I think it's a really neat idea and while I haven't tried playing with the site yet I might find myself doing so in the future. What do you think?

I know that El Bulli's recipes were a bit weird, anyone made them? And if so, were they successful?

okay guys, this is some serious stuff i've lost my copy of claudia fleming's the last course i loved it and now i see it's not printed anymore and costs over a hundred bucks i know i should have posted this on the cookbook section, but i have the feeling that i might get more help here i am desperate does anyone know where i can get a copy (online as i live in france)? or if one of you has two or don't care about that book, i'd love to give you some money for it... pretty please xxx - fanny

So I'm making a cocktail tonight, and for the first time I actually read the label on the Angostura bottle. And down at the bottom I see: "Angostura makes food more appetizing!" Does it? Really? Helpfully, the bottles suggested 2 dashes with cooked or canned fruits, 2-3 dashes with each CUP of mayonnaise or French dressing in a salad and 2-3 dashes in soup. So, does anyone cook with bitters? And if Angostura is really so great, what about other bitters?

8 of us were quiet in the van as it slowly crept over heavily cobbled streets up the side of a small mountain on the way to our first cooking class with Diana Kennedy. None of us knew quite what to expect other than we'd be doing a lot of cooking and to kind of expect the unexpected. The van finally found it's target - Diana's driveway (if you could call it that), and we hopped out and began the trek up the path to her house. Diana went green long before it was trendy or poltically correct when she purchased several acres of wild, undeveloped and waterless land in Zitacuaro, Mexico. What she has created over the last 30 years is an self-sufficient, eco-friendly compound replete with umpteen varieites of plants, flowers and foliage accumulated from all over Mexico. Since the 8 of us covered the spectrum in terms of knowledge and skill with the cuisine of Mexico the first day was devoted to covering some basics, like seasoning a comal Rendering lard from assorted pieces of pork fat, which looked something like this as it began the process of melting down It was eventually transferred to a small cast iron skillet to speed up and finish the process It was strained into an earthen crock Diana wastes nothing. The remaining chicharrones were used to top sopes By the end of our 3 1/2 days of classes with Diana we had also used that entire crock of lard...and then some. But, lordy. did we cook... (To be continued since I'm at work and will have to post as I have time)

For a variety of reasons I've found myself on airplanes a lot recently, and as light airplane fare have been reading some detective books by Sicilian author Andrea Camilleri. One thing that is very interesting about Italian popular fiction is that the authors often spend significant time describing what the characters are eating, and the characters are often great lovers of food. Camilleri's stories are set in the Sicilian town of Vigàta, and his protagonist, commissario Montalbano, eats fish and seafood almost exclusively (one gets the impression this is true of most everyone there). Many wonderful dishes have been described, and I find myself in serious need of guidance and inspiration in making these dishes and others like them for myself. Ideally what I'd like is a Southern Italian fish and seafood cookbook. Failing that, a comprehensive Italian fish/seafood cookbook or a fish-heavy Sicilian cookbook would be just the thing. Recommendations?

I don't know if someone has posted this link before but I found it today and I thought I'd share. Since I'm unable to operate the link button here's the address: http://www.foodtimeline.org/ There's a lot of old cookbooks that you can view in pdf. If it's already been posted I'll delete this post. Jim

Kylie Kwong recently released a new cookbook named "My China". Has anyone purchased it yet? I'm thinking about it but considering it's fairly pricey atm (well it did JUST land on the shelves), I want to know what are people's responses so far

I just got a new job baking at a spa that has just opened up in the PA mountains. I need recommendations for a good book for baking (bread etc) with whole grains and flours other than AP (spelt etc) can anyone recommend one or two? thanks

Beyond Mexican cookbooks, what are your favorite Latin American / South American cookbooks? Are there good ones for Brazilian, Peruvian, Argentinian, etc.? Thanks.

I've ranted many a time on egullet about my frustration with American cookbooks (baking in particular) and the fact that most still tend to utilize volume measurements rather than weight, be it avoirdupois or metric. Hey: we all spend thousands on our computers -- why not shell out a few bucks for a scale and have our baked goods actually turn out as they were meant to? Why not, when writing a cookbook, offer the option of volume AND ounces AND grams? So. I decided to bake the gorgeous looking caramel cake in this month's SAVEUR. Baked the buttery layers last night and they look gorgeous. It wasn't until I was prepping to make the icing this morning that I re-read the recipe and saw that the first ingredient did NOT read "16 ounces unsalted butter" as I thought, but "16 tbsp unsalted butter". Tablespoons? Why would anyone measure out 16 "tablespoons"? Why not "8 ounces" or "224 grams" or "1 cup" or even "2 cubes" of butter???? Why would a magazine the calibre of SAVEUR print a recipe that way? Truth be told, it is my fault for not reading it correctly. But when I see a "16" in a recipe, it usually refers to ounces, not tablespoons. Bakers beware! And then the icing. The caramel icing cooks a long, long time. I had it on the lowest flame possible. And it burned. The recipe made it all sound so simple with no warning of possible burning during the one and a half hour cooking period. Granted, I've made caramel before. I know the ease with which sugar can burn. But what about all the non-bakers who decide to make this cake and icing and after an hour or so of stirring "occasionally", they end up with bits of gritty black in their smooth caramel icing? So I am starting a petition for better and more accurate recipe writing, and especially getting the US in step with the rest of the world in jumping on the metric bandwagon. But first, I have to go to the store in order to pick up some more evaporated milk so that I can spend another hour and a half making the damn caramel icing in order to frost my very, very, very buttery cake.

Moderator's Note: These posts about The Alinea Book have been split off from the Alinea restaurant topic in the Heartland forum. -- CA Funny enough, just read this earlier today from gothamist.com: "Visionary Chicago chef Grant Achatz made a special appearance on a cookbook panel that also featured Jeffrey Steingarten, editor Ann Bramson, and literary agent Lisa Queen. Achatz is currently being treated for a rare form of squamous cell carcinoma of the mouth, but remains iconoclastic as ever. The chef explained that he will self-publish the Alinea cookbook next year, and that it will be distributed by 10 Speed Press." The entire article can be found here. http://gothamist.com/2007/09/21/report_gothamis.php And for those not lucky enough to have the Art Culinaire, you can see screenshots of the article on Alinea's website: http://www.alinea-restaurant.com/pages/pre...print_main.html

Welcome to the Cookbooks & Reference Forum Index. This index has been created to assist you in finding common questions and topics. As you use this tool, please feel free to report any problems or suggestions to make it more efficient and usable. Likewise, if you feel a topic should be added, simply PM any of the forum hosts and we will review the topic for inclusion. Enjoy! Best, Worst & Annuals Reviews of Cookbooks by eGullet Members Essential Cookbooks Cookbooks Organized by Style / Genre / Course Ethnic & International Cookbooks About Cookbooks (Authoring, Publishing, etc) Collecting Cookbooks Food Related Non-Cookbooks

I run a food blog called Wrightfood - http://www.mattikaarts.com/blog The Wrightfood cookbook has been in the works for quite a while now. I first came up with the idea over a year ago, and have been working on it ever since. The book is far from being done - only about 50% has been written and photographed in fact, but I wanted to get peoples opinions on the food, the photographs, the pacing of the recipes and so forth. Friends have said they love it, but then they would, they are friends. I need as many people as possible to take a look, and to let me know what they think - honestly. So, here it is. The Wrightfood cookbook. The aim of the book is not to have thousands of recipes (this, as you see it here, is about 50% of what it will contain), but rather just a handful of really well documents quality recipes. Every stage in each recipe is documented with photographs, and decent descriptions. The idea is that a new cook and pick this up, and with little practice produce the food in here. No stone is left unturned, nothing is left to guesswork. The food is simple, clean, tasty and fresh. http://www.mattikaarts.com/wrightfood/press/wrightfood.pdf - here it is. You will need Adobe reader to view it. Hope you enjoy it, and let me know what you think. The cookbook website is: http://www.mattikaarts.com/wrightfood - you can find out more about me and the book there.

I've been perusing the Cookbooks & References topics from years past and didn't see anything on German Cooking. What are your favorites? BTW, any mention of German food leads me into my story of being 18 and in Bavaria for the first time. I refused to translate menus since I eat anything, and after 10 days of eating way too much meat, when I sat at a certain restaurant and saw "Wurst Salat" I was overjoyed at the chance to get a salad with a bit of meat on top. What came to my table 30 minutes later was a massive bowl of shredded bologna marinated in some dressing. No ruffage at all - none! Mmmmm...I ate 3 bites and was done. Now back to the books!

I'd like to cut back on dairy... but one of my big problems is cutting butter and milk/cream out of my diet, ESPECIALLY baked goods. Does anyone have suggestions for baking books that have reasonably tasty recipes using moderately easy to find and not overly expensive ingredients? I don't want to have to go out and buy a whole whack of fancy ingredients over and above what I stock in my regular pantry for baking. I've looked on amazon and there do seem to be a few good ones.... Also, does anyone have a coconut macaroon recipe that doesn't involve egg whites?

I've never done this before - bared my (public) library shelves for all to see. But emboldened by suzilightning's having done exactly that in her foodblog this week, I found a camera and decided to give it a try. Here is where it all happens: The shelves are rather close, the aisles not too wide, so as you see while you can not view the entire batch of stacks there is that marvellous sense of privacy. Here's a section that has Asian and Indian cookbooks. I was pleased to see that at least one of the books I requested the library purchase was checked out (Washoku by Elizabeth Andoh). There are a total of twenty-three shelves of books. This includes food literature, wine, and desserts. It does not cover books focused on dieting-with-fad-diet-names, though it does include books that focus on healthy ways of eating that may include the word "diet" in their title. Here is a section that attracted me . . . some big guns there with a little guy cuddled in between them. Who was it? I wondered. Turns out to be "The Pat Conroy Cookbook" by who else than Pat Conroy whom I've never heard of before. (But of course I gave myself my screen name not having heard of the awk! comedian guy who stole the name from redheads world-round just for his own tawdry purposes, so what do I know.) The intro says that Pat Conroy is America's favorite storyteller, so I better take out the book. The first recipe I turn the page to is: Scottigilia. Fabulous. Undoubtedly the book was just waiting there for me. I do hope my show and tell will make you want to do the same.

Has anyone come across this site Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project If you browse the collection there are pdf scans of early cookbooks. I apologize if this has been mentioned elsewhere.

Seeking opinions on “Le Cordon Bleu’s Complete Cooking Techniques” vs. CIA’s “The Professional Chef”. How do you see the two comparing against each other. If one has one, would one needs the other? If you see one as superior to the other, in what way(s) do you see that? What does one have that the other lacks? How do they compare? How do they contract? Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Dante