What are your food-related reads these days?

[Squeat Mungry]

"Feeding a Yen", Calvin Trillin.  Easy, short read, almost finished.  Kind of sad because Alice disappears 2/3 into the book (she died)

Hey, I'm reading this right now, too! Lots of fun. Thanks for spoiling the ending. (Just kidding -- he mentions it in the dedication. )

Cheers,

Squeat

[Kevin72]

I am reading Becoming a Chef (reading it all) and Culinary Artistry (skimming and reading).  They are both written by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page.  Both are great books.  They are not really cookbooks.  They do contain really good information about flavor combinations, etc.

If you enjoy Page and Dornenburg, check out thisQ & A they did last fall.

Culinary Artistry is great and a wonderful sourcebook. Becoming a Chef is good also; I'd be interested to see the revised edition with new chefs added in but haven't run across it yet. They had a completely new book out The New American chef which I also was intrigued by but seems to have disappeared altogether.

[Chef Shogun]

Jacques Pepin, The Complete Technique.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I'm like many folks in that I'm reading a number of books at once. For fiction, I've been reading The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. You have to have read Dante's Inferno to really enjoy it, but I chuckled when I came across this food-related section:

Fields stood up, beaming. "Oh, gentlemen, I shall throw a Dante supper to put the Saturday Club to shame. May the mutton be as tender as Longfellow's verse! And may the Moet sparkle like Holmes's wit, and the carving knives be as sharp as Lowell's satire!"

Three cheers were given to Fields.

For non-fiction I am reading K2 - the Story of the Savage Mountain by Jim Curran.

My latest foodie book is

The Hungry Soul - Eating and the Perfecting of our Nature by Leon R. Klass, M.D. a fascinating philosophical exploration of man's need to consume. The opening paragraph:

According to a very old story, well known to most readers, a woman and a man once took a fancy to a most unusual fruit. It grew on no ordinary tree, and their eating of it had no ordinary consequences: Indeed, it opened their eyes and made permanent the whole human difference. They had sought this tree not only because they thought its fruit would be good for food but also because they imagined it would make them wise. Though the consequences of their eating were both less and more than they had bargained for, though it gave them psychic indigestion, and though true wisdom eluded them, we have it on the highest authority that they in some sense succeeded: "Now th eman is become like one of us, knowing good and bad." God Almighty knew that the world was arranged so as to contain deep connections among human eating, human freedom, and human moral self-consciousness. It is these connections that we here seek to discover. We, too, seek wisdom through eating; eating is the manifest theme of this inquiry.

Pretty cool, huh?

[daniellewiley]

I'm reading The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. I love it. And I'm very excited that I live so close to Lola.

Other food books I've read recently:

On Rue Tatin by Susan Herrmann Loomis - an excellent book by a cookbook author and cooking school teacher. It's is about her adventures living in Normandy, and has wonderful recipes.

Wife of the Chef by Courtney Febbroriello. I didn't love this book, because I just didn't love her writing style, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain of course. Loved it of course.

The Bobby Gold Stories also by Tony Bourdain - I read it on the plane to California. Great fun summer reading.

[bloviatrix]

I'm reading The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. I love it. And I'm very excited that I live so close to Lola.

Danielle, Michael Ruhlman participated in a fabulous Q&A last year. If you like the book, you'll love seeing him in the "eg hot seat."

Edit:typo.

Edited August 31, 2004 by bloviatrix (log)

[daniellewiley]

I'm reading The Soul of a Chef by Michael Ruhlman. I love it. And I'm very excited that I live so close to Lola.

Danielle, Michael Ruhlman participated in a fabulous Q&A last year. If you like the book, the love seeing him in the "eg hot seat."

Thanks! That's on my list to read. (None of us mentioned all the hours spent here, reading blogs and Q&As!!!)

He will also be a speaker at next year's Greenbriar Food Writer's Symposium. I am scrimping and saving to try and go. Big dream of mine.

[bloviatrix]

I just finished going through The Berry Bible by Janie Hibler. I took it out of the library and it is nearing it's due date.

Otherwise, I've been reading lots of fiction. The Jane Austen Book Club has lots of food references. Henning Mankell's The White Lioness does not.

[suzilightning]

carolyn - that sounds like one to go on my list, thanks!

am finishing up the last of my reading for three months(except for that tied to my real job) since we start the migrating hawk count tomorrow and i'm ususally too beat to even read

a coworker suggested peg bracken's A Window over the Sink. she remembered it as more of a mayhew man or jason and rachel experience and yes, she does redo her kitchen, but all of the chapters are really food related to her life in hawaii and in the lower 48 west and midwest growing up. as well as growing up in a more innocent and swet time and i laughed my ass off through most of this book...

[Mulcahy]

Just finished The Apprentice by Jacques Pepin.

Recently also finished Apricots on The Nile and Return to Paris by Colette Rossant, which I loved.

Am currently working on The Gotham Bar & Grill Cookbook which is really excellent. Presents very interesting ways to think about both flavor and presentation.

Edited to add egullet e-cookbooks links.

Edited August 31, 2004 by Mulcahy (log)

[jgarner53]

I'm currently reading Harold McGee's On Food & Cooking. I normally have two books going at once, or a book and a magazine, particularly if one is cumbersome and difficult to lug around for lunchtime reading.

Others recently read:

I'm Just Here for the Food, Alton Brown (now signed )

The Art of Cooking, MFK Fisher (loved all of it)

It Must Have Been Something I Ate, Jeffrey Steingarten

Cookwise, Shirley Corriher, though I had to return it to the library before I finished

Up next:

How to Bake, Nick Malgieri (my textbook for pastry school)

Cookwise, gonna buy it AND finish it!

I'm Just Here for More Food, Alton Brown's baking book

I've also recently been perusing Baking Illustrated, Baking with Julia, and, of course, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

I spied The Tummy Trilogies at Borders last week (picking up How to Cook Everything for a non-foodie, non-cook friend). Since I loved Tepper Isn't Going Out, I should have just picked it up. Instead, it will probably go into the same Amazon order with my other stuff after labor day.

Non-cooking books - Is there such a thing? Actually, I just started Eats, Shoots & Leaves, by Lynne Truss, subtitled as "The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation," as my lunchtime tome.

Yes, I'm a geek.

Sorry, don't know how to make the Amazon link to enrich the coffers of eGullet.

[jamiemaw]

Following on the heels of recommending a dozen and a half food periodicals that continuously refresh the culinary landscape for a young chef, here's part two of our challenge: build a culinary library based in the history and sociology of food and drink. There are several reference volumes for deeper research too. Cookbooks are not included in this section--we'll get to that in a while.

Here are some to begin the library; please add your thoughts . . .

Hering’s Dictionary of Classical and Modern Cookery

On Food and Cooking Harold McGee

Between Meals and A Taste of Paris A.J. Liebling

The Soul of A Chef Michael Ruhlman

The Man Who Ate Everything Geoffrey Steingarten

Jancis Robinson’s Wine Course Jancis Robinson

The Invention of the Restaurant Rebecca L. Spang

The Tummy Trilogy Calvin Trillin

Much Depends on Dinner and The Rituals of Dinner Margaret Visser

Food: A Culinary History Flandarin and Montanari

Nobody Knows the Truffles I’ve Seen George Lang

The Cambridge World History of Food Kiple and Ornelas

La Bonne Table Ludwig Bemelmans

The Man Who Ate Toronto James Chatto

The Physiology of Taste Brillat-Savarin

Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain

Food Lovers’ Companion Barrons’ Editors

Letters to a Young Chef Daniel Boulud

Near a Thousand Tables Fernandez-Armesto

A Chef’s Tale Pierre Franey

Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child Noel Riley Fitch

Food Waverly Root

Salt: A World History Mark Kurlansky

James Beard: A Biography Robert Clark

The Oxford Companion to Food Alan Davidson

Edited September 7, 2004 by jamiemaw (log)

[Daddy-A]

Between Meals  A.J. Liebling

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So far, the only one on your list I have read. Just finished The Raw and the Cooked by Jim Harrison, a collection of short stories and essays, and am currently enjoying The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky.

Arne

[jamiemaw]

So far, the only one on your list I have read.  Just finished The Raw and the Cooked by Jim Harrison, a collection of short stories and essays, and am currently enjoying The Basque History of the World by Mark Kurlansky.

Arne

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Arne,

Jim Harrison has an amusing story (about a 37-course lunch) in this week's copy of the New Yorker--the annual food issue.

Enjoy!

Jamie

[bloviatrix]

I think MFK Fisher's The Art of Eating is essential.

Culture and Cuisine, A Journey through the History of Food by Jean-Francois Revel is fascinating and often cited in other books.

[Lancelot]

I feel compelled to chime in with my Wine book list.

The Wild Bunch (Great Wines from Small Producers) Patrick Matthews 1997

Virgile's Vineyard (A Year in the Languedoc Wine Country)Patrick Moon 2003

A Wine and Food Guide to the Loire Jacqueline Friedrich 1996

Love by The Glass(Tasting Notes from a Marriage)Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher 2002

Wine & War (The French,The Nazis & The Battle for France's Greatest Treasure) Don & Petie Kladstrup 2001

Languedoc Rouissillon(The Wines and Winemakers) Paul Strang 2002

The New France (A Complete Guide to Contemporary French Wine)Andrew Jefford 2002

Adventures on The Wine Route(A Wine Buyers Tour of France) Kermit Lynch 1988

The Wine Regions of Australia John Beeston 2000 Very serious with historical context

American Vintage (The Rise of American Wine) Paul Lukacs 2000

A Short History of Wine Rod Phillips 2000

Wine and The Vine(An Historical Geography of Viticulture and the Wine Trade)Tim Unwin 1991 Scholarly

Red Wine with Fish(The New Art of Matching Wine With Food)David Rosengarten and Joshua Wesson 1989

The Taste of Wine(The Art and Science of Wine Appreciation)Emile Peynaud English Translation1987

A Century of Wine( The Story of a Wine Revolution) General Editor Stephen Brook 2000

Vines Grapes and Wines Jancis Robinson 1986

Vintage The Story of Wine Hugh Johnson 1989

The World Atlas of Wine (5th Edition) Hugh Johnson & Jancis Robinson 2001

There is rarely a week that passes that I don't open one or two of these books. If pressed to pick only two I would pick the World Atlas and the New France Book (the most informed opinionated and compelling wine book I have read) Red Wine with Fish is interesting but difficult to find($150.00 at Barbara Jo's Books to Cooks). I'm willing to lend it to someone if they want to read it. Just be nice!

Edited September 7, 2004 by Lancelot (log)

[jamiemaw]

I feel compelled to chime in with my Wine book list . . .

Red Wine with Fish is interesting but difficult to find($150.00 at Barbara Jo's Books to Cooks). I'm willing to lend it to someone if they want to read it. Just be nice!

←

Wow. Thanks for the great wine post, Lancelot.

By the way, do you know why Joshua Wesson's and Davis Rosengarten's Red Wine with Fish is so expensive? The story I've heard is that the two authors no longer see eye-to-eye. So despite its continued popularity, it's never been reprinted or updated.

And Bloviatrix, thanks for the Fisher and Revel additons--both worthies to be sure.

Jamie

Edited September 7, 2004 by jamiemaw (log)

[bloviatrix]

Jamie, another thought comes to mind....the section on Food in Peter Ackroyd's London, the biography. It's fascinating reading. Ackroyd looks at everything related to food -- from the markets to the waste products.

[saskanuck]

I don't know if this exactly qualifies as a cookbook, but I think it's an important resource: Cookwise, by Shirley Corriher.

I find it very helpful when I wish to change a recipe without messing it up entirely.

Hmm, the title didn't come out in bold, wonder why?

[davebr]

One of the most used books in my house--Culinary Artistry by Dorenburg and Page. I buy this book for every one of my cooks.

Cornbread Nation by the Southern Foodways Alliance

[StudentChefEclipse]

Food and History - Reay Tannahill (My favorite food history author; her book on sex and history is superb as well.)

The Devil's Cup and In the Devil's Garden - both by Stewart Lee Allen (Great books on coffee and "forbidden" foods respectively; humorous and well-researched.)

[pmyers5000]

an addition: The Artful Eater, by Edward Behr.

[alacarte]

Perfection Salad by Laura Shapiro

[jamiemaw]

One I forgot to post earlier (he really takes the mickey out of the wine industry) is Lawrence Osborne in his book The Accidental Connoisseur. It has especially hilarious chapters on Robert Mondavi and Leo McLoskey, the founder of Enologix, who purports to be able to 'design' wine for vintners to order to qualify them for a Parker 92. Very good stuff.

What makes it especially appealing is Osborne's self-deprecation--to the point of painting himself as the oenophilic equivalent of a stumblebum--when, in fact, he's clearly anything but. Between the lines, he gently instructs that irony really does require two audiences and is not quite as simple as a black fly in your chardonnay, as Alanis once might have had us believe. It should be required reading for any would-be whinie.

Edited September 10, 2004 by jamiemaw (log)

[lpa209]

How about Outlaw Cook by John Thorne?

And some Elizabeth David seems essential, given how much she helped the English transition from their WWII boiled-beef-and-canned-cabbages rationing miasma to more Continentally influenced cuisine. An Omelette and a Glass of Wine is a good place to start.