NYTimes article on influential cookbooks

[Smithy]

This article in the New York Times Magazine is interesting: The 25 Most Influential Cookbooks From the Last 100 Years. The article should be unlocked so anyone can read it; if not, let me know so I can edit the link. The subtitle says it best: "Chefs, writers, editors and a bookseller gathered to debate — and decide — which titles have most changed the way we cook and eat". There's a good conversation, condensed from their final online conversations about the subject.

 

The books are selected based on how much they've changed the way we cook, with a few caveats based on recency and author. The assumption on influence is that a book newer than 10 years old can't be shown to have lasting influence. 

 

One item in the introductory paragraphs that gave me a laugh and some hope for the industry was the comment that cookbook sales still flourish despite the ready access to recipes online. I laughed because only yesterday my best friend told me that her college-age nephew had laughed at the idea of getting a beginner's cookbook to teach him how to cook. "Nobody buys cookbooks any more!" he scoffed.

 

I'm only about halfway through it, but I recognize and own a lot of those books. The Silver Palate Cookbook was my gateway drug purchase to an ever-expanding cookbook collection. My cookery has been informed over the years by many of these books.

 

How about you?

[Alex]

What? They didn't include The New Joys of Jell-O Recipe Book??

 

14 minutes ago, Smithy said:

I'm only about halfway through it, but I recognize and own a lot of those books. The Silver Palate Cookbook was my gateway drug purchase to an ever-expanding cookbook collection. My cookery has been informed over the years by many of these books.

 

How about you?

 

I have, or used to have, fourteen of the twenty-five.

[ElsieD]

I have, or had, 7 of these.

[Smithy]

44 minutes ago, Alex said:

What? They didn't include The New Joys of Jell-O Recipe Book??

 

I have that one too! Or at least, I used to. (Don't know which, right now.) 🙂

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

I've read 18 out of the list and just taking a quick look at my kitchen bookcase I still have 5 of those.

I did once own 'The Moosewood Cookbook' and 'Diet for a Lost Planet' however I still have this title from my undergraduate days and still use it. Quick breads, muffins, pancakes......got me through my student years on a limited budget.

 

[gfweb]

The omissions on the list are staggering.

But of course. 😀

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

5 minutes ago, gfweb said:

The omissions on the list are staggering.

But of course. 😀

 

That's a fair point however how about suggestions on obvious omissions.

Perhaps Beard? Nguyen? Thompson? Olney? .....

[gfweb]

1 hour ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

 

That's a fair point however how about suggestions on obvious omissions.

Perhaps Beard? Nguyen? Thompson? Olney? .....

 

Claibourne's NYT cookbook...Beard's theory and practice...CIA's Professional Chef...Prudhomme's Seasoned America ...any Olney..and the whole Time-Life series which for the time was groundbreaking

 

I have lots of other favorites, but I can't say they changed cooking.

 

Edited Friday at 06:36 PM by gfweb (log)

[weinoo]

4 hours ago, Smithy said:

The assumption on influence is that a book newer than 10 years old can't be shown to have lasting influence. 

 

 

But there is a book on the list from 2019.

 

My collection includes 20 of the 25.

 

I can understand the Time-Life Books or The Good Cook series not being on the list, as they were more likely influential in their totality, as opposed to any one book in the series being seminal.  They almost deserve their own list, along with the  "______The Beautiful" Series.

[rotuts]

Lists always have omissions .

 

I also have most of these , and the others Ive checked out from the library.

 

Cookbooks have evolved , for sure .

 

few of these are are in the Picture // Food as plated art category 

 

a genre that has evolved from these sorts of books

 

that's what sells these days.

 

and its true , CB's have evolved to on line materials 

 

attention spans are much shorter these days for younger groups .

 

 

[Smithy]

39 minutes ago, weinoo said:

 

But there is a book on the list from 2019.

 

 

You're absolutely right. As I reread the article, I see they noted that most of the cookbooks are older because it takes time for a cookbook's influence to develop. I didn't make that clear in my opening post, and I'm not sure I understood that point when I posted. Thanks for the correction.

[weinoo]

54 minutes ago, rotuts said:

Cookbooks have evolved , for sure .

 

few of these are are in the Picture // Food as plated art category 

 

You're absolutely right; cookbooks, for a while anyway, became "coffee-table books."

 

Compare, for instance, the photographs in Jacques's "La Technique" with what you might see today.  La Technique has a ton of step-by-step black and white photos, brilliantly explaining, literally, how to cook.

 

I wonder also, how Modernist Cuisine's writers feel about not being included.  How well has it aged? (It's 13 now).

[Dave the Cook]

27 minutes ago, weinoo said:

I wonder also, how Modernist Cuisine's writers feel about not being included.  How well has it aged? (It's 13 now).

 

I don't think it's really a cookbook, any more than On Food and Cooking is a cookbook, no matter how influential it might be.

[weinoo]

1 hour ago, Dave the Cook said:

 

I don't think it's really a cookbook, any more than On Food and Cooking is a cookbook, no matter how influential it might be.

 

Both Modernist Cusine (Volume 5) and Modernist Pizza (Volume 3) are recipe books. In each series, I guess you could say there is a cookbook.

[TdeV]

This was DH's first cookbook (from Harvard) . It's hilarious in a 20-year-olds-finally-get-away-from-home kind of way.

I have an image of the recipe for Iman Bai-Il-Dih or "The Priest Fainted".

Send me a PM and I'll send it to you.

 

 

Edited Friday at 11:13 PM by TdeV (log)

[gfweb]

4 hours ago, rotuts said:

Lists always have omissions .

 

I also have most of these , and the others Ive checked out from the library.

 

Cookbooks have evolved , for sure .

 

few of these are are in the Picture // Food as plated art category 

 

a genre that has evolved from these sorts of books

 

that's what sells these days.

 

and its true , CB's have evolved to on line materials 

 

attention spans are much shorter these days for younger groups .

 

 

Re attention spans,I have none...thats my complaint with youtube and blog posts. There is a high noise to signal ratio. 

 

Id rather read a recipe for 30 seconds than watch it acted out over 10 minutes.