Cookbooks by Women

[jilly rizzo]

barabra tropp

[Priscilla]

Only Priscilla sited Madeleine Kamman.

I urge you all to bring her into your culinary library.

I, too, am amazed at how few have mentioned Madeleine Kamman, Brad! My favorite being, When French Women Cook.

Madeleine Kamman -- her original Making of a Cook was so far ahead of its time, teaching classic formulas and THEN variations.

There are dishes of hers from years ago, like the sauteed duck or chicken liver on salad from Madeleine Cooks, that seem eternally self-renewing. Or just the single chapter on breadmaking from In Madeleine's Kitchen -- more good information than in many books wholly devoted to the subject.

God Bless Madeleine Kamman.

[Andy Lynes]

I clicked on the Amazon icon to order Madhur Jaffrey's book (to go along with the Russ Parsons order) and they don't seem to have it. Has it been published in the US yet?

It appears not, I'll see if the UK publishers have any idea about a US release date and let you know.

[Andy Lynes]

Andy, what about Rogers & Gray?

I have the first book, but it didn't inspire me in the way that say, the Babbo cookbook did. But its a nice looking book adn there are lots of nice recipes in it. The new one "Easy" is pretty good too, even if it does look like a childs book.

[Basildog]

I have a copy of "Women Chefs of Britain" somewhere.Its from a few years ago, i'll dig it out later.Will be interesting to see where they are now

[ludja]

A few other great women cookbook authors ( that I think I didn't see above):

Lynne Rossetta Kasper esp. for The Splendid Table

and

Patricia Wells esp for Bistro Cooking

and

Carol Field (Italian Baker and In Nonna's Kitchen)

[JAZ]

Irma Bombauer: Joy of Cooking (another indispensible reference with decent recipes for just about everything in American cooking)

Um, it's Irma Rombauer, not Bombauer.

[Suzanne F]

Maybe he's thinking of Erma Bombeck?

The distinction that Andy made originally was, it seems to me, was in regard to books at least nominally by chefs. Not by great teachers (Kamman, M. Hazan, Child, Labensky, King) or by great writers (David, J. Grigson, Burros, Fisher, [Colchie] Schneider, Harris), but by chefs who are famous for being chefs (not merely for being excellent restaurant cooks).

On a quick check of my catalogue, of those folks I know for sure are restaurant chefs or the chef behind a successful retail business, I've got 15 women and 31 men.

If I were to count overall, though, I suspect the authors would be preponderantly female. After all, look at the membership of the Food Writing section of IACP!