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It's heartening to see that among the dozens (could it be hundreds?) of cookbooks published over the past few months, and the yet-to-be-published manuscripts coming out throughout the spring months, that the quality remains consistently high. I'm not sure why this surprises me so much, but it pleases me to no end. Oh sure, out of all the cookbooks that are published each year, plenty of them may best be described as silly. Usually, these are the ones in which some recipe-writer is given a bunch of money to come up with 50 recipes for hamburger or artichokes, or in some cases, to promote a brand of soup or other food product. Such books pop up every season, normally with little fanfare, and disappear as quickly as they appeared, or simply go straight to the remainder table (the culinary equivalent of movies that you've never heard of that go directly to video). The majority, however, are well worth considering, and while any cookbook has its own audience, the best ones transcend mere recipe collections and teach us something new about a place, a people, or a technique. Additionally, cookbooks help us immeasurably in the food business because as I've written here before, cookbooks sell food and food sells cookbooks. They also provide invaluable reference material for the merchant who has to answer questions every day from customers -- "How long should I cook this?," "How do you clean a squid?," or "What is a cardoon?"
Writing cookbooks is difficult, and having recently entered the fray myself, I have all the more respect for people who pour their hearts and souls into chronicling recipes, history, and lore in the form of cookbooks, or any other kind of book for that matter. Attention to detail, purple prose to evoke a time or place, simple and clear writing of instructions, and the testing and retesting of recipes are the tools of the trade for the cookbook author. Add to that the research required, sometimes in the form of travel, and the laborious process of editing the material, and you have a daunting task indeed. So here?s to all the cookbook authors out there, past, present, and future, who help keep our culinary traditions alive. Here too is a look at some notable examples for this season. Happy reading.

Reviews

We'll begin at the beginning, that is with babies, or more accurately, with feeding babies. Believe it or not, there was a time when parents fed their babies without the use of prepared baby foods, and many still do. Due to the convenience of overly processed baby foods, a whole generation or two has been led to believe that babies and toddlers can?t eat real food. Hopefully, Chef Joachim Splichal and his wife Christine will dispel those misconceptions in their new book titled appropriately enough Feeding Baby (Ten Speed Press). Known more for feeding adults at their famous Los Angeles-based Patina Group restaurants, the Splichals show how to make simple, nutritious meals for kids six months to three years of age. They also provide all sorts of tips on what to avoid, what to embrace, and most importantly, they emphasize the need for children to sit down to meals with their parents, an important ritual that is sadly disappearing from our culture.
For over 200 years, King Arthur Flour has been providing top-quality cake, bread, and pastry flour (extolled by some of the finest bakers in America), and for at least the last 20 years, has been educating bakers as well through their seminars, hands-on classes, online courses, catalog, and monthly newsletter called The Baking Sheet. They have taught baking classes in hundreds of cities across the country, as well as in their own Baking Education Center in Norwich, Vt. In fact, they are the single largest educator of bakers in the world and they are just nuts about baking. With the publication of The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion (Countryman Press), they have culled the best of the best from their recipe archives and provided what is likely the most comprehensive and definitive baking book to date. Every one of the 640 pages offers pearls of wisdom, including the color photograph section, which serves not just to show pretty pictures, but also to illustrate the difference among piecrusts, cake textures, and so forth. This book is a must-have for every baker or bakery manager, and is a worthy companion to their previous book, The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook.
On a more somber note, a deadly killer is stalking the aisles of America's supermarkets -- trans fats, usually in the form of partially hydrogenated oils. It is estimated that 40 percent of the food on grocery shelves contains these deadly fats, according to the FDA. Recently, the U.S. government declared that there are no safe levels of trans fat in the diet. They have been implicated in raising bad cholesterol levels and clogging arteries, and so can lead to heart attacks, strokes, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. Now for the good news. San Francisco Chronicle reporter Kim Severson has written a provocative new book called The Trans Fat Solution: Cooking and Shopping to Eliminate the Deadliest Fat from Your Diet (Ten Speed Press). The recipes by Chef Cindy Burke show how to easily avoid trans fats, either cooking at home, or more importantly, when shopping in the grocery store. With all of the above ailments on the rise in America, this book couldn't have come at a better time.
Knowing what to avoid is a good thing, but knowing what to seek out for one's health is equally important.
Much has been said about eating a diet rich in antioxidants and phytonutrients in an effort to ward off the effects of aging, pollution, and other factors in our lives. In a new book, Superfoods RX (William Morrow) by authors Steven G. Pratt, M.D., and Kathy Matthews detail exactly what you should be eating for a healthier lifestyle, and guess what, it's all delicious and easy-to-get food. In fact, they specify 14 foods that they refer to as "superfoods" for their inherent high levels of antioxidants and other healthful components. These foods are beans, blueberries, broccoli, oats, oranges, pumpkin, salmon, soy, spinach, tea, tomato, turkey, walnuts, and yogurt. With a list of credentials that could be a book by themselves, Dr. Pratt outlines a diet that is easy to follow, and departs a treasure chest of valuable information. Everyone in America should read this book.
Speaking of healthy eating habits, a welcome addition to the cookbook shelf is Twelve Months of Monastery Salads (Harvard Common Press) by Brother Victor-Antoine d'Avila-Latourrette, a worthy companion to his previous Twelve Months of Monastery Soups. Adhering to the natural cycle of the garden as any good gardener knows, Brother Victor's salads are inspired, creative, and delicious. Keep several copies of this one displayed in your fresh produce department.
The Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco has been proving for some time now that vegan cooking (eschewing all animal-based foods, including dairy and eggs) can be creative, delicious, and satisfying. In the latest book from Chef Eric Tucker and Bruce Enloe, The Artful Vegan (Ten Speed Press) presents 130 fresh and delectable recipes that are sure to please even the most ardent carnivore. The dessert recipes by pastry chef Amy Pearce are inspired and considering she uses no butter or eggs, something of a culinary miracle.
Before we proceed much further, we should consider Raymond Sokolov's newly revised and reprinted How to Cook (Quill, an imprint of HarperCollins). His easy, informative, and often witty style of writing makes him an excellent cooking teacher. Here he guides the student through a variety of dishes that comprise the heart of American cuisine -- all are designed to teach basic cooking skills. Whether cooking for one, for two, for a crowd, or making dishes that require no cooking at all, this is a book that may be enjoyed and learned from by even those who already know how to cook.
Once you've learned to cook, you will want to start cooking the world's greatest dishes. You can with Anya Von Bremzen's The Greatest Dishes: Around the World in 80 Recipes (HarperCollins). The well-traveled author has collected and adapted a compendium of recipes from apple pie to wiener schnitzel that includes ones from both the Old World and the New. She includes many American favorites like fried chicken and macaroni and cheese, as well as Asian dishes like Korean barbecued short ribs and Vietnamese pho.
Of all the single-subject books that are published, Fred Thompson's Crazy for Crab (Harvard Common Press) seems the most well-suited to the format. Obviously, Thompson loves his subject matter and delves into the various types of crab -- fresh and canned -- that are available; divulges details on how to best choose, clean, crack, and cook each variety; and finally, gives over 100 recipes for soups, salads, appetizers, and entrees, just about every crab recipe you'll ever need. Keep a pile of these in the fresh seafood department.
Jews and non-Jews alike will find interesting reading in The Essential Book of Jewish Festival Cooking (HarperCollins) by sisters Phyllis and Miriyam Glazer. Featuring 200 seasonal holiday recipes, the book also offers detailed explanations of the Jewish year's various holidays, as well as insights into the rituals, folklore, and history surrounding the great Jewish festivals.
The thirst for foods from Southeast Asia continues unabated and two new cookbooks have arrived from Periplus Editions to do the cuisines justice. The first, Vietnamese Home Cooking by Robert Carmack, Didier Corlou, and Nguyen Thanh Van, is a stylish, beautifully photographed book that gives detailed information on the ingredients of Indochina, step-by-step instructions for preparing rice noodles, cellophane noodles, fresh and fried spring rolls, and a wonderful collection of quick and easy recipes to make at home. The second, Green Mangoes and Lemon Grass by Wendy Hutton, looks at the entire region of Southeast Asia, or as the subtitle says, from Bangkok to Bali. Also gloriously photographed by Masano Kawana, the book offers more than 100 recipes for one of the most beautiful, healthful, and delicious cuisines on Earth. A must for any serious aficionado of this part of the world.
For dessert, we present one of the most curious and charming books to emerge in the past year, Chocolate French: Recipes, Language, and Directions to Francais au Chocolat (TCB-Cafe Publishing). It goes well beyond just the scrumptious recipes (provided by some of the greatest chocolatiers and pastry chefs in the world) and invites the reader into the singular relationship the French have to what is likely the western world's favorite dessert ingredient. The book is very informative; lively; at times, funny; and full of interesting bites of chocolate lore and fancy. A great read for anyone in the business of selling chocolate. As Brillat-Savarin wrote, "Happy chocolate, who after having crossed the world, across the smiles of women, finds death in the delicious melting kiss of their mouths."
As a kind of postscript, I want to recommend The Food Lover's Guide to Florence (Ten Speed Press) by Emily Wise Miller. Not a cookbook at all, but instead a spirited guidebook to the pleasures to be consumed in one of the great eating cities in the entire world. Fortunately, the book extends beyond the actual city of Florence (or Firenze in Italian) to include culinary excursions into the Tuscan countryside. Intrepid and armchair travelers alike will relish this book for years to come.


Other Notable Cookbooks
The Cakebread Cellars Napa Valley Cookbook by Dolores and Jack Cakebread (Ten Speed Press)
Around the Table by Ellen Wright (Harvard Common Press)
The Da Fiore Cookbook by Damiano Martin (William Morrow)
American Pie by Peter Reinhart (Ten Speed Press)
Bobby Flay?s Boy Gets Grill (Scribner)
Pressure Perfect by Lorna Sass (William Morrow)
Biscuit Bliss by James Villas (Harvard Common Press)
Paul Kirk?s Championship Barbecue (Harvard Common Press)