The publishing industry is on its ear, but while book sales are lagging overall, sales of cookbook titles are on the rise. We could hypothesize about the ‘whys’ all day: people are broke and cooking at home more, American food culture has gained in momentum over the past decade, people are returning to a ‘back to basics’ way of eating that involves cutting out restaurants. Whichever theory you subscribe to, the facts are the same; cookbooks are as popular as ever.

With so many cookbooks titles on the market, which are worth their salt? I know I’ve stood at my local Borders and gawked at the rows upon rows of colorful spines within the culinary section, wondering which to pull down and flip through. When faced with a selection of hundreds to choose from, overwhelm sets in and I just give up and walk away.

For me, it always ends the same way: with the sense that there are just too many damn cookbooks in the world right now.

Thankfully, we’ve got a few pros to help us separate the wheat from the ass. Small specialty shops, such as Omnivore Books in San Francisco, are filled with more cookbook titles than any single large-scale chain bookstore can possibly hold. You might think that it would be more difficult to make a selection when confronted by literally thousands of cookbooks, but here you’d be wrong. Because in a store like this, you have a pro at hand who can walk you through the vast majority of the books before you.

Today we’ve got Samantha Tackeff back again, sharing with us her favorite cookbook selections. You might remember her from Food Blogger Spotlight a few weeks ago, where I introduced her and explained that she had the best job ever – she works at the afore mentioned Omnivore Books, where she spends her days getting up close and personal with more cookbooks than you can possibly imagine.

So if you’re like me and find yourself prostrate before a throng of cookbooks, gaping wildly and drooling on yourself in confusion, you’ll appreciate Sam’s advice about which are worth your pennies and ingredients. Some of her recommendations might surprise you.

Finding Fun Cookbook Titles

You work in a store that sells only cookbooks (best job ever!!). Can you name ten books, new and old, that are must-haves for any serious cook?

(ed note: Omnivore doesn’t have an online shop, so I’m linking through Amazon.)
People come into the shop and routinely ask me what my favorite cookbook title is, to which my response would be… well, I could tell you my favorite four in each section? Even that’s difficult!

You know, this question is a tough one, mostly because there is such a huge range of what people are looking for in cookbooks – one of the best parts about working in a bookstore is getting to talk to people and figure out exactly what they might like – and it’s so incredibly satisfying when they come back and tell you all about how in love they are with their choices. Ultimately, even though there are books that are “classic” – I want people to come out with a book that they are really going to use, so my list sways a little bit on the modern side.

On my own shelves I have almost every Jamie Oliver, and generally recommend any of them, but ‘Jamie at Home’ and ‘Jamie’s Italy’ are the ones that have gotten the most use lately. Like Jamie Oliver, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall “River Cottage” books are all stellar. He writes these big encyclopedic books with clear titles like “Meat” and “Fish” and has this brilliant series of handbooks, on bread baking, preserve making, mushrooms, seafood, and vegetables. This is a guy who is so passionate about food, and reading any of his books is [dare I say it] life changing. He also has a great cookbook I recommend for families: “The River Cottage Family Cookbook”.

I also recommend Mark Bittman’s ‘How to Cook Everything’ and ‘How to Cook Everything Vegetarian’ to almost everyone who comes into the shop. He writes the New York Times column ‘The Minimalist’ and generally shares my philosophies about food. His books are slightly encyclopedic, and have master recipes with dozens of variations. They are also very well organized so you can easily look up odd ingredients in the index and flip to the page and get a myriad of ideas. Most of all, they encourage some spontenaiety in the kitchen, which makes things so much more fun!

I really love Nigel Slater – his book ‘The Kitchen Diaries’ chronicles his year in dinners – it’s great because on some days he has really detailed recipes, and on other days, he might have picked up a japanese bento box, or maybe this great peach is in season and he eats it with a wedge of cheese and a nob of good bread. I’ve read the book through several times, and love going back to it for seasonal inspiration.

I also collect every Donna Hay book, which is generally my recommendation to food bloggers – her simplicity, innovation, and beautiful food photography is so inspirational. For baking, you can’t go wrong with either Flo Braker’s ‘Baking for All Occasions’ or Dorie Greenspan’s ‘Baking: From My Home to Yours’. They both have cult followings and recipes that turn out so well.

For Vegetarian cooking, I love Deborah Madison’s ‘Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone‘, and for vegan baking: any of Isa Chandra Moscovitz’s books. My coworker routinely bakes vegan things out of her books that make me swoon. Edna Lewis’ books are the best for Southern cooking. Believe me, it pays to have some really great southern things in your repertoire.

For classic Chinese, Fucshia Dunlop has written really great books – she was the first foreigner to take classes in the Chinese National Cooking schools, and is a great writer. I’ve always used copies of Madhur Jaffrey’s books for Indian cooking, with lots of success. I’ve also been reading through Luke Nguyen’s ‘Songs of Sapa’ – he’s an Aussie chef who went to seek his roots in Vietnam. It’ll make you hungry and empowered in about 30 seconds.

Finally, every good cook should have a copy of Harold McGee’s ‘On Food and Cooking’. It’s a mix of food science and history and technique that is a great resource.

And I’d highly recommend a copy of ‘Mr. Boston’s’ or ‘The Savoy Cocktail Book’ for anyone with a desire to learn how to mix a good drink.

Wow, Sam, thanks for all of this! I know I’ll be digging through a few of these titles in the very near future.

To everyone else – remember the old adage, “don’t just a book by its cover,” no matter how gorgeous that dish on the front might look. Do a little homework before buying, and your cookbook title collection will thank you.

What are your favorite cookbooks, and why? What makes a particular cookbook stand out for you as a good egg?

The first email I received in my inbox this morning brought the worst kind of bad news: an old, dear friend had died. After almost 70 years of good taste and resolute narrative, Conde Nast has decided to close Gourmet Magazine. Apparently the publisher was forced to choose between its two heavy-hitting food magazines, with Bon Appétit coming out on top.

The word heartbroken feels too feeble to describe the very real ache in my chest. I’ve lost something that I value so much – Gourmet has been my companion when I travel to strange places, and kept me company during many dark, dismal nights alone. It has been my most optimistic visitor through numerous weeks spent in the hospital, comforting me with possibility while I confront my own mortality.

Knowing that Gourmet might be gone makes me feel very, very lonely.

And it appears I’m not the only one; Conde Nast’s decision has caused an uproar throughout the food community. The Internet is foaming at the mouth with critical blog posts, from both heartbroken readers and shocked culinarians. One such post by Jane Black, which appeared on the Washington Post website, invites readers to share their thoughts and feelings on the loss of Gourmet. Mournful comments are mounting, and it’s clear that the death of this publication is very painful for readers.

Even the Twitter community is contributing to the melee, with the term “Gourmet” topping the site’s popular Trending Topics (not an easy feat to accomplish during these days of inane Twitter voracity). Grassroots Twitter “petitions” have already begun to surge with the help of users such as food writer Amy Sherman, which prompted the creation of a “Save Gourmet” Twitter account that bereaved readers can follow to drown their sorrows. Even Ruth Reichl issued a brief statement on the site, expressing her shock and sorrow. More from Reichl can be found on the LA Times website.

What are my thoughts? Here they are, and you’ll notice that I refuse to discuss the magazine in the past tense, perhaps out of a divine sense of optimism that Conde Nast will reconsider (or else I’m stuck in stage one of the Kübler-Ross grief cycle):

While many consider Gourmet the most pretentious of food magazines, those of us who revel in the art and craft of culinary literature love the magazine for its sheer quality of the written word. We inhale Gourmet’s long, sensual narratives and covet the intimate travel pieces that feel like they’re coming to us across the fireside from a close, articulate friend. Those of the more visual ilk savor the magazine’s food photography, produced by some of the industry’s best and brightest. The cover of the most recent issue – October 2009 – features a close-up of a red wine caramel apple that looks so fresh that at first glance I considered reaching right through that cover and taking a crunchy, sticky bite.

Gourmet’s loyal readers see past the stuffy label applied by those that don’t understand the literary world of culinary culture. We see accounts of old-world grandmas, recounting kitchen memories and sharing with us their great-grandmother’s recipes. We see stories about tiny, hole-in-the-wall restaurants, run by passionate immigrants who work sixteen hour days to celebrate their sheer love of traditional cooking. We see a world we can find nowhere else, where we can learn about Swiss cheese in Nesselnbach, road food in Illinois and a one-armed home chef who struggles with braising a chicken for guests. Does this sound pretentious to you? No, it sounds electric.

As I said in my comment on Jane’s WashingtonPost article, I can’t believe that Gourmet is going away, and in bittersweet solace, we’re left with Bon Appetit. While it is a fine publication in its own right, Bon Appétit does not contribute to our culinary culture (or couture) to the degree that Gourmet does.

While Conde Nast is continuing the brand, that’s little consolation to those of us – and there are MANY – that looked to Gourmet for inspiration as well as information, and no other outlet will provide a suitable stand-in. Not the Gourmet website, not Gourmet books, and certainly not Bon Appétit.

Gourmet feeds our hearts, our bodies, and our souls. I refuse to accept that my old friend is gone, and if I have to petition God himself for a recount, just give me his home address.

What are your feelings on Gourmet’s closing?

Edit: NPR’s Diana Abu-Jaber wrote a beautiful tribute that touched me. Please click to read, “More Than Just A Magazine, ‘Gourmet’ Says Goodbye.”

Hey everyone, I’m pleased to announce that my most recent article is up on NPR.org for Kitchen Window Online – Freezer Jam: A Baby Step To Canning. Please check it out and leave a comment letting me know what you think!

I’m very excited to be a guest blogger on Monica Bhide’s blog, A Life of Spice. Check out my post about her Beef Stew with Coconut recipe, just one of my favorites from her new book, Modern Spice: Inspired Indian Flavors for the Contemporary Kitchen. Please leave a comment on the post and say hello!

Don’t forget to enter to win your own Shun Ken Onion chef’s knife, a $250 value. Contest ends at midnight Sunday, PST

So far in the kitchen knives series, we’ve talked about what cutlery is made of and which knives are the most important for home cooks to own. Today we’re continuing on about knife selection, looking at a few specialized models – including my personal favorite, the meat cleaver. >=)!

Specialized Knives & Cutlery

You might not need to go out and buy any of these babies, but they’re all fun to use!

The Santoku Knife

Santokus have become super popular lately. Originating in Japan, the word santoku means “three values,” which indicates that it’s a handy, all around good knife to have. Santokus are shorter and generally have a more rounded tip, making them lighter and easier to wield. While they’re not as versatile as a chef’s knife, santoku knives are great for performing a variety of tasks, such as chopping and slicing.

Note: those little divots on the blade’s edge, known as the “Granton edge,” are not part of the traditional design of the knife. They came much later, in the beginning of the 20th century. Many high-quality santokus don’t have them, so don’t let their presence influence your decision when shopping.

Cheese Knives

Almost everyone’s got one of these lying in a drawer somewhere, lost among the rest of their flatware. Cheese knives come in all shapes and sizes, from short, rounded blades to pointy affairs with a big piece missing out of the middle.

Crumbly cheese benefits from small cleaver-like knives that slice easily without complete annihilation. Rounded cheese knives are more for spreadable cheeses, while “skeleton knives” (with an open space in the blade) work great on cheese that is semi-firm. Skeleton knives minimize the amount of friction present when slicing, preventing your slices from stretching or distorting into a weird crumpled shape. Definitely not good eats.

Cleavers

There are two primary kinds of cleavers: one for vegetables and one for meat. What’s the difference? Vegetables cleavers are thinner than their meaty counterparts, with a narrow edge that slices through veggies with ease. Super sharp and very lightweight, these cleavers can be used similarly to a chef’s knife if you know what you’re doing.

Meat cleavers, on the other hand, are hefty, weighty weapons made with one purpose in mind: cutting through meat and bone. As gruesome as it sounds, they do this job amazingly well. Their blades are less tapered, making them extremely durable, and they can be used for chopping right through a chicken carcass or hacking away at a lamb shank. The broad spine and sides can be used for anything from crushing to pounding.

I love cleavers because, well, I’m crazy like that. I love the fact that I can cut through an entire duck in one swift whack – I’ve been known to frighten company by dismantling an entire bird in four second. Word to the wise: DO NOT GET YOUR HAND IN THE WAY OF THIS THING. If you think a cleaver makes short work of beef bones, you don’t want to see what it will do to your fingers. *shiver*

Sushi Knives (aka, the Yanagi)

Japanese sushi knives are long and narrow, easily slicing through fish without shredding the tender flesh. The goal of these knives, which range from 8″-13″, is to allow the chef to cut through fish in a single, backward stroke without having to reposition the knife. The Japanese believe that the way foods are cut have a huge bearing on how they taste, so these knives have been specially designed to maintain the integrity of sushi-quality fish.

Don’t forget to enter to win your own Shun Ken Onion chef’s knife, a $250 value.

Next in our learning about cutlery series, we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty. With such a wide selection of knives on the market, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of options. Do you have to spend $1000 on a 583-piece butcher block set? Do you really need that cleaver designed specifically for taking down a buffalo? Actually, you don’t. With a few carefully selected pieces, you’ll make short work of 90% of your kitchen tasks – and love doing it.

Which Knife Do You Need?

So, what are the most important knives to know? I’d say you need three: a paring knife, a serrated bread knife, and a chef’s knife.

Paring Knives

Let’s start small: measuring in at between two and four inches long, paring knives are short blades with a pointy tip. Despite their dinky size, these versatile pieces of cutlery are an integral part of your cooking arsenal. Paring knives are great tools for scoring, peeling, boning (get yer mind out of the gutter, you pervs), and anything else you that requires a small point with maximum control. Navigating small areas is something you’ll do frequently as a home chef, and the paring knife is made with these tasks in mind.

Serrated Bread Knives

Serrated bread knives are great for cutting anything that’s crusty on the outside and delicate on the inside. Think baguettes, bagels, and pineapples: you want something hard core enough to get through the tougher outer part while not obliterating the lovely fleshy bits. Serrated knives also make quick work of tomatoes and citrus, easily slicing through their teflon-like skin.

Chef’s Knives

A chef’s knife is your all-around workhorse. They’re made to do almost anything, excelling at chopping vegetables, slicing winter squash and cutting through chicken bones. A solid chef’s knife will should be heavy, but not to the point that you’ll get fatigued using it for a long period of time – as such, it’s super important to try them out at the store before selecting a model!

Chef’s knives can come in all sorts of sizes – 7″ to 10″ are the most popular – and their weights can range all over the map as well. Solid Wustoffs are serious, hefty blades, while Globals are lighter and easier to wield. Which you use depends completely on your height, the shape of your hand, your upper body strength, etc.

We’ll go more into selecting a specific model later. But for now, do you have a favorite knife? Which is it, and what do you use it for most?

You might check out these posts from other food bloggers:

• Choosing a Knife: Metals and Materials (wasabimon)
• Reasons for Buying a Quality Chef’s Knife (christies-corner)
• Choosing a Chef’s Knife (chilicheesefries)