The Cream of the Crop (The Food Section)

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December 19, 2003

The Cream of the Crop

The cookbook awards bestowed by the International Association of Culinary Professionals and the James Beard Foundation won't be announced until spring 2004, but the food media has been publishing its own lists of the best cookbooks of 2003 at a breakneck pace over the past few weeks. In an unscientific survey of the eight lists collected below, Paula Wolfert's The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen: Recipes for the Passionate Cook and Marcus Samuelsson's Aquavit: And the New Scandinavian Cuisine share the title for most frequently mentioned book on a "Best of 2003" cookbook list. Both books appeared on seven out of the eight lists.

» "Cooks' Gifts, With Shelf Life" [New York Times]
» "Cooking" [New York Times Book Review]
» "Wrap Up a Few of Our Favorites" [Washington Post]
» "A Season of Glorious, Gorgeous Substance" [Los Angeles Times]
» "Books To Get the Mouth Watering" [Philadelphia Inquirer]
» "It Was a Year of Classic Comfort" [Boston Globe]
» "Great Books for Cooks" [epicurious]
» "Best of 2003" [Leite's Culinaria]

I must admit that I do not own a single one of these books, so I am forced to recuse myself from casting my own vote. That said, I would give a nod to another frequent mention on these "best of" lists, Alice Medrich's Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate, based on her past work.

Do you have a personal recommendation for any of these acclaimed books or for others that deserve attention but did not make the list(s)?

Image: From Healy & Bigelow's New Cook Book (1890), Advertising Ephemera Collection - Database #A0160, Emergence of Advertising On-Line Project, John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library.

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Comments

None of these lists mentions my absolute favorite book of this season, Lora Zarubin's "I Am Almost Always Hungry", one of the most original and beautifully designed cookbooks I've seen in a long time. Follow this link to a review by the SF Examiner's Patricia Unterman: http://www.sfexaminer.com/templates/story.cfm?displaystory=1&storyname=121703e_unterman

Posted by: Catherine Pantsios at Dec 19, 2003 1:43:33 PM

Thanks for the tip, Catherine. The book's design and menu-based organization sounds very interesting.

The drinks from Cesar in the other book reviewed also sound great (http://tinyurl.com/2u58j). I've wanted to visit Cesar when I have been in Berkeley, but I have not made it there yet.

Posted by: Josh at Dec 22, 2003 10:08:19 AM

dunno about the books that are mentioned but i can vouce for the cookbooks used by high school students here in malaysia. good enough to make oriental dishes and great rock buns.

unfortunately, they're not in english. :p

Posted by: Wena at Dec 25, 2003 10:57:14 AM

Carolyn Jung of The San Jose Mercury News (http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/special_packages/holiday_guide/7451907.htm) lists her picks for "this year's best gift cookbooks," which include THE NEW AMERICAN CHEF: Cooking with the Best of Flavors and Techniques from Around the World by James Beard Award-winning authors Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page (www.newamericanchef.com) and AQUAVIT by Marcus Samuelsson (www.aquavit.com).

Posted by: Julia at Jan 18, 2004 12:59:07 PM

The Web site FabulousFoods.com lists the top 10 cookbooks of 2003, with selections by editor Cheri Sicard.

The top two books are "Cooking at Home with the Culinary Institute of America" and "The New American Chef: Cooking with the Best of Flavors and Techniques from Around the World" by Dornenburg and Page.

http://www.fabulousfoods.com/shop/prods/bookstore/topten2003.html

Posted by: Chris at Jan 19, 2004 9:10:14 AM

Gael Greene's list from NEW YORK MAGAZINE:

"ask gael:
Are too many cookbooks just barely enough?
Even as I deaccession my cookbook overload, I can’t resist the new. The Maccioni Family Cookbook (Stewart, Tabori & Chang) is a keeper, if only for Mama Egi’s ingenious and wonderfully moving memoir. Simple is this year’s mantra—pure, real, no fuss—and Rozanne Gold has found yet another 500 three-ingredient recipes for Cooking 1-2-3 (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), the latest collection of her popular haiku. As scandalous as it is to find canned broth in Tom Valenti’s Soups, Stews and One-Pot Meals (Scribner), I forgive him, since I do, too. And Valenti’s recipes always work. Here his mythic lamb shanks go Moroccan. Just when it seemed Madhur Jaffrey couldn’t squeeze one more thrill out of India’s cookery, she comes up with From Curries to Kebabs (Clarkson Potter), recipes from the Indian diaspora. Celebrate! (Workman), a gathering of American classics from Sheila Lukins, is reason enough to celebrate. James Peterson and I share an obsession, as is clear from The Duck Cookbook (Stewart, Tabori & Chang). Chef groupies will covet the newest pot-boiling-overs from their favorites. Even I feel a need for Douglas Rodriguez’s The Great Ceviche Book (Ten Speed) and David Bouley’s East of Paris (Ecco/Harper Collins)—I’m wild about that walnut-praline cake. And Spago’s pastry whiz, Sherry Yard, has so cleverly organized The Secrets of Baking (Houghton Mifflin) that I’m driven to making lemon-curd goodies and truffles for Christmas gifts. The New American Chef (Wiley), from my pals Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page, explores flavors and techniques in the words of the chefs themselves. And what a joy to toss out a drawerful of wrinkled clippings now that Gillian Duffy has chosen the 100 best recipes from this magazine for New York Cooks (Stewart, Tabori & Chang)."

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