StarChefs COOKBOOK
Wish List
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By
Miriam Marcus
This year’s selection of cookbooks includes a wide-ranging
scope of international cuisines. These new must-haves are full of
culture, history and artisanship, guaranteed to inspire both the
professional and the ambitious home cook.
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| 1 |
Tapas:
A Taste of Spain in America
José Andrés
(Clarkson Potter, 2005)
James Beard Award winner and Bon Appetit’s Chef of the Year,
José Andrés has finally released his first cookbook
in over 20 years, completing his personal search for the soul of Spanish
cooking. Fusing his native cuisine with his years in America, Andrés
stresses that enjoying tapas—Spain’s gift to American
dining—is all about the social aspects of a shared dining experience
as much as it is about the food being served. |
| 2 |
Washoku:
Recipes from the Japanese Kitchen
Elizabeth Andoh
(Ten Speed Press, 2005)
 For
35 years Elizabeth Andoh has been the American authority
on Japanese cuisine. In this cookbook, the cultural and culinary history
of Japan is deeply unearthed. Andoh reveals the delicate balance between
the five principles of Washoku—the harmony of food—taste,
technique, presentation, nutrition, and a well-rounded sensory experience.
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| 3 |
La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange:
The Original Companion for French Home Cooking
Madame
Evelyn Saint-Ange, Translated by Paul Aratow (Ten Speed Press,
2005)
A staple for all professional cooks, La Bonne Cuisine has finally
been translated into English. It is the ultimate kitchen compendium
with 1,300 classic French recipes that master chefs have relied on
for the past 80 years. Decidedly detailed and informative, with meticulous
explanations of time-honored techniques, no haute kitchen is complete
without it. |
| 4 |
Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing
Michael
Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn (W. W. Norton & Company, 2005)
 Charcuterie
expert Brian Polcyn and James Beard Award-winning food writer Michael
Ruhlman explore both traditional and contemporary variations of serving
preserved and prepared-ahead meats, poultry and produce. From the
French term meaning “cooked meat,” charcuterie is one
of the most long-standing techniques of cooking, and is enjoying somewhat
of a renaissance in American cuisine today. |
| 5 |
Don't Try This at Home:
Culinary Catastrophes from the World's Greatest Cooks and Chefs
Kimberly Witherspoon and Andrew Friedman (Bloomsbury,
2005)
Literary agent Kimberly Witherspoon and food writer Andrew Friedman
have assembled a compilation of top chefs’ worst kitchen nightmares,
along with some of their previously unprinted recipes. Each tale ruthlessly
recounts true stories of young chefs, employee turnovers, chefs on
the road, and the often-bizarre relationships that so frequently develop
in restaurants. |
| 6 |
Sunday Suppers at Lucques:
Seasonal Recipes from Market to Table
Suzanne Goin
and Teri Gelber (Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 2005)
California’s top chef Suzanne Goin offers pure yet creative
3-course seasonal menus in her Sunday Suppers at Lucques. In this
cookbook, Goin relives treasured family mealtimes from her childhood
while underscoring the use of high quality organic produce from local
sustainable farms. |
| 7 |
Indian Home Cooking:
A Fresh Introduction to Indian Food, with More Than 150 Recipes
Suvir Saran and Stephanie Lyness (Clarkson Potter,
2004)
 Food
is the cornerstone of Indian spiritual life, and Indian hospitality
even dictates that inviting guests into one’s home invites godliness.
Chef and teacher Suvir Saran is straightforward and practical in his
presentation of the vast array of regional Indian cuisines, fusing
them with some American ingredients and a realistic approach to bringing
these exotic flavors and colorful recipes home. |
| 8 |
Niman Ranch Cookbook:
From Farm to Table with America's Finest Meat
Bill
Niman and Janet Fletcher (Ten Speed Press, 2005)
“Left
Coaster” Bill Niman’s progressively humane meat ranch
is the pinnacle of modern sustainable farming. In this cookbook, food
writer Janet Fletcher documents the mutually beneficial relationship
that Niman shares with some of his favorite American chefs. Niman’s
conscientious product, despite being a branded name, is finally catching
on in kitchens across the country after more than 30 years. |
| 9 |
Hungry Planet: What the World Eats
Peter Menzel and
Faith D’Aluisio
(Material World Books and Ten Speed Press, 2005)
Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio invited themselves into the
homes of 30 families across 24 nations to uncover the cross-cultural
assimilation of food consumption around the globe. Brilliantly revealing
photographs serve as a gastronomic illustration with as varied a compilation
of recipes as the fields, markets and kitchens from which they originate.
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| 10 |
Boulevard: The Cookbook
Nancy Oakes and Pamela Mazzola
(Ten Speed Press, 2005)
Boulevard’s co-chefs Nancy Oakes and Pamela Mazzola have carried
on a 17-year-long, near-telepathic friendship—their self-defined
most valuable asset. This relationship has led to the development
of one of San Francisco’s most popular dining destinations.
The 75 renowned main dishes featured in Boulevard’s cookbook
are presented in their authentic style. As demanded by Boulevard devotees,
each entrée for which the famed eatery is legendary is paired
with Oakes’ and Mazzola’s celebrated sides. |
| 11 |
The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine
Rudolph
Chelminski (Gotham Books, 2005)
With the recent launch of New York’s own Michelin Guide, this
biography of famed chef Bernard Loiseau and his untimely death are
particularly relevant this season. Loiseau’s longtime friend,
journalist Rudolph Chelminski, narrates the story behind the chef’s
rise to fame and how the rumor that he might lose a precious Michelin
star drove him to suicide at age 52. |
| 12 |
Hidden Kitchens:
Stories, Recipes, and More from NPR’s The Kitchen Sisters
Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson (Rodale, 2005)
Documentarians Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson unearth the roots of American
cooking across the country through long lost, out-of-the-way, concealed
(and in many cases vanishing) kitchens. Silva and Nelson outline the
history, recipes, rituals and visionaries that have kept these cookeries,
hidden mostly by location and time, cooking for as long as they have. |
