The Best Essays & Narratives Cookbooks 2024

1. The Apprentice : My Life in the Kitchen (Paperback)

With sparkling wit and occasional pathos, Pepin tells the captivating story of his rise from a terrified 13-year-old toiling in an Old World French kitchen to an American culinary superstar. In this captivating memoir, the man whom Julia Child has called "the best chef in America" tells the story of his rise from a frightened apprentice in an exacting Old World kitchen to an Emmy Awardwinning superstar who taught millions of Americans how to cook and shaped the nation's tastes in the bargain. We see young Jacques as a homesick six-year-old boy in war-ravaged France, working on a farm in exchange for food, dodging bombs, and bearing witness as German soldiers capture his father, a fighter in the Resistance. Soon Jacques is caught up in the hurly-burly action of his mother's cafe, where he proves a natural. He endures a literal trial by fire and works his way up the ladder in the feudal system of France's most famous restaurant, finally becoming Charles de Gaulle's personal chef, watching the world being refashioned from the other side of the kitchen door. When he comes to America, Jacques immediately falls in with a small group of as-yet-unknown food lovers, including Craig Claiborne, James Beard, and Julia Child, whose adventures redefine American food. Through it all, Jacques proves himself to be a master of the American art of reinvention: earning a graduate degree from Columbia University, turning down a job as John F. Kennedy's chef to work at Howard Johnson's, and, after a near-fatal car accident, switching careers once again to become a charismatic leader in the revolution that changed the way Americans approached food. Included as well are approximately forty all-time favorite recipes created during the course of a career spanning nearly half a century, from his mother's utterly simple cheese souffle to his wife's pork ribs and red beans. The Apprentice is the poignant and sometimes funny tale of a boy's coming of age. Beyond that, it is the story of America's culinary awakening and the transformation of food from an afterthought to a national preoccupation."

The Apprentice (Paperback)

2. Dori Sanders' Country Cooking - Paperback

America's beloved peach farmer and celebrated novelist offers up over 100 fresh recipes and a bushel of family stories. "Full of warm-hearted reminiscences and hearty satisfying recipes." --Newsweek Here is a book as delightful to read as it is to cook from. Dori Sanders' recipes include not only new interpretations of old-time favorites such as Spoon Bread, Chicken and Dumplings, Corn Bread, and Buttermilk Biscuits, but also her "Cooking for Northerners"--original dishes such as Winter Greens Parmesan, Roasted Mild Peppers, Fresh Vegetable Stew--and, of course, great recipes for peaches. A Literary Guild and a Rodale Press Book Club selection.

• Author: Dori Sanders • ISBN:9781565123854 • Format:Paperback • Publication Date:2003-04-11

3. Southern Belly - Paperback

John T. Edge, "the Faulkner of Southern food" (the Miami Herald), reveals a South hidden in plain sight, where restaurants boast family pedigrees and serve supremely local specialties found nowhere else. From backdoor home kitchens to cinder-block cafés, he introduces you to cooks who have been standing tall by the stove since Eisenhower was in office. While revealing the stories behind their food, he shines a bright light on places that have become Southern institutions. In this fully updated and expanded edition, with recipes throughout, Edge travels from chicken shack to fish camp, from barbecue stand to pie shed. Pop this handy paperback in the glove box to take along on your next road trip. And even if you never get in the car, you'll enjoy the most savory history that the South has to offer.

• Author: John T Edge • ISBN:9781565125476 • Format:Paperback • Publication Date:2007-06-29

4. Eating Animals, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

Pre-Owned -

Eating Animals, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

5. Heart of the Home: Notes from a Vineyard Kitchen, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

Pre-Owned -

Heart of the Home: Notes from a Vineyard Kitchen, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

6. Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

Pre-Owned - In this indispensable volume of kitchen wisdom, Julia Child gives home cooks the answers to their most pressing kitchen questions. How many minutes should you cook green beans? What are the right proportions for a vinaigrette? How do you skim off fat? What is the perfect way to roast a chicken? Here Julia provides solutions for these and many other everyday cooking queries. How are you going to cook that small rib steak you brought home? You'll be guided to the quick saute as the best and fastest way. And once you've mastered that recipe, you can apply the technique to chops, chicken, or fish, following Julia's careful guidelines. Julia's Kitchen Wisdom is packed with essential information about soups, vegetables, and eggs, for baking breads and tarts, and more, making it a perfect compendium of a lifetime spent cooking.

Julia's Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

7. CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

Pre-Owned -

CookSmart: Perfect Recipes for Every Day, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

8. Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink (Modern Library Paperbacks), Pre-Owned (Paperback)

Pre-Owned - A sample of the menu: Woody Allen on dieting the Dostoevski way - Roger Angell on the art of the martini - Don DeLillo on Jell-O - Malcolm Gladwell on building a better ketchup - Jane Kramer on the writer's kitchen - Chang-rae Lee on eating sea urchin - Steve Martin on menu mores - Alice McDermott on sex and ice cream - Dorothy Parker on dinner conversation - S. J. Perelman on a hollandaise assassin - Calvin Trillin on New York's best bagel In this indispensable collection, The New Yorker dishes up a feast of delicious writing-food and drink memoirs, short stories, tell-alls, and poems, seasoned with a generous dash of cartoons. M.F.K. Fisher pays homage to cookery witches, those mysterious cooks who possess an uncanny power over food, and Adam Gopnik asks if French cuisine is done for. There is Roald Dahl's famous story Taste, in which a wine snob's palate comes in for some unwelcome scrutiny, and Julian Barnes's ingenious tale of a lifelong gourmand who goes on a very peculiar diet. Whether you're in the mood for snacking on humor pieces and cartoons or for savoring classic profiles of great chefs and great eaters, these offerings, from every age of The New Yorker's fabled eighty-year history, are sure to satisfy every taste.

Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink (Modern Library Paperbacks), Pre-Owned (Paperback)

9. A Recipe for Cooking, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

Pre-Owned - Celebrate the joys of a great day in the kitchen and a meal shared with family and friends with this follow-up to the bestselling, IACP Award-winning Twelve Recipes, featuring next level, home-cook-friendly recipes for occasions large and small.Twelve Recipes provided the basic techniques and recipes for essential home cooking. Now, A Recipe for Cooking takes home cooks to the next level. Cal Peternell gives you everything you need to cook for big get-togethers, holiday feasts, family occasions, and for a special dinner for two. He organizes the recipes by season to help cooks plan their meals from first bite to last--how a meal should start, what should be the main attraction, what should be served alongside, and how to choose the perfect finish. Illustrated with charming color photos and drawings, A Recipes for Cooking offers a range of delicious, easy-to-master fare: Savory Tart with Onions, Olive, and Anchovies; Shredded Zucchini Fritters with Basil Mayonnaise; Citrus Salad with Ginger, Cilantro, and Saffron-toasted Pistachios; Fish and Shellfish Soup; Rolled Pork Loin Roast Stuffed with Olives and Herbs; Lasagna Bolognese; Belgian Endive Gratin with Gruyere and Prosciutto; and a Blood Orange and Buttermilk Tart. Each of Cal's recipes utilizes the freshest, most delicious ingredients of each season.Here are meals to share with close family and good friends--to laugh, drink, and cook with--as well as dishes that give you some quiet time in the kitchen, slicing, seasoning, and simmering. With food to make introductions, to commemorate, to celebrate, even, on occasion, to gently instigate, A Recipe for Cooking is Cal Peternell at his wittiest, warmest, and most inspiring.

A Recipe for Cooking, Pre-Owned (Hardcover)

10. American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese World, Pre-Owned (Paperback)

Pre-Owned - From the author of Away with Words, a deeply hilarious and unexpectedly insightful deep-dive into a cultural and culinary phenomenon: cheese.Who knew it was possible to enjoy reading about cheese as much as eating it? Remarkably entertaining, deeply insightful, and downright hilarious, American Cheese goes far beyond the plastic yellow slices we all know, and some love, revealing a community as quirky, passionate, and creative as the cheese they put into the world. -- Jim Gaffigan, comedian/actor and New York Times bestselling author of Food: A Love StoryJoe Berkowitz loves cheese. Or at least he thought he did. After stumbling upon an artisinal tasting at an upscale cheese shop one Valentine's Day, he realized he'd hardly even scratched the surface. These cheeses were like nothing he had ever tasted--a visceral drug-punch that reverberated deliciousness--and they were from America. He felt like he was being let in a great cosmic secret, and instantly he was in love. This discovery inspired Joe to embark on the cheese adventure of a lifetime, spending a year exploring the subculture around cheese, from its trenches to its command centers. He dove headfirst into the world of artisan cheese; of premiere makers and mongers, cave-dwelling affineurs, dairy scientists, and restauranteurs. The journey would take him around the world, from the underground cheese caves in Paris to the mountains of Gruyere, leaving no curd unturned, all the while cultivating an appreciation for cheese and its place in society. Joe's journey from amateur to aficionado eventually comes to mirror the rise of American cheese on the world stage. As he embeds with Team USA at an international mongering competition and makes cheese in the experimental vats at the Dairy Research Center in Wisconsin, one of the makers he meets along the way gears up to make America's biggest splash ever at the World Cheese Awards. Through this odyssey of cheese, an unexpected culture of passionate cheesemakers is revealed, along with the extraordinary impact of one delicious dairy product.--Publishers Weekly

American Cheese: An Indulgent Odyssey Through the Artisan Cheese World, Pre-Owned (Paperback)