This is the final gift guide for this year. Prior
posts covered the Forty Best Cookbooks of 2016, cookbook
suggestions for art and music lovers, cookbooks for entertainers and cookbooks for bakers. I hope these guides were
helpful for your shopping or your collection endeavors.
A few final reminders: be sure to enter all our giveaways; this
post has been updated highlighting all the open
contests with links for your convenience. There are many giveaways
planned for the next few months. Remember as you do your
holiday shopping using the Buy Book button
(for any Amazon purchase) helps support our indexing
efforts. Lastly, our life time membership contest is open for
anyone who buys a gift certificate to Eat Your Books.
Today's guide shares suggestions for various levels of cooks -
from beginner, experienced to the more advanced - including a few
offerings for dinner dilemmas.
Mad Genius Tips: Over 90 Expert
Hacks and 100 Delicious Recipes by Justin Chapple and
Editors of Food & Wine shares creative uses for some of our
faithful kitchen tools. Justin is the Food & Wine's
test-kitchen expert whose job is to unlock genius hacks such as
using a baking rack to weave bacon or skin hazelnuts. For each hack
there is a recipe or recipes to accompany it. This is the perfect
gift for the cooks in your life - especially those that are new to
cooking, college students and those setting out on their own for
the first time. Everyone needs to know how to weave bacon
right?
Ruhlman's Twenty: 20 Techniques,
100 Recipes, A Cook's Manifesto: The Ideas and Techniques That Will
Make You a Better Cook by Michael Ruhlman reveals how a cook's
success boils down to the same twenty concepts. Ruhlman illuminates
the hows and whys of each concept and reinforces those discoveries
through 100 recipes for everything from soups to desserts, all
detailed in over 300 photographs. Cooks of all levels will
appreciate this title. Another Ruhlman title,
Ratio The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of
Everyday Cooking, dives into the truth of cooking: basic
preparations that teach us how the fundamental ingredients of the
kitchen work. For example, biscuit dough is 3:1:2 or 3 parts flour,
1 part fat, and 2 parts liquid. This ratio is the beginning of many
variations, and because the biscuit takes sweet and savory flavors
with equal grace, you can top it with whipped cream and
strawberries or sausage gravy. One can't go wrong with a
Ruhlman
title.
Twelve
Recipes by Cal Peternell, is a New York Times' best seller
and IACP award winner. Peternell wrote this cookbook for his son
who was going off to college and it is has become a classic. In
this title we are provided the basic techniques and recipes needed
for cooks of every level to gain ease and confidence in the
kitchen. Twelve Recipes is a truly beautiful
book that flows like a great novel with photographs that reflect
the true comfort that the author's food delivers - it is a must
have in anyone's collection. I am particularly taken with one of
first photographs in the book - a shot of the chef's cookbook
collection.

Food52 Genius Recipes: 100 Recipes That Will Change
the Way You Cookby Kristen Miglore delivers 100 recipes that
will change the way you cook all in one volume. This collection of
recipes are from knowledgeable chefs and famous restaurants
including raised waffles from Marion Cunningham, Touch-of-Grace
Biscuits from Shirley Corriher, Pasta with Yogurt & Caramelized
Onions from Diane Kochilas, Black Pepper Tofu from Yotam
Otttolenghi, and Fried Asparagus with Miso Dressing from Nobu
Matsuhisa.
Food52 cookbooks, as I have stated before,
are favorites in my collection. The
Food52 A
New Way to Dinner is the newest release which simplifies
dinner planning with incredible recipes. You can read more about
this title on my
review and recipe post.
It's All in the Timing: Plan,
Cook, and Serve Great Meals with Confidence by Gail Monaghan is
the ultimate guide to preparing multicourse meals and serving each
dish at exactly the right time. Monaghan, an acclaimed food writer
and cooking teacher, shares tips, stories and recipes that are
guaranteed to work. Chapters are organized as follows: Dinner in a
Flash; Class Favorites, Entertaining by the Light of Day; Dinner
for 8; Holidays; and Assets (make ahead recipes, condiments and
marinades). Caramelized Onion and Goat Cheese Crostata, Sweet 'n'
Hot Malaysian Chicken and Raspberry-Nectarine Streusel Tart with
Vanilla Ice Cream are examples of a few of the tempting recipes in
this title.
The Food Lab: Better Home
Cooking Through Science by J. Kenji López-Alt is the must have
book for every kitchen, for every level of cook. The Managing
Culinary Director of the
Serious Eats website (which recipes are
indexed for our members) has delivered a comprehensive 950-page
guide devoted to the art and science of food preparation. There are
over 1,000 color photographs, including many step-by-step photos to
help explain technique. The book covers knife skills, foundation
recipes, and almost every culinary topic imaginable. López-Alt's
recipes always work.
Cooking School: Mastering
Classic and Modern French Cuisine by Alain Ducasse delivers 190
classic and modern recipes that include regional French cuisine,
everyday family meals, patisserie, confections and so much more.
The nearly 600 page book contains thousands of step-by-step process
photos and tips from chefs that will expand your knowledge and
skill in the kitchen. Beautiful photographs are plentiful
throughout the title and recipes that range from Brownies to a
stunning Raspberry Charlotte. For the serious cook that wishes to
level up, this is the book for them.
École Ritz Escoffier, Paris: 100
Step-by-Step Recipes from the Ritz Paris Culinary School
includes 100 recipes for meat, fish, vegetables, foie gras, pasta
and rice, international dishes, hors d'oeuvres, and desserts. Each
recipe is illustrated and includes clear explanations and a
step-by-step guide. An homage to the prestigious school, which is
still in its original home at the Ritz Hotel on the Place Vendôme,
Paris, this beautiful book is more than a reference; it offers the
savoir-faire and secrets of a gourmet chef who has inspired cooks
for more than 150 years. This book is another title for the serious
cook.
Institut Paul Bocuse
Gastronomique: The definitive step-by-step guide to culinary
excellence by Institut Paul Bocuse is perfect for
professional chefs in training and aspiring amateurs. This is a
comprehensive step-by-step manual covering all aspects of
preparing, cooking and serving delicious, high-end food. First the
book sets forth 250 core techniques in photographs then those
techniques are put into practice in 70 classic and contemporary
recipes. Over 1,800 photographs fill this essential guide for any
serious cook who wants to tighten their game.
Ingredient: Unveiling the
Essential Elements of Food by Ali Bouzari is a reference
book highlighting each of the fundamental building blocks of
food are fully explored to allow cooks a way to visualize and
respond to what's really happening in the pan. An ingredient is a
tomato, a tortilla, or some tarragon. An Ingredient (with a capital
"I") is a recurring theme (or fundamental building block) that
works behind the scenes in everything we cook. This is not a
cookbook but a book that every cook should read. More information
on Ingredient can be found in our article
and we currently have a contest open for a chance to win a copy of
this title.
The Spice Companion: A Guide to
the World of Spices by Lior Lev Sercarz is a stunning
title with hundreds of fresh ideas and tips for using pantry
spices, 102 never-before-published recipes for spice blends,
gorgeous photography, and botanical illustrations. Lior Lev
Sercarz founded his New York City spice
shop in 2006 and has become the go-to source for fresh and
unusual spices as well as small-batch custom blends for renowned
chefs around the world. Understanding spices and how they
complement ingredients and each other is an important component in
a cook's arsenal. This beautiful book is a wonderful place to
expand our knowledge of spices to add flavor and vibrancy to our
meals.