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Next to eating, there's probably nothing more satisfying than reading about food. While most of you hard-core foodies will happily while away the summer reading hours by leafing through cookbooks, even you need a little variety--a good yarn, a sense of humor, or a keen insight--to spice things up. Here are six books for a delicious summertime read. --Sumi Hahn Almquist, Cooking, Food & Wine editor
"Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly"
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"The Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America"
by Michael Ruhlman
Journalist Michael Ruhlman talked his way into the CIA, the Culinary Institute
of America, the Harvard of cooking schools. It had something to do with potatoes
a great-uncle had eaten decades earlier, how the man could remember them so well
for so long. Ruhlman wanted to learn how to cook potatoes like that--like an
art--and the CIA seemed to be the place to go. Readers get to go along for the
ride without having to endure the trauma of cooking school.
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"The Cook and the Gardener: A Year of Recipes and Writings from the French Countryside"
by Amanda Hesser
From the opening lines of its introduction, Amanda Hesser's literary gifts are
as evident as her passion for good food. "The Cook and the Gardener" combines
recipes with essays about Monsieur Milbert, the gardener at the Chateau du Fey
in Burgundy, where Hesser worked as the cook. Crusty, surly, and tradition-bound, he is the quintessential French peasant. Hesser, who knows he is an
almost-vanished breed, woos him and learns much from this man who has lived
principally off the land for 60 years.
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"Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen"
by Laurie Colwin
This little gem is part cookbook, part essay collection, part autobiographical
portrait of a writer who truly loves good food. Colwin, who wrote for Gourmet
magazine, among others, writes simply and honestly about meals she enjoyed (and
didn't) and shares recipes she finds irresistible. Her voice is that of the
quintessential food lover--warm, approachable, and friendly--and never that of
the food snob. This one is a must-have classic.
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"The Man Who Ate Everything"
by Jeffrey Steingarten
Vogue restaurant critic and Slate columnist Jeffrey Steingarten is cranky,
clever, and an absolute cutup. This collection of essays starts with his career
makeover from Manhattan lawyer to restaurant critic and then takes the reader
along on his epicurean escapades all over the world. Whether he is taste testing
bottled water, choosing the best fast-food fries, or getting rid of his food
aversions for professional reasons, Steingarten is never less than a brilliant,
inventive wit.
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"How to Cook a Wolf"
by M.F.K. Fisher
Written during the wartime shortages of the 1940s, "How to Cook a Wolf" is
ostensibly about cooking in diminished circumstances--and to that end shares
more than 70 economical recipes, such as the fascinating Prune Roast. But
Fisher, in her inimitable style, goes beyond a standard cookbook, offering
spicy, witty cultural commentary as well as insights about living well. Read
this classic and understand why she remains the benchmark to which all other
food writers must be compared.
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