What a year for cookbooks!
I struggled to whittle my favorites down to a list of just five books. My Best
of 2013 contains both eagerly awaited offerings and serendipitous discoveries.
In alphabetical order, I offer up my choices for the top five cookbooks of the
year.
I Love New York: Ingredients and recipes by David Humm and Will Guidara. Ten Speed Press.
Ivan Ramen: Love, obsession, and recipes from
Toyko’s most unlikely noodle joint
by Ivan Orkin. Ten Speed Press.
Pizza: Seasonal recipes from Rome’s legendary
Pizzarium by Gabriele Bonci with
Elisia Menduni; translated by Natalie Danford. Rizzoli International
Publications.
Roberta’s Cookbook by Carlo Mirarchi, Brandon Hoy, Chris Parachini
and Katherine Wheelock. Clarkson Potter/Publications.
Sauces & Shapes: Pasta the Italian way by Oretta Zanini De Vita and Maureen B. Fant. W.W.
Norton & Company, Inc.
So, why did I pick these
books?
In I Love New York, Humm and Guidara explore the idea of a regional New
York cuisine by showcasing the state’s farmers, fishermen, ranchers and craft
food purveyors. The authors organize their book alphabetically by ingredient
with each foodstuff section featuring a different New York State food artisan
and dishes built around the ingredient. Fabulous recipes beautifully presented
make this outstanding book from the chef and general manager of Eleven Madison
Park one of the best cookbooks of recent memory.
For years I searched for a
decent ramen recipe, especially information—any information—on making fresh ramen
noodles. Nothing! Then came David
Chang’s Momofuku [2009], the first cookbook
I found that seriously explores the different components that make up a great bowl
of ramen. Now we have a worthy ramen-centric successor to Momofuku, Orkin’s Ivan Ramen.
Talk about an amazing (and, as the book’s subtitle states, unlikely) story:
New York-born kid travels to Japan and, long story short, opens up a wildly
successful ramen shop by applying his stateside-taught culinary skills to his
beloved Japanese noodle soup. And talk about generous! I now quote from page 96
of Ivan Ramen: “So this book includes
the entire recipe for Ivan Ramen shio ramen, exactly as it’s made at the shop
in Rokakoen.” What a rarity: a ramen chef that shares his techniques and secrets
with all! But perhaps the best part of Ivan
Ramen lies in Orkin’s story of loss and purpose. Orkin has penned a great read,
whether you love noodles or not.
What Ivan Ramen is to shio ramen, Pizza
by Gabriele Bonci is to Roman-style pizza. Here’s another example of a successful,
micro-focused chef sharing his beloved craft. Bonci classically trained as an Italian
chef, but decided to apply his cooking skills to his passion, baking. Bonci
makes Roman-style pizzas—think long, rectangular pies—that he slices up and
sells out of his tiny pizzeria in Rome. Although Neapolitan-style pizza needs a
very hot oven temperature that is difficult to approximate at home, Bonci’s
Roman-style pizza works great in a home oven set to 475°F. If you
buy Bonci’s book, make sure you watch Elizabeth Minchilli’s YouTube video
entitled Pizza Dough with Bonci – January 20, 2011 Rome (here). This
video makes the process of shaping Roman-style pizza clear and easy.
And speaking of pizza, the
folks behind Roberta’s in Brooklyn wanted to open a small pizza place, but they
had almost zero money and the same amount of restaurant experience. How can you
not love a book that contains the following sentence: “We arrived in the
northern Italian town of Fossano early on a summer afternoon, a journey we’d
made because we were about to open a pizzeria and—small detail—we’d never
actually made pizza before.” All’s well that ends well: Roberta’s the
restaurant succeeded beyond their wildest dreams and now we have the playful Roberta’s Cookbook. The book covers more
than just pizza; you’ll find an array of simple recipes—most feel Italian in
spirit—that focus on dishes that contain only a few carefully chosen
ingredients. Highly recommended.
Last, and by no means
least, I encourage everyone to buy Oretta Zanini De Vita and Maureen B. Fant’s
outstanding Sauces & Shapes: Pasta
the Italian way. I wrote about this cookbook last month (here). Sauces & Shapes was my most eagerly
anticipated 2013 cookbook, and it lived up to my high expectations. It gets my
vote as the best Italian cookbook of the year.
Here’s hoping that 2014
turns out as many excellent cookbooks as 2013!