‘Tis the season to share my Best Of list for this year’s cookbooks. I wanted to publish this list back in November, but one sluggardly publisher kept pushing back its release of a sure-to-contend cookbook. But now, with this excellent book finally released, I offer up, in alphabetical order, my choices for the top five cookbooks of the year.
Bar Tartine: Techniques & Recipes by Nicolaus Balla and Cortney Burns. Chronicle
Books.
A Boat, a Whale & a Walrus: Menus and Stories by Renee Erickson with Jess Thomson. Sasquatch
Books.
Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding: Sweet and Savoury
Recipes from Britain’s Best Baker
by Justin Gellatly. Fig Tree, an imprint of Penguin Books.
Heritage
by Sean Brock. Artisan, a division of Workman Publishing Company.
The Pizza Bible: The World's Favorite Pizza
Styles, from Neapolitan, Deep-Dish, Wood-Fired, Sicilian, Calzones and Focaccia
to New York, New Haven, Detroit, and More by Tony Gemignani with Susie Heller and Steve Siegelman. Ten Speed
Press.
So why, you ask, did I
pick these books? I’ll tell you why.
As its title suggests, Bar Tartine: Techniques & Recipes
divides its content into two main parts: how to make ingredients like dried
powders, cheeses, vinegars, pickles, pastes and stocks (Part One of the book),
and how to employ these ingredients in (mostly) simple recipes (Part Two). The
techniques used to make the ingredients include drying, fermenting, sprouting
& soaking, and preserving. In the Recipes section, the salads really stand out
as outstanding. Here’s a partial list: Chicory Salad with Anchovy Dressing;
Wedge Salad with Buttermilk, Barley and Sprouts; Kale Salad with Rye Bread,
Seeds and Yogurt; Tomato & Pickled Green Bean Salad with Whipped Feta; Beet
and Blue Cheese Salad; and Cauliflower Salad with Yogurt & Chickpeas. Bar Tartine will appeal to an audience that
wants to make ingredients from scratch and that enjoys straightforward,
flavorful food. Highly recommended.
A Boat, a Whale & a Walrus offers sophisticated yet simple and comforting
dishes rooted in the Pacific Northwest, but with a French sensibility. Organized
by season, you’ll find a lot of lovely seafood recipes for oysters, mussels,
Dungeness crab, Pacific octopus, salmon, spot prawns, and scallops. I find the salad
and dessert recipes particularly tempting.
Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding highlights the ample talents of Justin Gellatly,
who spent 13 years at Fergus Henderson’s St. John’s restaurant. If you already own the Nose to Tail books and
Margot Henderson’s You’re All Invited,
you’ll note a lot of overlap among these works and Bread, Cake, Doughnut, Pudding. No matter. Gellatly has penned an
outstanding British cookbook in its own right. You’ll find recipes for Steamed
Marmalade Sponge and Whisky Custard; Apple and Rhubarb Suet Pudding; Treacle and
Walnut Tart; and Doughnuts stuffed with Carmel Custard and Salted Honeycomb
Sprinkle. Although published in the UK, this great British cookbook deserves a
large audience on this side of the Atlantic.
Sean Brock’s Heritage takes the prize for the best
cookbook of 2014. Brock includes recipes for simple dishes (Cornmeal Hoecakes;
Lowcountry Hoppin’ John; Fried Chicken and Gravy) and for fancy chef fare (Grilled
Lamb Hearts with Butter Bean Puree, Vadouvan, and Corn and Sweet Potato Leaves;
Crispy Sweetbreads with Spicy Red Pepper Glaze, Egg, Broccoli, and Puffed Rice).
Really! This book should sate both home cooks and the food professionals. Brock
clearly loves the Southern table and garden. Heritage celebrates the traditional and the new with a focus on the
ingredients of the region. And you get Brock’s recipe for Pimento Cheese! What
a great cookbook!
In 2007, Tony Gemignani traveled
to Naples, Italy and became the first American to win the World Pizza Cup in
the Neapolitan pizza category. His
San Francisco restaurant, Tony’s Pizza Nepoletana, ranks among the best pizza
venues in the United States. The Pizza
Bible takes Gemignani’s great pizza-making talent, knowledge and experience
and packs them into a 300-plus-page book. He’s a great and generous teacher and
I cannot imagine a better manual for anyone interested in making different
styles of pizza.
So, will 2015’s cookbooks
offer us the same riches as 2014’s? Let’s hope so. Happy New Year everybody!