For four years running I
have shared my list of the top five cookbooks of the year. As in the past, I
struggled to winnow this year’s class down to a list of the five best, IMHO. So
without further ado, I present, in alphabetical order, my choice for the best
cookbooks of 2015.
Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in
Rome by Rachel Roddy. Saltyard
Books.
Gjelina: Cooking from Venice, California by Travis Lett. Chronicle Books.
Mamushka: Recipes from Ukraine & Beyond by Olia Hercules. Mitchell Beazley.
Pasta By Hand: A Collection of Italy’s Regional
Hand-shaped Pasta by Jenn Louis.
Chronicle Books.
This is Camino by Russell Moore and Allison Hopelain with Chris Colin. Ten Speed
Press.
So why these books?
Rachael Roddy’s Five Quarters (here) serves up an outstanding
collection of mostly Italian recipes curated by Roddy. She lives in Rome and writes
both a food blog, Rachael Eats, and
articles for London’s Guardian newspaper. Look for the North American release
of her cookbook, entitled My Kitchen in
Rome, in early 2016.
I happened upon Travis
Lett’s Gjelina while perusing the
fall cookbook offerings at my local bookstore. What a happy discovery! As I
thumbed through this book with dishes from Lett’s Venice, California restaurant,
I found myself wanting to try every recipe. Gjelina
features bold, simple dishes like Braised Spiced Romano Beans with Yogurt &
Mint; Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic, Parsley & Vinegar; Orecchiette with
Chicken Hearts, Turnip Greens, Pecorino & Black Pepper; and Squid with
Lentils & Salsa Verde. A first class cookbook!
The more time I spend with
Olia Hercules’s Mamushka, the more I
love its collection of simple, delicious dishes. The book contains mostly Ukrainian
recipes, but she also includes a good number of Armenian recipes that remind me
of dishes that I ate growing up. Hercules is a London chef, food stylist and
one of The Observer newspaper’s Rising Stars in Food. Read Mamushka and it’s easy to see why Hercules’s star is rising.
If you spend any time bunburying
around my food blog, you know that I make a lot of pasta and own a lot of books
on pasta. So, in my opinion, Jenn Louis has penned one of the essential pasta cookbooks.
Her Pasta by Hand (here) explores the
fascinating world of regional Italian handmade pasta, including some seriously
obscure shapes. If you love Oretta Zanini De Vita’s Encyclopedia of Pasta, you will absolutely want to add Pasta by Hand to your cookbook
collection.
Last, but by no means
least, comes This is Camino (here).
If forced to choose, This is Camino
gets my vote for the best cookbook of the year. Moore and Hopelain share Camino’s
approach to cooking and hospitality. Buy their book and you will get an
excellent collection of recipes to make direct, flavorful food. I really like
the book’s prose; it’s as if Moore is standing in the kitchen with you sharing
the how and why behind every recipe. If you find yourself in Oakland,
California, do yourself a favor and eat at Moore & Hopelain’s Camino
restaurant.
I want to end this year’s
survey by sharing some of the other books that I bought and considered for 2015’s
list of the best cookbooks. As I mentioned, I had a really hard time this year picking
only five books. Here are the contenders in alphabetical order:
The Beetlebung Farm Cookbook by Chris Fischer with Catherine Young.
Donabe
by Naoko Takei Moore and Kyle Connaughton.
Fika by Anna Brones &
Johanna Kindvall.
The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook by Danny Bowien and Chris Ying.
Preserving The Japanese Way by Nancy Singleton Hachisu.
Tacos
by Alex Stupak and Jordana Rothman.
I enjoyed all of these
books, especially The Beetlebung Farm
Cookbook. Check it out.