Word Salads with a Grain of Salt
The cookbook special from some of the chefs of my family
Cooking and family gatherings go hand in hand. Whether it’s Thanksgiving or Passover, our holidays are known for lots of cooking and many opinions about what should be made and how. Recipe lists are sent out in advance and some are even tested before they are allowed to make their debut. The food bonanza comes from a love of cooking in our daily lives, and by extension, a love of cookbooks.
Today, I’m doing something a bit different and invited some of the biggest chefs in my life to share their favorite cookbooks and recipes. I tried to solicit a range of options but some themes do emerge: there is an emphasis on vegetarian cooking (lots of Moosewood fans!), easy technique, and recipes that are tasty but not too complicated. I give my personal seal of approval to everything mentioned below.
I’ve always been an adept baker but got much better at cooking meals not involving sugar as the main ingredient after graduating college during the height of the pandemic. With some more time on my hands I first started baking more complicated things (bread, yeast-rising buns, homemade pizza dough) and graduated into daily vegetarian meals. I inherited a love of cookbooks from my mom and so as my skills developed, my collection has as well. I will leave the detailed descriptions to the guest authors below, but here is a list of a few of my favorites:
Lunch and Dinner
Smitten Kitchen Keepers - a range of recipes from breakfast to dessert, vegetarian to meat, all of which are easy and in use in my apartment at least once a week. The descriptions for each recipe alone are worth using this book.
Isa Does It - a wide range of vegan options, my particular favorite is the peanut kale curry recipe which I have recommended to and made for lots of friends. It has never gotten a negative review. I make it about once a week and its ease and flavors make it so it never gets old.
The Weekday Vegetarians - a new addition to my rotation, I haven’t tried a single recipe in this book that hasn’t been good so far.
Desserts
Dessert Person - a range of desserts with each recipe’s difficulty ranked. Anything Claire Saffitz does is delicious, and many holidays appear to have been sponsored by her given how much is made from her book.
Flour - this book is an absolute classic in my family. This was the book that I used when I was getting confident with my baking, and it includes a whole range of easy options from cookies to cake to bread. If you are in Boston, definitely go to the bakery in person!
Snacking Cakes - the recipes here are perfect for easy, delicious, one bowl cakes that I make when I am craving something sweet but don’t have a lot of time or energy to do anything complicated.
All of the cookbooks mentioned above and below have been compiled here on this list. I hope you find something tasty and let me know in the comments if you have a favorite cookbook that we missed. Bon appetite!
1. The Mechanics of Cooking
Guest Author: Donald Chen
Where Anthony Bourdain ripped the restaurant world asunder when he proclaimed to the world, “Don’t order fish on Mondays”, Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio rewires the way we think about what we believed was unachievable in the home kitchen. From crepes to pasta and consommes to hollandaise, Ruhlman distills countless recipes into their fundamentals.
Every cook in the world has their own spin on a recipe and they all claim theirs is the one to follow. There are countless blogs, books, and Instagrams dedicated to food! Try googling a recipe for flatbread and one would see recipes that include various herbs (fresh or dried), must-have extra virgin olive oil fresh from an Italian olive grove, or even over-reaching with crème fraîche and caviar. Strip all that away and simply ask, “What is a flatbread?”
The knowledge that Ruhlman imparts in Ratio is the foundation that the chefs in your favorite restaurant meticulously honed. Challenge yourself next time you’re dining out. Look at the breads, the pastas, the breakfast sausage, the quiche. Look at each food item on the table and break them down to their basic ingredients. No longer will you be the one asking, “How did they make this?” Instead, you’ll be saying, “Interesting, but how can I make this better?”
2. Everyday Cooking
Guest Author: Grace Lessner
Take my cookbook reviews with these grains of salt:
I’ve been cooking vegetarian for 30+ years. I eat fish but am not inspired about cooking it, however, my fish chowder (adapted from Joy of Cooking) is very good.
My cooking chops developed as I prepared dinner for my father and younger brother. They called ketchup gourmet sauce.
I now cook for myself and friends, and for an eight-year old and a five-year old. They are surprisingly open-minded about what they’re willing to eat, especially when they help make their food (the power of the sauce and their own seasonings!).
I really enjoy skimming and reading cookbooks, adding dated notes for particular successes or just a NO. For me, many recipes online are a gateway to a cookbook, and sometimes vice versa.
I save recipes in Paprika, a versatile and time-saving recipe app. I keep a food journal in a Word doc, to easily track what I make and for who.
I rebel when someone asks me what my favorite anything is (except color: green). Thus I was unable to choose a favorite cookbook, and offer the following top picks.
I have about 50 cookbooks; I regularly peruse about 10 of them. For dinner gatherings and special occasions, SmittenKitchen.com is usually my first stop. I find Deb Perelman’s ability to match my food interests, and to streamline and simplify recipes, reliably leads to successful servings. I visit her new Smitten Kitchen Keepers and website frequently: try Thick Molasses Spice Cookies, Angry Grandma Pizza, Spanakopita, Baked Orzo with Eggplant and Mozzarella, Brita Cake, Chocolate Cream Pie, Beesting Cake, Babka, Peanut Butter Layer Cake, Hot Chocolate Mix, Lemon Bars…)
My second regular go-to cookbook (author) is Ali Stafford of AlexandraCooks.com and Bread Toast Crumbs. I got into her easy-steps, delicious-results bread-making (Overnight Refrigerator Focaccia, pizza dough, No-Knead Oatmeal Bread) and that led me to her takes on seasonally inclined, ingredient-adaptable, not-fussy recipes like Oven Polenta, Baked Enchiladas, Peanut Noodle Salad, pie crust made in a food processor (dump the crumbly dough onto a tea towel and twist into a beggars purse to make an easily rolled out dough ball), brownies, Peach Frangipane Galette…).
Two older cookbooks by Melissa Clark (of the New York Times cooking section) that are fun to read (her intros and play-by-play!) with trust-worthy recipes: Cook This Now (Red Lentil Soup w Lemon, Cabbage-Beet-Dill Soup, Challah with orange juice and olive oil, Chocolate Bottom Banana Blondies…).
Have a good meal!
3. Vegetarian Staples
Guest Author: Lisa Lessner
They say you never forget your first love. For me, perhaps embarrassingly, I have not only never forgotten my first (Moosewood cookbook) love, but I have obsessed about it (and about vegetarian and vegan cookbooks) for the rest of my life. I was a meat-resister from birth, refusing to eat beef, chicken, or fish during an era when all mothers were under the impression that a steady meat and potatoes diet was necessary for normal childhood development. I was coerced and even bribed to eat meat every day until I left for college where I discovered one dining hall that always had a vegetarian option. Vegetarian? I didn’t even know that was a thing! Soon after, I was introduced to The Moosewood Cookbook by my forward-thinking future sisters-in-law, and I learned that I could certainly survive and thrive without meat! And then… my then-boyfriend now-husband took me on a road trip to Ithaca, New York, and I got to eat at vegetarian Mecca, The Moosewood Restaurant.
The Moosewood Restaurant was opened in 1973 as a “worker managed-worker owned” business. One of the original members of the collective was Mollie Katzen. The first Moosewood Cookbook was published in 1977, and since then more than 20 Moosewood cookbooks and Mollie Katzen cookbooks have been published. I think I own every single one of them. Each new cookbook became my new favorite. It’s hard to pick an overall favorite since each one was the best of that era. Vegetarian and vegan cooking has evolved over the past 50 years from heavy cheese and sour cream-based casseroles or weird rice and bean concoctions to healthier and more enticing dishes that appeal to meat-eaters and non-meat-eaters alike. Several of my more recent favorites include The Heart of the Plate by Mollie Katzen and Moosewood Restaurant New Classics by the Moosewood Collective. A great introduction to vegetarian cooking is Get Cooking by Mollie Katzen.
I have to admit that I have a slight obsession with vegetarian and vegan cookbooks (and baking cookbooks too). My carefully curated collection of about 110 includes old favorites like Vegetarian Classics and Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin, new favorites like Super Natural Simple by Heidi Swanson, Isa Does It and I Can Cook Vegan by Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and Vegan Vegetarian Omnivore by Anna Thomas. I also love the Complete Vegetarian Cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen, and How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman.
Being a vegetarian (with a more recent leaning toward veganism), and the quest to make foods that are appealing and taste good to me as well as my family, has led me to many recipes in these cookbooks that have become staples in my cooking routine. But often I look through my sizable cookbook collection and decide to try something new. Every once in a while there’s a dud, but more often than not, I end up with something delicious to add to the rotation.
4. Baking
Guest Author: Sara Cohen
Kristina Cho has already received many well deserved accolades for her cookbook, Mooncakes and Milk Bread, and while my review holds none of the weight of a James Beard award, take this as a sign to add her work to your collection. This incredible book dives into the world of Chinese baking and is one of the only English language books that I’ve come across on the subject. Whether you’re an experienced baker and have a regular dim sum order or are entirely new to the cuisine, this approachable book blends technique and history to enable anyone to churn out absolutely delicious buns, cakes, and dumplings. The Mother of All Milk Bread recipe is delivered as a perfect building block for everything from your basic loaf to PB&J and Miso Corn Buns. My favorite recipes so far have been some of the classics that you would find on a dim sum cart, including Crystal Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gow), Rose Siu Mai, Crispy Chinese Sausage and Cilantro Pancakes, Macau-Style Egg Tarts, and Fried Sesame Balls. Since its release in 2021 this cookbook has gotten the most use of any in my rather large collection and I haven’t gotten bored yet. I’m sure any cooking or baking enthusiast will enjoy it as much as I have too! While you’re at it give Kristina Cho a follow on Instagram (@eatchofood) as she regularly posts new recipes. Happy baking!
All of the cookbooks mentioned above have been compiled here on this list where you can peruse at your leisure.