As the video will show I have a flat out crush on the cooking of Marcella Hazan. Though I’m not known at all for Italian food I believe that whomever is cooking great food is someone to learn from. She was born in 1924 in the Emilia-Romagna and earned a…
Treasure Books
The books below are the books I treasure. Some are the ones that stand the ‘test of time’ in some cases or they are the books that entered my hands at the perfect time for where I was with life at that juncture. Perhaps from time to time one will be here that might be a book that would not have the same ability to impact me at this age as they did at the age I read them. I don’t think I’ll comment on them in that way for who knows how they might affect anyone who is inspired to read, (or re-read) them after glancing over my words here about them. My book club is not about the most recent books published. I trust that the New York Times or Kirkus Reviews will bring you plenty in that regard. They are, like I said, the books that I treasure. And some are relatively new to me but they have caused me to treasure already. The first here are long time treasures but as we mosey along look for recent novels, historical books, poetry books and yes … cookbooks.
Category: Treasure Books
BEYOND GUMBO; MY TREASURE BOOK SERIES
A few years ago I put together a list of my ‘Treasure Cookbooks”. That list continue to grow as those of you who watch my TikTok series on them. One never stops learning if they are seriously alive. When you have the fortune to meet one of your hero authors…
LOUISIANA KITCHEN: TREASURE BOOK SERIES
When his book ‘Louisiana Kitchen’ came out it was 1984. Back then very few books by an American chef had been written and published nationally. Alice Waters, “Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook” being one of them which arrived in 1982. The first cookbook I ever bought was ‘Theory and Practice of…
THE NATURAL CUISINE OF GEORGES BLANC
As the video will explain this is from my “Treasure Book” series. Chef Georges Blanc career is amazing to learn more about and I urge all you who are in cuisine to study up on him. Though the autograph and lovely inscription is dated from October of ’03 I received…
THE CHEZ PANISSE MENU COOKBOOK
When I was asked to write my first cookbook (a very unexpected surprise!) after all of the writing and recipe testing it came time to do what is almost always part of writing one and that is the ‘Acknowledgments and Dedication’ pages. The dedication went to my wife, Janet and…
The Foods of Vietnam, Nicole Routhier
Is it fate or luck that causes us to pick up a cookbook from a favored store or site? This book opened me up to the vast treasure of the modern cooking of Vietnam when I came across it and bought my copy. Maybe, in part it was because of…
“The Foods of Italy”, Giuliano Bugialli
I have been doing a series on my TikTok Channel, (my name is the name of the channel) where I talk and celebrate the cookbooks I consider my “Treasure Books”. My cookbook collection began with a single book of course. Like anyone’s. Over the decades it has turned into a…
My Treasure Books: “La Technique” by Jacques Pépin
Hello Friends! Over on Tik Tok I’ve begun a series that showcases my love of cookbooks. Sometimes books on food and food culture as well. Over the years beginning with a fateful single purchase I’ve assembled a library that has enriched my life and made me, in part, the chef…
“To Kill A Mockingbird”, Harper Lee
I read this book when I was a freshman in high school. It flowed with truth and beauty. It described a small town in the South… a place I’d never been. It also had the precious dynamics of an older brother and his sassy, but also sensitive little sister. A…
“Culture and Cuisine” and The Origins of ‘Fusion’
“Culture and Cuisine”, Jean-François Revel I purchased this book at a shop on Fleming Street in Key West in mid February of 1988. I was part owner of my first restaurant. It was called “MIRA”. I was also in the middle of a huge amount of culinary self analysis as…
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
by Annie Dillard “Then one day, walking along Tinker Creek, thinking of nothing at all, I saw it —- the tree with the lights in it. It was the same backyard cedar where the mourning doves roost, only charged and transfigured, etc cell buzzing with flame … It was less…
Look Homeward Angel
by Thomas Wolfe I was saved from what fate I shall never know when a woman came to live with us when I was ten years old. She was my maternal grandmother. “Nana” was what we knew her name to be. It was ordained by others in the family long…
Ninety Two in the Shade
by Thomas Mc Guane I returned to live in Key West in the very year another resident of Key West released this book. I originally arrived to the last island out of America in ’71 and fell under it’s spell. It was like falling in love with a woman. But…
Victuals: An Appalachian Journey
Excerpted from “Victuals. Say it the way my people have for centuries: vidls. Maybe you’ve seen it spelled “vittles” in a cartoon balloon coming from the mouth of Mammy Yokum. Or heard it as the punch line delivered before Granny Clampett clogs off to “roast up a mess of possum.”…