Brave new world of cookbooks!

Oh, the joys of holiday cooking! There was a time when searching for a holiday recipe at home was a casual affair, casual only because there was usually just one cookbook in the house to choose from. That sole title was the family standard, the all-in-one kitchen bible that set the tone for our food tastes and helped build family traditions for both holiday and weekday meals alike. In those days that lone, cherished cookbook tended to be passed down from generation to generation, marked up, and liberally stained from years of use in the kitchen. The key component to that hallowed tome was trust, and that trust was based on the number of recipes made, eaten and enjoyed out of it by our families over the years.

There is no reason why anyone would want to have just one cookbook to choose from anymore. Depending on your food tastes and level of expertise, there are quite a few places where you can now go to find inspiration that’ll get you excited about being in the kitchen again. The internet, of course, is a gourmet’s paradise, teaming with specialty food and cooking sites, but it’s the brave new world of cookbook publishing that’s made being a casual cook so exciting these days.

Gone are the days when it was difficult to track down authentic regional or ethnic food recipes. Gone, too, are those “old fashioned” cookbooks packed solid from front to back with text. Colorful photographs and graphical playfulness rule the cookbook aisles these days, supporting an array of titles packed with outrageously authoritative, tasty, tested recipes from around the world.

So, need some mealtime inspiration but don’t know where to start? The Kitsap Regional Library is here to help. Our cookbook collection is burgeoning with hundreds of titles, from the most basic and practical, such as The Joy of Cooking and Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book to inspired vegetarian classics such as The New Laurel's Kitchen to solid upscale fare such as The Gourmet Cookbook. These practical titles have been around for years, have gone through multiple printings and revisions, and have helped many a home cook through many a kitchen trial. Have a hankering for something "homemade" and straight out of your past? Check out one of those titles and you're bound to find some old family favorites or regional standards you’ve always wanted to try.

There are a number of reasons for the blossoming of the cookbook industry: easy access to once rare ingredients, in-home gourmet kitchens, inexpensive travel, cooking shows, celebrity chefs and a proliferation of ethnic restaurants. The Food Network, Martha Stewart and magazines such as Sunset, Cooking Light and Bon Appetit have also contributed to the boom and we are all happier because of it.

Nigel Slater's The Kitchen Diaries and Donna Hay's Instant Entertaining are examples of today’s colorful and imaginative trend of cookbook publishing. Both authors are well known for their conversational writing, their food prep simplicity, but also for their immimicable style, love of presentation and keen knowledge of food. Both Donna and Nigel's cookbooks are breezy, casual and filled with recipes that are easy to make yet represent the wholesomeness and freshness of many of the world's great cuisines.

Looking for something a bit more specialized? Need a good barbecue book to test out that new grill? Take a look at Peace, Love and Barbeque by Mike Mills. Need a solid primer for vegetable cooking, one that will introduce some new tastes and flavors into your life but cut out the guesswork? Give The Best Vegetable Recipes by the Editors of Cooking Illustrated a try. Maybe you’re looking for some connoisseur quality bread recipes that will yield you artisan style loaves. Then Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery is the book for you.
Maybe a bit of ethnic cuisine is what your holiday cooking repertoire needs to spice it up. For a homespun touch of Europe seek out titles by Lidia M. Bastianich, such as Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen for sound recipe advice, or for a tour of French food that won’t intimidate give Ina Garten’s Barefoot in Paris a whirl.

If true Mexican regional cooking done with an artistic flair is what you are after, then look up Fonda San Miguel for some interesting south of the border excitement done Santa Fe style. Lastly, if what you are after is the latest in "fusion" food, then look no further than Babette de Rozieres' Creole. The delightful photos and book design are flashy in and of themselves, but it’s the incredible Caribbean recipes that make this book a “must see”.

The holidays are here, and it’s time to experience new dishes and enjoy old family favorites. Stop by your local branch library and take a peek into some of those old cookbooks from out of your past. Then, if you dare, take the culinary high road and start some new traditions by picking up some fresh, invigorating ideas from a new cookbook today. You, your family and your friends will be happy that you did.

Rombauer, Irma von Starkloff: Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary, Scribner, 2006
Robertson, Laurel: The New Laurel's Kitchen: a Handbook for Vegetarian Cookery and Nutrition: Ten Speed Press, 1986.
Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book, 2005
Reichl, Ruth: The Gourmet Cookbook, Houghton Mifflin, 2004.
Hay, Donna: Instant Entertaining, Ecco, 2006
Slater, Nigel: The Kitchen Diaries, Gotham Books, 2006
Silverton, Nancy: Nancy Silverton's Breads from the La Brea Bakery,Villard, 1996

Garten, Ina: Barefoot in Paris: Easy French Food You Can Really Make at Home, Clarkston Potter, 2004.
Gilliland, Tom and Ravago, Miguel: Fonda San Miguel: Thirty Years of Food and Art, Shearer Publishing, 2005
Editors of Cook's Illustrated: The Best Vegetable Recipes, America's Test Kitchen, 2007
Mills, Mike: Peace, Love and Barbeque: Recipes, Secrets, Tall Tales and Outright Lies from the Legends of Barbeque, Rodale, 2005
de Roziere, Babette: Creole: The Original Fusion cuisine-from the culinary hertiage of the Caribbean, blending Asian, African, Indian and European traditions, Phaidon Press, 2007
Bastianich, Lidia Matticchio: Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen, Alfred A. Knopf, 2001

Cooks Talk!