Oh, Christine....

On Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:21:38 -0800, Serene Vannoy
wrote:


Compared to a lot of folks, I am just a rank amateur. Ginny has a
ton more than I do (did you see her photos of her collection on FB?)
and Jean B's collection dwarfs mine as well. I think they each have
3-4 times what I do. ;)

Maybe I will give mine to a library when I kick the bucket. Unless
someone on RFC wants them. ;)

Christine
--
http://nightstirrings.blogspot.com
 
"Christine Dabney" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Christine, of all the cookbooks you own, how many are written by people that
actually cook seriously and in earnest? And how many do you actually use? I
think most write books first and cook second, if they do at all. I know a
cookbook author who has his name on 18 cookbooks, all about different
cuisines. All have a coauthor.

A small fraction cook as we do, trying to improve each time we make a dish.
Then they write about it. Julia does that; Marcella Hazan does that. Others
include Michael Field, Richard Olney, Rick Bayless, and on. There really
aren't many true cookbook authors.

We have a relatively small collection, about 350 cookbooks. When I want to
make something I open "The Joy of Cooking". Next it's Julia Child's "The Way
To Cook". Following that is a relatively small number, depending on the
dish, probably by 8-10 authors. The remainder of the cookbooks are a
curiosity more than a help.

Just my thoughts, I think of you every time I look at our bookcase, which
takes up a substantial fraction of our breakfast room.

Kent
 
On Sun, 6 Mar 2011 02:36:23 -0800, "Kent"
wrote:



I use most of them for ideas.
Among others, I have the whole set of the Foods of the World series
(got it by subscription as it was being issued), and almost the whole
series of the Good Cook.
I have almost all, if not all, of Julia's books, and also Jacques
Pepin, including his huge volumes, The Art of Cooking. Same with
Marcella Hazan, and Lidia Bastianich.

After collecting all these years, and collecting to use them to cook,
not just for collection purposes, I know which authors are good and
are reliably good cooks. Some of the authors I have (and these are by
no means all) are Madjur Jaffrey, Julie Sahni, Barbara Kafka, James
Beard, James Villas, Dorie Greenspan, Paul Bertoli, Alice Waters,
David Tanis, Rick Bayless, Diana Kennedy, Ina Garten, Richard Olney,
Madeline Kamman, Damon Lee Fowler, Paul Prudhomme, and a whole host of
others. Some are names that were big cooking teachers back in the
70s...but aren't well known now. I have a lot of vegetarian
cookbooks...
I can't begin to list all the books I have, or the authors. Sometimes
I would see a book, and like a few recipes in it, and get it. I
might make one or two things from that book, and it may be a not so
well known author.
One of the authors I like is Lee Bailey, as he was/is a good southern
cook, and he taught me a lot about simplicity.


When I want to fix something I start skimming through books. I may
have a concept in mind, and I go seeing what my various books have to
say. I don't use them all to cook, but I do get ideas.
I have been lucky over the years: I seem to have a good idea of what
is good, and who are good cooks/authors. They may not all be well
known, and many are traditionalists, but they helped me establish a
foundation.
The books in my collection that are more curiosity are those that have
been given to me, for the most part. I have friends who say"Oh, you
like to cook and like cookbooks: here's a cookbook I bought for you".
Well...many of the folks are noncooks or just saw the book at a
souvenir shop, or some other place, and thought I would like it. On
rare occasions, they pick a good one, but most of the time, it is not
one I would pick for myself. However, I accept it, cause the friend
meant well, and maybe some year, I can get an idea from it.

I cannot begin to remember all the authors I have. In about a week or
so, I will be back in NM, and can take pictures of the books. Maybe I
will post what I have... I am picking up a box or two of books from
my PODS in the bay area at the end of this week, and taking them back
to NM. Some of the books in those boxes are from Williams Sonoma. I
find some of their little cookbooks to have really good recipes in
them. And they have good authors writing for them.

Hope this gives you an idea of how and why I collect. Nowadays, it
has to be a book that I will use. The last book I bought was the
book by Eric Ripert: Avec Eric. I have already fixed one thing from
that, and will probably cook a lot more from it, as his recipes are
good. I won't buy a book that is mostly a coffee table book now,
unless it is an author I trust, and it is something I will use on a
regular basis.

Christine
--
http://nightstirrings.blogspot.com
 
In article ,
Christine Dabney wrote:

snipped

As another cookbook collector (>500 books and pamphlets, catalogued on a
FileMaker Pro database), I have a similar philosophy. My collection is
a working library. I have many of Julia Child's, James Beard's, Claudia
Roden's, and Craig Claiborne's cookbooks. With the exception of Alton
Brown, I do not have cookbooks by Food Network stars. My collection is
heavy on baking, vegetarian, and Asian (particularly Vietnamese)
volumes. Since we moved to Seattle 8 years ago, I've amassed several
Pacific NW/seafood books. Periodically I will cull the library of books
that don't meet my needs anymore and donate them to my church's annual
used book sale, which is where I've picked up some real prizes for a
song.

Cindy

--
C.J. Fuller

Delete the obvious to email me
 
"Christine Dabney" wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
We have cookbooks from almost all of the authors you speak of above. I think
they all fall into the "genuine cook" category I was referring to. I sure
like Julie Sahni. She's the Julia Child of Indian cooking for me. We have
the whole set of the Time-Life Foods of the World series and most all of the
Good Cook series as well and think both are excellent. One doesn't notice,
usually, that Foods of the Word was edited by the great and unfortunately
late Michael Field, and the Good Cook series was edited by Richard Olney,
another excellent author.

Kent
 
On Sun, 6 Mar 2011 14:55:28 -0800, "Kent"
wrote:


We have

I have almost all of Olney's books, and almost all of Michael Field's
books. I learned a great deal (and still do) from the Good Cook
series. It is a wonderful source on methods and techniques. Olney
was a great influence on Alice Waters and many of her compatriots, and
on many wonderful chefs of today. My copy of Simple French Food is
so worn, it has to be kept together with a rubber band now.
Oh, others I forgot to mention: Paula Wolfert's books, of which I have
all, Peter Reinhart, Patricia Wells (all of her books), Barbara Tropp,
Edna Lewis (all of her books), Nigella Lawson, Nigel Slater, Simon
Hopkinson, and I forget the rest..LOL. I have so many good books..I
can't even begin to remember all the names now, without having them in
front of me.

Oh, and lets not forget this: many of these books are great reads in
and of themselves. I love reading Nigel Slater's books, especially
Kitchen Diaries. I have some of MFK Fisher's books as well...and she
is a classic. Oh, and Elizabeth David.

Christine
--
http://nightstirrings.blogspot.com
 
Cindy Fuller wrote:

I have a lot of Asian cookbooks. I was most surprised to see that
there are several Cambodian cookbooks that I had never heard of.
I looked them up, and they run about $100 each. I suspect that
folks on the West Coast may see more Asian cookbooks than we do

I am curious about your Vietnamese cookbooks. I got one in the
70s and have gotten a few since then. I was going to say that I
have not seen any particularly esoteric books, but last year I did
get a trilingual one published in Vietnam. I also have one in
Vietnamese, which I thought I could somehow translate. Nope.
Maybe I'll do some experiments after I get moved and get my books
organized.
 
Serene Vannoy wrote:

Interesting that they recently acqauired the _Gourmet_
magazine book collection. I suppose now is the last
chance before that franchise disappears completely.
 
In article , "Jean B."
wrote:


Do you have the Elephant Walk Cookbook? I've never made a bum recipe
from it. Its hot and sour catfish soup is to die for.


I have The Classic Cuisine of Vietnam by Bach Ngo and Gloria Zimmerman,
which was published in 1979. I also have volumes by Mai Pham, Andrea
Nguyen, and Nicole Routhier. I don't have any written in Vietnamese.
You're more ambitious than I am.

Cindy

--
C.J. Fuller

Delete the obvious to email me
 
Victor Sack wrote:

No. If I had, I would have gotten it. That one looks like it is
even less affordable than the others. Unfortunately, the
unpopularity of these cuisines makes it pretty much impossible to
find such books, and if one is lucky enough to find them, they
would be extremely expensive.

--
Jean B.
 
Cindy Fuller wrote:

Ambitious? No, more like susceptible to wishful thinking. Last
night I was peering into one of my boxes or unsorted cookbooks and
saw a Vietnamese one that is in French. That is more doable. I
think I tried translating some of my French-language cookbooks
many years ago but had trouble with the names of esoteric spices.
That is probably much easier now because of resources like
Gernot Katzer's spice site.

I have the books you mention. There was an earlier Vietnamese
cookbook that was published in the United States. A spiral-bound
thing. I started collecting Asian cookbooks when I was ca 20
years old (1970). Maybe a bit earlier. Unfortunately some of my
cookbooks are amongst the disappeared. Even more tragic, they
were probably 1st eds, because I was even then prowling the
bookstores for newly released cookbooks.

--
Jean B.
 
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