In 1971, half a century ago, two young mothers wrote a book that captured the spirit of the time, and still has strong resonance to this day. Poor Cook focuses on good simple cooking from scratch. Its “do what you can with what’s available” ethos is very much in keeping with today’s imperative to reduce food waste. We spoke to the two co-authors who told us how they came to write the book….
Read MoreElizabeth Schneider’s Vegetables from Amaranth to Zucchini, now celebrating its twentieth anniversary, is as relevant today as it was when it was first published. In a piece written exclusively for ckbk, the author reflects on how much – and how little – the food world has changed since the book’s publication.
Read MoreMaury Rubin is the creator of City Bakery in Manhattan, and author of Book of Tarts, published just over 25 years ago. We asked Rubin to cast his mind back to the early days of City Bakery, and tell us about how his award-winning book came into being.
Read MoreFred Plotkin’s Recipes From Paradise: Life and Food on the Italian Riviera is a love letter to Liguria, which he says “may be as close to paradise as one can find on this earth”. Plotkin tells ckbk why Liguria is the part of Italy that will always hold the most fascination for him.
Read MoreAlmost 50 years ago, Roy Andries de Groot, an aristocratic, eccentric, and profoundly blind British American food writer took a trip to France that would, indirectly, change the course of American cooking. The book that resulted captures a moment in culinary time and place like perhaps no other, and its influence has been profound.
Read MoreCandida Crewe, daughter of food critic Quentin Crewe, reflects on the life of her father and how he came to pen what many chefs regard as one of the best books on French cuisine ever written, Great Chefs of France.
Read MoreIn the monumental tome, The Complete Guide to Traditional Jewish Cooking (2006), food writer Marlena turns historian and storyteller to explore “a cuisine that is as diverse as it is delicious.” We spoke to Marlena about Jewish traditions that matter most to her personally and how she has had to start from scratch again in her understanding of flavor.
Read MoreWe Are La Cocina showcases the exceptional talent of the groundbreaking San Francisco food business incubator, bringing together stories from the chefs who share a kaleidoscope of recipes with their roots in Mexico, Cambodia, Iraq, and beyond. Read what La Cocina’s founders and supporters have to say about the organization, and the book.
Read MoreMany cookbooks kick off with an introductory chapter, running through the kitchen basics and store cupboard essentials which will be among the building blocks to let you create the dishes within.
But what about the basics themselves. Should you be happy with finding the best quality you can from a reliable producer? Might there not be benefits to making these basics own from scratch, too?
Read MoreNovelist Joanne Harris and food writer Fran Warde tell how they brought their skills and love of French food together to write The French Kitchen and The French Market.
Read MoreJason Licker’s love of sugar has taken him a long way. The Long Island-born pastry chef explains how discovering Asian ingredients changed the course of his career, and selects his favorite recipes from his two cookbooks.
Read MoreFood historian Annie Gray gives a behind-the-scenes look at how she and the English Heritage team brought Avis Crocombe, an unlikely culinary icon, to 21st-century life.
Read MoreDurkhanai Ayubi’s book Parwana is a beautifully told story of her family’s struggles and triumphs, and their travels from war-torn Afghanistan to a stable and abundant life in Australia. It also gives insight into the country’s history and its deep-rooted cuisine.
Read MoreDeborah Madison, cookbook author chef, has been instrumental in shaping attitudes to meat-free eating – somewhat ironically, given that Madison is not in fact a vegetarian. Deborah spoke to ckbk about why The Savory Way – which won the Julia Child/IACP 1990 Best Cookbook of the Year – remains a favorite, and how attitudes and cooking trends have changed in the 30+ years since the book was written.
Read MoreFood is a gateway to human emotion, believes Ramin Ganeshram, the New York City-born journalist, historian, and author. As a child, Ganeshram learned to cook “by osmosis” as her Trinidad-born father wove stories as he chopped, stirred and kneaded. As well as learning to cook, she learned the importance of food as a medium for telling ourselves and others about who we are, and where we come from.
Read MorePeter Hertzmann believes that learning to cook involves learning about methods, not simply following recipes. His new book 50 Ways to Cook a Carrot, uses the root vegetable to demonstrate a whole battery of kitchen skills, from julienning and braising, to transforming carrots into meringues, foams, and powder. Peter explains the reasons for writing the book, who it’s for – and why carrots…
Read MoreFood writer, author, and stylist Jennifer Joyce grew up in the US and has lived in the UK for 27 years. Her love of good food is matched by her sense of wanderlust, her curious palate, and her brilliant recipe-writing skills (Jennifer’s recipes really work). In My Street Food Kitchen, Jennifer explores the street-food scene in Mexico & South America, the Mediterranean, East and Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and the US, and delivers recipes that taste as good in your home kitchen as they do on your travels. We quizzed Jennifer about what ‘street food’ is, how she researched the book and tracked down the recipes – and asked about her favorite cookbook authors.
Read MoreGiuliano Hazan is a talented cook and teacher, and the author of Hazan Family Favorites, a collection of recipes from his grandparents and parents, his own recipes, and dishes his wife and daughters love to cook and eat. Giuliano recalls the important things his mother taught him, from how to cook, to being true to oneself – and chooses three much-loved family favorite recipes
Read MoreRegula Ysewijn’s childhood fascination with British culture led to her becoming a food historian and author of two of the most respected books on British baking: Pride and Pudding (2016) and Oats in the North, Wheat from the South: British Baking, Savoury and Sweet (2020). She’s also a trained chef, a graphic designer, does her own food photography – and is a judge on the Flemish version of Bake Off. Regula tells ckbk about the childhood nursery rhyme that sparked her interest in Britain, what motivates her writing, what she finds most intriguing about British baking culture.
Read MoreThe 850 recipes in Farm Journal’s Country Cookbook, collected from cooks all across the nation, are a collection of America’s best. Author Nell Beaubien Nichols was a prolific food writer and chronicler of American foodways, with no fewer than 17 cookbooks to her name, written over a period of more than 50 years. She is best known for the series of books written for the magazine Farm Journal.
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