The Gift of Southern Cooking, by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock. For her broth, the revered Miss Lewis cuts up chicken and renders its flavorful juices before adding even a drop of water. Hush puppies, roasted okra, blackberry cobbler: these dishes are unfashionably old-fashioned. That’s what we love about the South.
The Essential Mediterranean, by Nancy Harmon Jenkins. As she retraces ancient footsteps (to Giza for the world’s oldest bakery) and tells succulent stories (like the one about the Iberian pig), Jenkins is part scholar, part sybarite.
Once Upon a Tart, by Frank Mentesana and Jerome Audureau. The audacity of this duo’s knowing simplicity! What restrained presentation! Their in-your-face photos make even pea soup and cheese sandwiches look great.
Delights From the Garden of Eden, a cookbook and a history of the Iraqi cuisine, by Nawal Nasrallah. Self-published, and selling like, well, sanbousas, a medieval fried dumpling, Nasrallah’s touchingly personal book traces her journey from Baghdad to Boston. But the culinary traditions she reveals go back farther than that. Now we know the taste of the cradle of civilization.
The Angelica Home Kitchen, by Leslie McEachern. Sumptuous vegetarian is not an oxymoron but the apt description of an information-rich book from a small restaurant in New York’s East Village. Chef-owner McEachern stops frequently to look at organic farming practices, the harvesting of sea vegetables, and to define obscure ingredients. Her recipes go blessedly beyond tofu.
