Trivia, trends and more from the dozens (hundreds?) of cookbooks that came across our desks in 2014.
Among the year’s best-sellers
Health and diet books are selling well among cookbooks, according to number crunchers at Nielsen.
Vegetable-focused (i.e. Yotam Ottolenghi’s “Plenty More: Vibrant Vegetable Cooking,” plus assorted vegetarian and vegan books), per Publishers Weekly, as well as gluten-free cookbooks are also hot.
Chefs get out of the (restaurant) kitchen and bring it home, notes Publishers Weekly: Marcus Samuelsson, Harold Dieterle and Fabio Viviani offer recipes from their home kitchens.
Dedications
“To Mom and Dad, who showed me, night after night, the subtle, profound, and lasting value of gathering around the table for a family meal.” Cal Peternell, “Twelve Recipes”
“To my mother, who believed my mistakes were ‘learning experiences’ and to my father, who seemed to believe I never made any mistakes at all.” Dana Cowin, “Mastering My Mistakes in the Kitchen.”
“To A. From a Case of Cherries to a Life of Cheering, You Inspire Me Every Day. D.” Dominique Ansel “The Secret Recipes”
Big, bigger, biggest?
There are many contenders for the season’s heaviest tome, but here are just four …
Weighing in at 4 pounds, 2 ounces (296 pages): “Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef,” by Massimo Bottura (Phaidon, $59.95)
Weighing in at 4 pounds, 8 ounces (1,056 pages): “How to Cook Everything Fast,” by Mark Bittman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $35)
Weighing in at 5 pounds (704 pages): “Mexico: The Cookbook,” by Margarita Carrillo Arronte (Phaidon, $49.95)
Weighing in at 6 pounds, 5 ounces (576 pages): “Yucatan: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition,” by David Sterling (University of Texas Press, $60)
Subtitles, ever longer
Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, cookbook titles were short. To the point. You know: “The Larousse Treasury of Country Cooking” or Diana Kennedy’s “The Cuisines of Mexico.”
These days, some cookbook titles and subtitles seem longer than the books themselves. Consider:
“Made at Home Breads: 50 delicious recipes and more than 15 clear, step-by-step techniques for transforming simple ingredients into fresh loaves, rolls, buns, and flatbreads for eating straight away or storing to enjoy another day,” by Dick and James Strawbridge.
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