I have a bookrack next to my bed that houses my modest collection of
cookbooks/food memoirs. Ahem...105 when I last counted them. Each time I order a
new one I am asked why do you need so many cookbooks/food memoirs?
Call it a fetish, weakness or whatever...psychological disorder, anyone?
But the truth is that there are so many lovely talented people in the
world each opening up their hearts and kitchens to me and there is so much to
learn from them; unfamiliar cuisines, ingredients, stories behind each of their
recipes, cooking techniques, writing styles plus all of them make great bedtime
reading.
To my credit, I try and use them all. And trust me I DO cook a lot:)
I can’t recall the exact moment when I fell in love with the idea of spending my entire life (and money:)) with cookbooks/food memoirs but I clearly remember flipping through my mum’s very fancy cake book each day after school (it is important that I mention that we NEVER baked anything from there for it had the most complicated five tier wedding cakes) and copying recipes from the food sections of the magazines that she would rent in her diary that she still maintains.
I can’t recall the exact moment when I fell in love with the idea of spending my entire life (and money:)) with cookbooks/food memoirs but I clearly remember flipping through my mum’s very fancy cake book each day after school (it is important that I mention that we NEVER baked anything from there for it had the most complicated five tier wedding cakes) and copying recipes from the food sections of the magazines that she would rent in her diary that she still maintains.
Presenting to you my lovely readers, my precious cookbook/food memoir
collection (In alphabetical order).
I am aware that just writing down the names of these books here really doesn't tell you what each one means to me and has given me but I promise
to write about each one of them in detail in the future. And in the meantime,if
you have any questions regarding any specific book, just leave me a comment and
I will be more than happy to answer it.
Update: Little notes on how these books have made my life more scrumptious here
Update: Little notes on how these books have made my life more scrumptious here
- 100 weeknight curries by Madhur Jaffery
- 50 great curries of India by Camellia Punjabi
- 500 best ever recipes CHOCOLATE
- A homemade life by Molly Wizenberg
- A Tiger in the Kitchen by Cheryl Lu Lien Tan
- Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan
- Baking by Dorie Greenspan
- Bill's Everyday Asian by Bill Granger
- Bong Mom’s Cookbook by Sandeepa Mukherjee Datta
- Booze Cakes: Confections Spiked with Spirits, Wine, and Beer by Krystina Castella and Terry Lee Stone
- Chicken (Trident Press International)
- Chocolat by Eric Lanlard
- Climbing the Mango Trees by Madhur Jaffrey
- Cocktails (Rebo Publishers)
- Comfort food fix by Krieger
- Comfort me with apples by Ruth Reichl
- Cooking for Gracie by Keith Dixon
- Cooking with Coco by Anna Del Conte
- Cooking the Punjabi Way by Aroona Reejhsinghani
- Cupcakes (PR Books Limited)
- Cupcakes and Muffins by Ann Nicol
- Dearie: The remarkable life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz
- Desserts in Jars by Olmason
- Drink by Tom Hickman
- Eat my globe: : One Year to Go Everywhere and Eat Everything by Simon Majumdar
- Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Eating India: An Odyssey into the Food and Culture of the Land of Spices by Chitrita Banerji
- Everyone Can Cook by Vikas Khanna
- Feast by Nigella Lawson
- For you mom, finally by Ruth Reichl
- Forever summer by Nigella Lawson
- Garlic and sapphires by Ruth Reichl
- Good Day for a Picnic: Simple Food That Travels Well by Jeremy Jackson
- Hajra’s recipes of life, for life by Hajra Mohammed
- Hallelujah! The Welcome Table: A Lifetime of Memories with Recipes by Maya Angelou
- Highway on my Plate by Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma
- Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin
- How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson
- How to Eat by Nigella Lawson
- Humble Pie by Gordon Ramsay
- In my mother’s kitchen: Writers on Love, Cooking and Family (Chamberlain Bros.)
- India by Pushpesh Pant
- India with Sanjeev Bhaskar by Sanjeev Bhaskar and Deep Sehgal
- Indian Flavors by Marut Sikka
- Italian Khana by Ritu Dalmia
- Julia's kitchen wisdom by Julia Child
- Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell
- Kashmiri Cuisine Through The Ages by Sarla Razdan
- Khanna Sutra by Vikas Khanna
- Kitchen by Nigella Lawson
- Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
- Man with a Pan by John Donohue
- Mastering the art of French cooking by Julia Child
- Miss Dahl’s voluptuous delights by Sophie Dahl
- Modern spice by Monica Bhinde
- My life from scratch by Gesine Bullock-Prado
- My Life in France by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme
- My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz
- New Concise Larousse Gastronomique by Larousse
- Nigella bites by Nigella Lawson
- Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson
- Nigella Express by by Nigella Lawson
- Nigellissima by Nigella Lawson
- Ottolenghi: The Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
- Peace Meals by Anna Badkhen
- Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London's Ottolenghi by Yotam Ottolenghi and Jonathan Lovekin
- Recipes and Dreams from an Italian life by Tessa Kiros
- River Cottage Veg Everyday by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall
- Seoultown Kitchen: Korean Pub Grub to Share with Family and Friends by Debbie Lee,Quentin Bacon
- Shark' S Fin and Sichuan Pepper by Fuchsia Dunlop
- Simply Samia by Samia Ahmed
- Smoothies, shakes and frappes by sally Ann Berk
- Stuffed: An Insider's Look at Who's (Really) Making America Fat and How the Food Industry Can Fix It by Hank Cardello and Doug Garr
- Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table) by Ruth Reichl
- The Best Little Marinades Cookbook (Best Little Cookbooks) by Karen Adler
- The Calcutta Kitchen by Simon Parkes, Udit Sarkhel and Jason Lowe
- The Devil in the Kitchen by Marco Pierre White
- The East Indian Kitchen by Michael Swamy
- The Encylopedia of sandwiches: Recipes, History, and Trivia for Everything Between Sliced Bread by Susan Russo
- The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit
- The Food Trail of Punjab by Yashbir Sharma
- The F-Word by Mita Kapur
- The Gastronomical Me by MFK Fisher
- The Gastronomy of Marriage by Michelle Maisto
- The Joy of Eating: The Virago Book of Food by Jill Foulston
- The Language of Baklava by Diana Abu Jaber
- The Mainland China Cookbook by Anjan Chatterjee
- The Man Who Ate Everything by Jeffrey Steingarten
- The Mezze cookbook by Maria Khalife
- The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden
- The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz
- The Press Club by George Calombaris
- The Settler's Cookbook: A Memoir of Love, Migration and Food [Hardcover] by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
- The Silver Spoon (Cooking) by Phaidon
- The Suriani Kitchen by Lathika George
- The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz
- The Ultimate Low-fat Indian Cookbook: The Best-ever Step-by-step Collection of Over 150 Authentic, Delicious Low-fat Recipes for Healthy Eating By Shehzad Husain and Manisha Kanani
- The sharper your knife, the less you cry by Kathleen Flinn
- Toast by Nigel Slater
- Travelling Diva by Ritu Dalmia
- Vietnamese kitchen by Bobby Chinn
- What Einstein Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained by Robert L. Wolke
- Will Write for Food by Dianne Jacob
- World Vegetarian by Madhur Jaffrey
- Yes Chef by Marcus Samuelsson
This is such a labour of love already and you plan on doing a detailed post on each one??? I have a friend who has a whole wall in her huge kitchen choc a bloc with cook books from cieling to floor. She is a brit married to a pakistani and is a fbaulous cook too. She actually uses them too! Me not so much, I dont have the patience really. Nor the space come to think of it. LOLLL. Hats off to your patience!
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