COOKBOOKS and cooks’ memoirs OF INTEREST
SAUSAGE MAKING, CHARCUTERIE, MEAT CURING
CHARCUTIER. SALUMIERE. WURSTMEISTER, and THE ART AND PHILOSOPHY OF PRODUCING QUALITY PORK PRODUCTS
by François Vecchio
The definitive American book on sausage making, salumi, and charcuterie, written from François' perspective of 60 years' experience in our craft, well-illustrated and clearly explained. François is our direct connection to the European tradition in sausage making and charcuterie. He has also created as a companion piece to the book, an instructional DVD on utilization of the hog. Combined and individually, these are essential reference materials for every sausage kitchen and charcutier's library. Both are available through his website or through Amazon
THE PROFESSIONAL CHARCUTERIE SERIES, vol. 1 & 2, by Marcel Cottenceau, Jean-François Deport, and Jean-Pierre Odeau
An indispensable two-volume set by three of the premier charcutiers and instructors in France. Intended for the professional, the series covers every aspect of the métier, with the exception of dry-curing. Volume 1 covers hams, sausages and sausage meats, blood sausages and white sausages, rillettes, rillons, confits and smoked pork. Volume 2 includes pates, terrines and ballotines made with poultry, veal, pork, and liver, as well as andouilles, andouillettes, and foie gras. Detailed and beautifully illustrated.
HOME SAUSAGE MAKING
THE ART OF CHARCUTERIE by Jane Grigson (1966)
A beautiful, hand-illustrated book of the highest quality, by a great English culinary writer. It begins with a guide to the charcutier's kitchen and equipment, and covers the basics and elaborations of French and English sausages, pâtés, terrines, ballotines, rillettes, sauces, hams, roasting of pork, puddings, innards, and concludes with a discussion of the fat of the pig. Many detailed recipes are provided. Old school in the best way, this superb book was "snout-to-tail" long before the term existed.
CLASSIC COOKBOOKS, ETC.
LE GUIDE CULINAIRE (1903, English translation 1921) by August Escoffier
The definitive cookbook of French food. I like to say that Italian cooking is the food of many grandmothers, but with French cooking, there’s a book. Pellegrino Artusi may be a counter-argument to this thought, but Artusi described regional cooking more than he dictated an encyclopedia of recipes, as Escoffier did with French cooking. Escoffier wrote for the brigade; Artusi wrote for the curious cook and reader.
HONEY FROM A WEED (1986) by Patience Gray
One of my favorites, more memoire than cookbook, though it contains plenty of recipes. It is essentially a chronicle of the travels of Ms. Gray and her sculptor partner, whom she refers to as “the sculptor,” through the Mediterranean, in search of the perfect medium, mainly stone, for him. In each locale Ms. Gray seeks out the local peasant cooks and inhales their cooking, telling the story of the simplest of dishes to the staggeringly elaborate “Dinner of the Seven Fishes” that many cooks reinterpret every December.
THE AUBERGE OF THE FLOWERING HEARTH (1973) by Roy Andries de Groot
A dreamy read, recalling a place lost to time, and disinterring the origins of the magnificent thousand-year-old liqueur, Chartreuse, whose unlikely survival over time is – dare I say – a miracle, especially given the adversity faced by the Carthusian monks who created it. There’s a lovely, firm, cow’s milk cheese called Le Chartreux that can be found even in the U.S. today.
THE TASTE OF FRANCE (1988) by Robert Freson
A book of highly evocative photos (Freson was a professional photographer of repute) whose recipes are sometimes wanting but still inspirational. Freson shows us French country culture at it is richest and most poetic, photos of a world that no longer exists.
THE FOOD OF FRANCE (1958) and THE COOKING OF ITALY (1971) by Waverly Root
An encyclopedic work of regional French food unequaled in its spirit and content.
SIMPLE FRENCH FOOD (1974) by Richard Olney
To some contemporary cooks, a work of importance and worth. It is the personal outlook of an American expat from Iowa who lived in the South of France for the better part of his life, and is the story of his cooking.
MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING, vol 1 & 2 (1961 & 1970) by Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertolle
An important book that was educational to many cooks in American kitchens, superbly detailed and thorough. It brought French cooking into American culture through this set and through Ms. Child’s long-running PBS television show, “The French Chef.”
THE CLASSIC ITALIAN COOK BOOK: THE ART OF ITALIAN COOKING AND THE ITALIAN ART OF EATING (1973) and THE ESSENTIALS OF ITALIAN COOKING (1992) by Marcella Hazan
One of the best and most complete books on Italian food.
PORK AND SONS (2007) and TERRINE (2008) by Stéphane Reynaud
Reynaud is an excellent writer living in Paris, covering French classics of a bygone age with present day aplomb.
FRENCH PROVINCIAL COOKING (1960) and FRENCH COUNTRY COOKING (1960) by Elizabeth David
Elizabeth David wrote books on French, British, and Mediterranean cooking, many of them now classics. The books were well researched and carefully written, even authoritative. Many had wonderful, hand-drawn illustrations that addd immensely to their appeal and beauty. Penguin issued a set called The Elizabeth David Cookery Book Set that included the aforementioned two volumes, plus Italian Food, Mediterranean Food, and Summer Cooking.
THE TASTE OF COUNTRY COOKING (1976) and IN PURSUIT OF FLAVOR (1988) by Edna Lewis
The doyenne of Southern Cooking, Edna Lewis stands as the greatest of Southern cooks, though she cooked for years in Manhattan and, thankfully, wrote prolifically about food, kitchens, and Southern life.
THE SCIENCE OF COOKING AND THE ART OF EATING WELL(1891) and ECCO IL TUO LIBRO DI CUCINA (1904) by Pellegrino Artusi
A wonderful guide to the regional period cooking of Italy. Artusi may be the first writer to describe a national Italian cuisine.
MEMOIRS AND KITCHEN STORIES
THE APPRENTICE: MY LIFE IN THE KITCHEN (2015) by Jacques Pépin
A lovely story of the life of one of our finest cooks, as an apprentice in French kitchens.
MEDIUM RAW: A BLOODY VALENTINE TO THE WORLD OF FOOD AND THE PEOPLE WHO COOK (2010) by Anthony Bourdain
Stories of kitchen life and work. Read especially the story of Justo Thomas, the fish butcher at Le Bernardin, in NYC, in “My Aim Is True.” If I know Bourdain, he took the title from the Elvis Costello’s first album. Of course, Bourdain wrote Kitchen Confidential, that exposed the underbelly of kitchen life in the late 20th C., and gave meany hope and redemption.
DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS (1933) by George Orwell
A classic of literature, with detailed and evocative tales of life in Paris kitchens in the early 20th C..
THE JUNGLE (1906) by Upton Sinclair
A standard of American high school english classes, this book is almost single handedly responsible for the creation of the USDA and its oversight of the meat industry. A brutal and oddly hopeful description of work and life in Chicagos’ slaughterhouses a hundred years ago.
M.F.K Fisher
It is impossible to say enough about M.F.K. Fisher, who wrote many books that are standard reading and of indescribable inspiration for contemporary culinary writers and cooks. Read for anything you can that she wrote, from Steve It Forth, Consider the Oyster, and How to Cook a Wolf, to The Art of Eating, The Physiology of Taste, and the enchanting personal history of childhood of her life in Aix-in-Provence, Boss Dog. Remarkable woman.
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SOME GREAT SHOPS FOR COOKBOOKS:
Omnivore Books on Food (SF)
A wonderful, small shop in San Francisco’s Noe Valley packed with new, antiquarian, and collectible cookbooks of the highest quality, sold by a charming, knowledgeable proprietor.
Now Serving (LA)
An engaging, off-center shop that sells kitchen tools, clothing, and artifacts, in addition to excellent, sometimes unexpected, books
Archestratus (Brooklyn)
Eccentric, excellent shop in Greenpoint with a charming Sicilian caffè in the back
Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks (NY)
Rare, antiquarian, and out-of-print cookbooks. During Covid, you can make a private appointment outside of regulars hours
Kitchen Arts and Letters (NY)
Excellent shop selling new, professional, and out-of-print cookbooks
Books For Cooks (London)
Well-known Notting Hill shop with many, many cookbooks. Wonderful, quirky place with a test kitchen
Librairie Gourmande (Paris)
Vast selection of cookbooks for professionals, teachers, and serious students of food and wine