Paper Palate

Looking for the perfect Mother’s Day gift? Here are some recent cookbooks that might just fit the bill.

The Gourmet Cookbook: More than 1000 recipes, Edited by Ruth Reichl (Houghton Mifflin, 2004)

If your mother considers herself to be a true chef, The Gourmet Cookbook is a must have. For sixty years Gourmet has been a major influence in shaping the tastes of America, publishing the finest works of the major names in the world of food.

While this is the oldest title on the list, published in 2004, it’s still an excellent gift choice if your mother doesn’t already have it in her collection.

With engaging introductions to each chapter by Ruth Reichl, entertaining headnotes, indispensable information about ingredients and techniques, hundreds of tips from Gourmet’s test kitchens, and an extensive glossary, The Gourmet Cookbook is the essential kitchen companion for anyone who wants one-of-a-kind recipes and spectacular results every time. (From the publisher.)

My Life in France, by Julia Child and Alex Prud’homme (Knopf Books, 2006)

After Julia Child’s death in 2004, her grandnephew completed this memoir of her first, most formative sojourn in France with her then new husband, Paul, in 1949. Publishers Weekly sums it up:

Startled to find the French amenable and the food delicious, Child enrolled at the Cordon Bleu and toiled with increasing zeal under the rigorous tutelage of éminence grise Chef Bugnard. “Jackdaw Julie,” as Paul called her, collected every manner of culinary tool and perfected the recipes in her little kitchen on rue de l’Université (”Roo de Loo”). She went on to start an informal school with sister gourmandes Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle, who were already at work on a French cookbook for American readers, although it took Child’s know-how to transform the tome—after nine years, many title changes and three publishers—into the bestselling Mastering the Art of French Cooking (1961). This is a valuable record of gorgeous meals in bygone Parisian restaurants, and the secret arts of a culinary genius.

Be sure to read Barbara Fisher’s excellent review of My Life in France at Tigers and Strawberries.

The Silver Spoon, Phaidon Press (2006)

Just when you thought there couldn’t possibly be any more great Italian cookbooks out there, Phaidon brings us this gem, an Italian classic available in the United States for the first time.

The Silver Spoon is the most influential and successful cookbook in Italy. Orignially published in 1950, it became an instant classic. Considered to be essential in every household, it is still one of the most popular wedding presents today. . . .A group of chefs were commissioned to collect hundreds of traditional recipes from the different Italian regions and make them available for the first time to a wider audience. In the process, they updated ingredients, quantities and methods to suit contemporary tastes and customs, at the same time preserving the memory of ancient recipes for future generations. They also included modern recipes from some of the most famous Italian chefs, resulting in a style of cooking that appeals to the gourmet as well as the occasional cook. (From the publisher.)

La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange: The Original Companion for French Home Cooking, by Madame E. Saint-Ange, Paul Aratow (Translator) (Ten Speed Press, 2005)

And for a French classic available here for the first time, here’s what Publishers Weekly has to say about La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange:

Translated into English for the first time since its original 1927 publication, La Bonne Cuisine has long been the French housewife’s equivalent of The Fannie Farmer Cookbook or The Joy of Cooking—a trusted and comprehensive guide to “la cuisine bourgeoise” or home cooking, rather than the haute cuisine of chefs and Escoffier. Julia Child called LBC “one of my bibles” and drew heavily upon its detailed approach to preparation as she labored on her own classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking. . . .Francophiles and food history buffs will thrill to see the legendary book in its entirety, complete with original illustrations, though few modern cooks still need guidelines for lighting the firebox of a cast-iron coal-fired stove or plucking and flaming a fresh-killed chicken. . . .this magisterial translation offers a window into a bygone moment in French life and is a testament to the enduring joy of cooking with cookbooks.

Paula Deen’s Kitchen Classics: The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook and The Lady & Sons, Too!, by Paula Deen (Random House, 2005)

Paula Deen has charmed us with her southern charm and down-home style. This omnibus edition contains two culinary classics available in hardcover for the first time. John Berendt (Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil), in his introduction, says:

Ms. Deen is an irresistable example of that extraordinary phenomenon of Southern womanhood, the steel magnolia. She is always appealing and gracious but possessed of an unfailing survival instinct–a necessary character trait for a Southern cook to make it. And make it she has. If you go to Savannah, you can understand the reason for it by sampling her famous cheese biscuits, her hoe cakes, her sensational gooey butter cakes, and all the rest.”

Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess, by Gael Greene (Warner Books, 2006)

Even if your mother doesn’t cook, she might be in the mood for a juicy story. Gael Greene, longtime critic for New York magazine, certainly lived up to the name of her column in the thirty-plus years she wrote it–”Insatiable”.

Her fun memoir spices up the standard chronicle of food supped and wine sipped with breathless descriptions of sexual trysts, travel tales and signature fashions. Greene’s sensual appetite was voracious and her affairs as abundant and indulgent as her meals; her more famous lovers included Elvis Presley, Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. With chapter titles like “Splendor in the Foie Gras” and “Bonfire of the Foodies,” the book brims with vivid and gluttonously gossipy prose, though it’s occasionally repetitive, especially regarding the recent growth of “foodie” culture. At heart a singular story of Greene’s gustatory and personal development, the book is also a history of culinary culture since the 1960s. She mentions world events that were occurring as she pursued her sybaritic lifestyle; describes her idols, contemporaries and famous chefs; and depicts spectacular meals throughout France, New York and beyond. This delicious read tells the story of America’s haute cuisine awakening as written by the woman who had a seat at the table. (Publishers Weekly)

Anyone who loves food and cooking would be thrilled to have any of these books to add to their collections. And if you’re lucky, you just might get a meal or two out of it.