I’m off to Paris and am leaving you in the mighty fine hands of Kristina Gill. She regularly covers book reviews here and this week it’s all things Paris! Take it away, Lady K!

Despite my hourly contact with Matt on a daily basis, it was way after the fact that I learned that he and Adam would be taking a trip to Paris this September. And actually, I have been thinking about what books I could put together in a round up that would be a bit of a Parisian experience for people going and/or returning. What food is it that people love? What “institutions” do they love? Well, in the past year (and earlier) several books have passed through my hands and this round up is all on how to get your Paris on -before, during, and after. I know many of you will have other titles to add. I admit, France is in my “to build up” category on cookbooks. So please please please share all your recommendations!

Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes by David Lebovitz (2010 Ten Speed Press; photography by Maren Caruso; food styling by Christine Wolheim). It’s kind of cheating to start this list with David Lebovitz’s newest title because it’s not really about Paris. But when I think of Paris and I think of my sweet tooth, I think of David. And I think that his perspective and experiences in Paris are a good way to prepare for any trip. So, what of his book? It is full of elegant yet achievable desserts for the home baker. The kind which look even better when they are imperfect. You’ve got everything you need from cakes to tarts, ‘spoon’ desserts, frozen desserts, cookies and candies, and sauces. You also have detailed notes on technique. If you love fruit in your desserts, you’ll really love this book. As I glance over at my baking shelf, I realize that David’s book stands out among the crowd. Perfect for anyone who wants to have many options in one volume without ever getting bored.

Paris Patisseries: History • Shops • Recipes foreword by Pierre Hermé (2010 Flammarion; photography by Christian Sarramon) This isn’t really a cookbook, although there are a few recipes in the back. It is instead exactly what the titles suggests: a book about the pastry shops of Paris, their history, and explanations about Parisian pastries (mille feuille, tarts, macarons, etc). It is a nice picture book and an interesting read. It’s perfect for someone who is taking the dream trip of their life to Paris, to make sure they don’t miss out on those Parisian institutions we hear so much about.

Paris Sweets: Great Desserts from the City’s Best Pastry Shops by Dorie Greenspan (Broadway Books 2002; illustrations by Florine Asch) So once you’ve eaten your way around Paris, thanks to help from David Lebovitz and the Paris Patisseries book, you are back home and don’t want the trip to be over. Enter Dorie Greenspan. She wrote this book to help us all keep the dream alive. It includes recipes for the home baker which replicate the gateaux, tarts, flan, tarte tatin, éclairs, the works. Dorie is an expert baker and her books are always a treat to have. If Paris means good desserts/sweet treats to you, you should consider investing in this small but wonderful illustrated volume.

La Maison Du Chocolat by Robert Linxe with Michèle Carles (Rizzoli 2001; photography by Christine Fleurent; food styling by Marie-France Michalon) Another oldie but goodie. Robert Linxe is a master chocolatier who founded La Maison du Chocolat which specializes in, yes you guessed it, show stopping chocolate desserts. And while I have baked a couple of things from this book, it’s really hard for me to evaluate chocolate recipes because I find that chocolate lovers believe that all chocolate desserts are good, some are just better than others. Therefore I can tell you that although this book is divided into chapters on types of desserts, throughout the book, flavors that are paired with the chocolate are highlighted: orange, ginger, pistachio, almond, coffee, citrus, etc. It is exquisitely presented, almost intimidating. However, if you love chocolate, you can’t avoid diving in and trying whichever recipes look the most inviting. Another thing I’ve learned from baking for chocolate lovers: they don’t care about presentation. No one will EVER notice the desserts don’t look like the ones in the pictures, because they won’t be around long enough!! Definitely a book for chocolate lovers and perfectionists.

Mariage Freres French Tea: Three Centuries of Savoir-Faire by Alain Stella (Flammarion 2003/2009) I love tea. I buy tea just about everywhere I go. A stop at Mariage Freres tea house in the Marais is a mandatory stop for me on every trip to Paris. Although the Marais shop opened in 1985, the history of the tea maker is much older, and this book tells the whole story. There are a few recipes in the back of the book, notably for matcha tea pound cake, however, this is not a cookbook. This is a wonderful coffee table book gift for a tea loving friend. The outer case into which this hardback book slides is all black and mimics the tins in which the teas are sold.

Comme Au Resto by Trish Deseine (2009 Marabout; photography by Dierdre Rooney; prop styling by Elodie Rambaud). This book is in French, and while I could fumble my way through it, I have not yet. I do, however, have 110% faith in the recipes because I know Paris-based Trish Deseine is an impeccable author and food expert. Why on earth do I have the book, you may ask?? Well it just happens to be one of the most breathtaking books I have seen in years. Elodie has done an amazing prop styling job, Trish has done an amazing food styling job, and Dierdre has captured it all perfectly. The book is all about recreating “restaurant food” at home–simply, but with the WOW factor. I can never get enough of looking at this book. Ever. Anyone who loves beautiful photography– regardless of subject– should have a look at this. If you love food photography, food styling, prop styling, textures, you should have a copy of this book. And of course there’s the food inside.

Matt asks: Do you have any favorite French titles? Leave them in the comments, I’d love to know!

I’m thrilled to bring you another installment of book reviews from my dear friend Kristina Gill. This week we’re heading back to the basics. And I’m not just saying this as an upcoming author but it makes me so happy that so many of us are book lovers. I’ve really grown to love K’s reviews and am fortunate to share them with you. Take it away, Kristina!

Getting back to basics

Within a 10 mile radius of where I live there are beekeepers, wine growers, olive presses, cheese producers, working farms.  We buy 70% of our food from these local producers during spring, fall, and winter, and 100% in the summer.  I buy my olive oil from the farmer who lives across the street from me.  And yes, I am also surrounded by many supermarkets within the same ten mile radius.  Still, I prefer to eat locally because I can see where the food comes from, from seed to harvest, from birth to prosciutto sandwich etc.

I learned about being self-sufficient from my grandmother, who grew up in rural Alabama.  Though she moved to the city as an adult, she made sure she had a yard big enough for fruit trees and a vegetable garden.  I always thought she was a magician because I always saw food on the table, but never saw where it came from.  Later I learned that in addition to the refrigerator and freezer in the house, there was also a deep freeze in the utility house.  She preserved, froze, and ate what she got from her garden.  What she couldn’t produce on her own of course she bought. I went to my first farmer’s market with her.  She did supplement her home grown food with supermarket purchases, but I remember her always out in the garden with her large floppy hat.  In part because of these memories, I’ve always carried a tremendous amount of respect for people who grow and eat their own food.

Eating and growing locally seems to have a romantic connotation and is quite “fashionable” in the United States these days, but it is a vocation for much of the world, and for a large number of these growers it is barely subsistence.  This week’s book reviews draw on eating locally and the people in the developed world who dedicate their lives to producing food.  Whether for vocation, or necessity, it is a lot of hard work.  Though they have only recently come into the spotlight, their greatest satisfaction is in knowing that the food they’ve produced is truly enjoyed.  With these books, perhaps you’ll be able to make yourself and some of your favorite local producers quite happy.

edible:  A Celebration of Local Foods by Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian (Wiley 2010;  photography by Carole Topalian) Tracey Ryder and Carole Topalian are the co-founders of Edible Communities, a family of magazines nationwide which celebrate the local foods and people who produce them. This book celebrates the local foods movement, capturing the best of what is featured in the Edible Communities magazines,  divided into regions and told through Edible Stories, and concludes with chapters of recipes, divided seasonally, of course.  I flipped right to the Southeast section and started to read about Tennessee, and every state my family lives in.  If you like personal stories, you will love this book.  I haven’t tried any of the recipes, but take for granted that they will be good because they are based on the seasonal harvests of the different regions of the United States.  Reading through the various chapters of this book I am learning so much about the food we produce in the United States, and the issues confronting the producers.  I find it fascinating and am really sorry that I have been out of the United States so long that I only learned about the Edible Communities through this book.  In the back of the book is the comprehensive listing of all the websites for the communities.  I consider this one of the best all around food books I’ve seen this year.  You can find podcasts by the Edible Communities as well.

The Italian Farmer’s Table:  Authentic Recipes and Local Lore from Northern Italy by Matthew Scialabba and Melissa Pellegrino (2010 Morriss Book Publishing photography by Melissa Pellegrino) Matthew and Melissa, a husband and wife team, took a year to live in Italy and produce this cookbook, a dream they both had since they met in Italy.  They were able to produce the book by living and working in Northern Italy at agriturismi, working farms and guest houses.  The book presents recipes from these farms in the regions north of (and including) Emilia-Romagna.  Matthew and Melissa captured some of my favorite recipes, like the bigoli con ragu di anatra (pasta with duck ragu), Polentina con Ragu di Maiale e Noci (shaped polenta forms with ground pork and walnut ragu), Torta di Mele (Apple Cake),  and many others which are so seasonal and local, that you would not ever find them in Italy outside of the region of origin, sometimes not even outside of the town where a particular recipe or vegetable/fruit is harvested.  Each chapter introduces a different agriturismo and its recipes (you can’t get any more authentic than this), and the chapters are dotted with stories and facts about the producers and the areas in which they live.  Quite impressive coverage, and a great first book!

The Real Food Companion by Matthew Evans (2010 Murdoch; photography by Alan Benson) Oooops they did it again.  Murdoch has made another amazingly beautiful book shot by none other than Alan Benson!   Matthew Evans, chef and food critic for the Sydney Morning Herald, has written a gigantic volume on food, the ethics of food choices, the importance of eating local food, and recipes which bring out the best of the food’s flavor.  The book is divided into chapters based on food type (meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, seafood, poultry & eggs, etc).  Each chapter opens with a description of the food type and how to select the best ones.  Evans has gone back to basics with a collection of recipes which are neither difficult nor time intensive, in fact they seem almost intuitive to me and reading through them you can really begin to see how a certain dish or way of preparing seasonal foods could indeed grow out of eating ingredients when they are available.  This is a good book for someone who loves beautiful images to accompany beautiful recipes.  It’s also a good gift book for someone who doesn’t want to amass a library of cookbooks, but would like a few quality books with lots of great recipes.

The Clatter of Forks and Spoons by Richard Corrigan with Sheila Keating (2008 Fourth Estate; photography by Kristin Perers) Even though I opened this week’s reviews with a backhanded slap at treating food as anything other than a necessity for survival, I have to say that there is indeed something so very dreamy about Richard Corrigan’s book.  Irish-born Corrigan is a fanatic about farm-to-fork eating, and his upbringing on a farm transpires in his writing and knowledge of ingredients and combinations to make the best tasting food ever.  As someone who does not believe in waste, Corrigan gives you your fair share of kidneys and liver and the likes, so don’t say you weren’t warned!  However, this beautifully photographed book is as much about the food as it is about its origins, the farmers, fishermen, butchers, et al with whom he works, and how to prepare their food.  It’s a perfect balance of prose and unpretentious recipes, a little British, a little Irish, with a touch of Italian here and there.  The narrative and recipes are so finely woven, in fact the book seems more like a diary than a cookbook even in its design.  I absolutely love it, and often visit it on my bookshelf just to be reminded of the good food and producers there are out there and what I should be looking for when I shop for our food.  (And to make the oat cookies that my husband loves so much).

The Blackberry Farm Cookbook:  Four Seasons of Great Food and the Good Life by Sam Beall  (2009 Clarkson Potter; photography by beall+thomas photography) You didn’t really think I’d let you get away without a little bit about Tennessee, my home state, and home to Blackberry Farm, did you??  This is the cookbook and story of Blackberry Farm and is a beautiful book in its own right, but a great treasure of Southern recipes starting with blackberry cobbler, peach shortcake and running the gamut of coleslaw, barbecue (ribs and sauces), fried chicken, biscuits, greens, cornbread, chess pie, and then more ‘inventive’ dishes which all draw on ingredients harvested on the farm itself.  Of course I feel compelled to say that this is but one version of Southern cooking and if you’re really interested in our food, you should also try out some traditional Black Southern recipes in books by Edna Lewis, for example.   But this book holds its own, and was a very welcome book to the cookbook market not only for its focus on Tennessee, but also for the story of a working farm and the food it produces over each season.  The book is so beautiful you may not want to risk getting it dirty in the kitchen, but it is totally worth using!

This weekend I’ll be teaching part of a Food Styling and Photography workshop at my studio. It promises to be lots of fun and I really look forward to meeting so many great new people. And since many of you have asked I may actually take my workshop on the road so stayed tuned! This is also the perfect time to review a few new titles on the subject of Food Styling. To say it’s a hot topic right now would be an understatement; just look at all the abundance of titles coming out. In this week’s book reviews the ever-so-wonderful Kristina Gill reviews a few titles as well as mentions some she couldn’t get her hands on just yet. The information in these reviews is invaluable I tell you! Take it away, Kristina! — Matt

My sixth grade math teacher, Mrs. Sweeney, used to get mad at us when we didn’t show our work.  She’d always say, “I’m from Missouri.  You have to SHOW ME.”  And that has kind of stuck in my character ever since.  When I started fooling around with food photography, I had many questions of Matt to ask. Sometimes he’d draw me diagrams, sometimes he’d explain it.  But then one day, I just bought a plane ticket and flew to Long Beach to work with him and Adam in person.  Matt and I have had long conversations about food styling books also.  Despite Matt’s compelling arguments on the utility of food styling books, I am still a firm believer that it’s the kind of thing I prefer to learn in three dimensions because there is a physicality to it that you can’t get from a book.  So if you have the time and resources to take a food styling class, I really recommend the experience, or if you have the opportunity to observe/assist in a photo shoot, you can learn a tremendous amount from that as well. However, I also believe in reference books, and especially in food styling, I believe in defining my work and identifying potential pitfalls before I embark on photographing.  Sometimes I photograph something and think “there’s something missing here.  This isn’t convincing.”  That’s where these two books come in.

Food Styling:  The Art of Preparing Food for the Camera by Delores Custer (Wiley 2010).   This, because of its enormous size and weight, will probably be called the food styling bible.  It is a comprehensive book on food styling.  Like every good food stylist, Delores is very methodical, and everything follows in a perfect logical order.  It is explained in clear concise English, and there are no doubts or what-ifs left trailing.  She goes from the choice of becoming a food stylist, through setting up your business, and concludes with a review of the transformation of food styling over the past 50 years.  There are technique and prop photos, recipes for successful on camera food (think fake ice cream, moist cake, perfect pumpkin pie).  Why do I like Delores’ book?  Because she has written it in a Problem – Solution format.  I’m not going to sit down and read this book cover to cover.  However, when I am tasked with shooting a cookie recipe, for example, I am going to look up the cookie section, learn where I may encounter difficulties and how to overcome/avoid them, and I will also learn how to make the best presentation.  You will flip through Delores’ book and think “Well I don’t do advertising photography, all of this is that perfect, slick, highly polished food.”  That’s true.  But how to represent melting cheese convincingly for the camera is a useful skill to know, whether it’s for a Lean Cuisine ad or for your blog post on images of your Nonna’s pasticcio.  In other words, this is a very useful reference book from which you can learn how to be better organized and how to improve your work.  You can also get an idea of what the life of a food stylist is like.

Food Styling for Photographers: A Guide to Creating Your Own Appetizing Art by Linda Bellingham and jean Ann Bybee (Focal Press 2010)  This book is considerably smaller and lighter (and paperback!) than the bible.  But its size does not diminish its utility.  Bellingham focused pretty tightly on the task at hand, starting first with very practical advice on how to approach each food styling session, so there is not the same level of detail in defining each food item or circumstance.  Bellingham begins with a bit about choosing props and prepping the surface on which you will shoot, all very useful when you’re doing this alone at home.  She explains what questions you should be asking yourself as you style. Bellingham’s following chapters include text boxes which highlight “Tricks of the Trade” and each set of food photography is followed by an explanation by Bybee of how the photographic effect was achieved, including a photograph of the lighting set up.  This book is therefore quite useful for the food blogger who is both styling and shooting their own recipes.  The clarity of writing is the same as Custer’s book, and it is just as organized and logical.  I have also compared notes on different techniques– such as preparing glasses for cold beverages or shooting ice cream, and their techniques are virtually identical!  Again, food styling is dealt with in this book in the context of making “perfect” food for the camera.  It doesn’t deal with how to make the imperfect perfect food that is so popular today.  All the same, I believe that you have to learn how to make something look perfect before you are able to make it look imperfect, if of course that’s the look you’re going for.  And still, many of you may decide that you are doing just fine without needing to separate your cake layers with cardboard to ensure that you space them evenly for a perfect look of the cake with a slice out of it.  You may be right.  But with either of these books, you are not only learning how to do that, you are learning what visual qualities are desired when representing types of cooking and different foods.

There was a third book on food styling released this year called Food Presentation Secrets: Styling Techniques of Professionals by Cara Hobday and Jo Denbury, which I was unable to get my hands on in time for this, which you may want to also explore.

And lastly, there’s The Food Stylist’s Handbook by Denise Vivaldo (Gibbs Smith 2010). This book isn’t out until fall so I wasn’t able to review it. However, I wanted to include it in this review so that you are aware of it and can check it out when it hits the bookstores. Matt will be teaching his workshop this weekend with Denise and he’s also a contributor to this book.

I’ve had many jobs over the years and can wear many hats. One thing I will never be is a baker. Ever. At this point in my life I have accepted that it’s something I will never perfect, and really, why should I? So many of my friends are excellent bakers and authors on the subject, and I can just coast along with my sad baking skills and enjoy their expertise. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love reading about baking and eating whatever I can get my hands on.  Because I really really do. And I love photographing baked things because they are just naturally pretty. Unless I made it. Then it’s a trainwreck. Anyway, this week Kristina gives us baking reviews and I’m jazzed about it. There are some amazing book titles here and a word to the wise: stay away from Kristina when she’s mixing dough. It ain’t pretty.

Kristina: One summer, when I was living in Washington DC, I happened in a gourmet shop.  While talking to the Shop Guy, one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, my new found interest in bread baking came up.  When his father had started the Marvelous Market, Carol Field had provided invaluable bread baking tips to help him out.  The Shop Guy recommended I use her book, The Italian Baker, to learn more about bread.  The next time I came back to the shop, he had special ordered a copy for me and gave it to me as a gift.  I methodically went through the book and worked on quite a few recipes until I learned to produce very good bread.  From there, I bought Nancy Silverton’s book, the Breads of La Brea Bakery, and started my own starter which stayed with me for two years until a subletter “threw away the foul nasty stuff” he found in my refrigerator.

This week’s books are about learning to bake, and represent a bibliography for all levels of interest.  I don’t get road rage, I wait til I get home and get kitchen counter rage and pretend that the dough is someone’s face I want to box in, as I develop the gluten.  I find that kneading to be quite therapeutic.  If you bake, or once you start to learn, you’ll know what I mean.  If you’re serious about baking and bread isn’t your thing though, don’t miss the last book.

Amy’s Bread revised and updated by Amy Scherber and Toy Kim Dupree (Wiley books 2010; photography by Aimée Herring) This book, the book of Amy’s Bread bakery in New York, provides a good introduction to baking with useful photographs of the different stages of the proofing and kneading process so you can tell if you’re on track.  Because it is a bread bakery book, that’s all you get here.  The chapter on starters offers a range of them, some to be used within a few hours (poolish), and others which need a bit more lead time (biga), up to the sourdough starter.  This is a book for someone who wants to focus on a range of breads from white to sourdough, flavored, breads and doesn’t want anything too scientific or too technical.  Each recipe has tips and techniques as well, also quite useful as you’re learning.

Bread Matters:  Why and How to Make Your Own by Andrew Whitley (Fourth Estate 2006; photography by Jeff Cottenden, illustrations by Richard Bravery) I was first put on to the British artisanal bread movement by an article in Jamie Magazine (July/Aug 09) beautifully photographed by Chris Terry.  I wanted to know more, so when I took a trip to London later last year, I picked up this book.  It’s all about the evolution of the bread industry and the ingredients which go into industrial loaves and why you should prefer artisanal breads and even try making your own at home.  Whitley owned and ran a bakery from 1976-2002, and this comprehensive work, grew out of his experiences during that time.  I like the book because it thoroughly explains every aspect of bread making and its ingredients, what techniques and ingredients are necessary and which aren’t (‘debunking’ other bread book instructions), provides troubleshooting advice, and provides recipes for all great British baked goods.  The recipes uses quite a range of flours, and many of the recipes build on each other, so once you’ve learned the basics, you’re unstoppable.  For a beginner, this is a perfect book, and is not as technical as the Bourke Street Bakery.  What it lacks in terms of photographs of technique, it more than makes up for in clarity of text.  The images in the book are also quite beautiful.  Whitley offers “Bread Matters” courses at Macbiehill Farmhouse, Lamancha, West Linton in the Scottish Borders

Artisan Breads by Eric Kastel (part of the Culinary Institute of America At Home series; Wiley 2010; photography by Ben Fink) This is the technical and scientific book that Amy’s Bread is not.  It is practically a baking text book for the home baker.  This is the type of book you should have at least one of if you’re going to get into baking, and you should read through the notes in the beginning to have a thorough understanding of all of the elements of bread baking (environmental factors, wheat qualities, tools, temperatures, moisture, etc).  It is a comprehensive baking book, and one of the things I like most about it– something I missed in my own self-taught baking odyssey– are the photographs of the correct level of proofing, kneading, how to fold and so on.  This book, unlike Amy’s, is not limited to artisan breads however, and includes many many yeasted desserts like cinnamon rolls and sticky buns, cream cheese and pecan coffee cake, almond stollen, and there is a section on dips and spreads as well.   There is a professional version of this one as well, with larger quantities and more hard core specifications.  Also a useful reference for the knowledge hungry.

Bourke Street Bakery by Paul Allam and David McGuinness (Murdoch Books 2009; photography by Alan Benson). Ok, I saved best for last again.  And not just because Alan Benson photographed the book, but because when I read through this book, it makes me want to (a) book a flight to Australia tomorrow; (b) make my own pain au chocolat; (c) book a flight to Australia tomorrow.  Did I already say that?  As its ‘by-line’ suggests, this really is the ultimate baking companion.  In my line of business, I’ve learned a little bit about wheat, and a lot about Australians.  Enough to know that they know good bread (they have great wheat) and they know good baked goods.  Bourke Street Bakery cookbook takes you from savory to sweet dreams by way of conversational explanations, useful photography of techniques, and great stories to accompany the super range of recipes offered in the book (rye bread, Mr. Potato Bread, sourdough, semi-sourdough, empanadas, croissants, sausage rolls, meat pies, brownies, chocolate cake, custard tarts, bear claws, banana cake with caramel sauce…).  This isn’t really a book to take lightly though, as you will need to be disciplined in following the recipes.  Never fear, each recipe points out where the home baker may have a pitfall, and suggests how to avoid it/compensate for lack of industrial equipment. This replaces my King Arthur Flour baker’s companion book as my go to baking compendium because I find it a nicer read, a bit more sophisticated, and feel a better connection with the bakers.  It goes in front of, but doesn’t replace, my Baking With Julia because it offers more instruction, better photography, and more varied recipes.  Allam and McGuinness really did a fantastic job of putting their knowledge onto these pages, and Murdoch knocked it out of the park in the design and layout.

A final note for beginners, if you are intimidated by kneading, there is a book called “Kneadlessly Simple” by one of my favorite authors, Nancy Baggett which you may want to research and perhaps try as a way to build up to these other books.

I’ll tell anyone who will listen to me that I’m a warm weather kind of cook. I love being outdoors, I love grilling and I love summer. I’m particularly excited about this current installment of the Mattbites Cookbook Reviews with Kristina. Damn if this girl didn’t knock it out of the ballpark with this review which features both grilling and burgers. It’s abundant and now I want a beer! Enjoy it!

When we moved into our current home 5 years ago, we brought our little sad deck grill with us.  We had friends over several times, and in the winter we even had people over and cooked in the fire in the fireplace. It was the best food, the best fun. And then we stopped.  I’m not sure why.  Our little sad grill is still outside, sadder than ever.  But a few months ago, when browsing Amazon, I started to see book titles which I fancied.  And I started to remember some great grilling books I already had and thought I’d go grill shopping and resuscitate my love for the grill.  Eating outdoors really opens up the opportunity to have more people over than perhaps you can accommodate inside.  Everyone can help out, and it’s just a great time all around.  So hopefully this GIANT round up has something in here that will be useful for your next get together.

The Good Stuff Cookbook:  Burgers, Fries, Shakes, Wedges, and More by Spike Mendelsohn with Micheline Mendelsohn (Wiley 2010; photography by Joe Shymanski). This is the first book by Top Chef competitor and owner of the Good Stuff Eatery in Washington DC, Spike Mendelsohn.  I like to think of this book as an all in one Burger Party manual.  It is very well organized into the different elements of a burger shop– from the sauces to the sides, the fries, the burgers, the shakes, and then the desserts, something I really appreciate about the book– I don’t have to dig for recipes, I know right where to find what I need.  You could use this book to set up a DIY burger party for your friends– offering the ingredients to compose various burgers in the book, or you could use it to make great food for yourself. Either way, it’s pure fun!

Burger Parties: Featuring Winning Recipes from Sutter Home Winery’s Build a Better Burger Contest by James McNair and Jeffrey Starr (Ten Speed Press 2010; photography by Dan Mills) If Spike’s book is a burger joint, this is the white table cloth burger book.  It is compiled of menus built around a burger theme (Burgers in Paradise, Jamaican Me Hungry, Sip and Slide, Southeast Asian Odyssey, Summer and Smoke, etc.)  So what you have in this book is not just a fab burger recipe per chapter, you have all of the antipasti, sides, and desserts to accompany them, around the theme, as well as the wine pairings!  Of all the grilling books I brought in for a colleague to choose from for a gift to someone who regularly grills, she chose this one as the most well-rounded for a complete dining experience.

The Burger Meisters:  America’s Best Chefs Give Their Recipes for America’s Best Burgers, Plus the Fixin’s by Marcel Desaulniers (1994 Simon and Schuster) This book won the James Beard Award for the Best Book on a Single Subject, and it deserved it!  This is based on a PBS series of the same name.  In addition to burgers made from everything ranging from beef to chicken to fish to veggie, you also have sides (slaws, salads, fries of different types), and even buns and some sweets as well.  I turn to this when I want to make something different for myself or friends.  My book is so used, the spine is falling apart!  Some of my favorite recipes in the world were written by Marcel Desaulniers, especially chocolate ones, and he has helped me make them work when I’ve been stuck.  (his email address is goganache -at- aol.com and he’s available to help with his recipes, just write if you too get stuck!)

Pig:  King of the Southern Table by James Villas (2010 Wiley; photography by Lucy Schaeffer) To borrow a phrase from the Waffle House menu, this book is all about pork:  scattered covered chunked and smothered.  If you don’t like pork, skip to the next book!  But me, I’m from Nashville.  I used to have my father meet me at the airport with an extra hot (spicy) pulled pork sammich from Mary’s Pit BBQ.  I love sausage.  I love bacon.  I think that the best cure for vegetarianism is a barbecued pork rib, dry not wet.  This book is all of that and more in 300 artery-hardening recipes using all cuts of pork (and there’s a cute little diagram at the beginning to show you what eating high on the hog really means), and it’s really really southern. It’s grits, biscuits, casseroles, hushpuppies, succotash, stews, burgoos, roasts, hams, if it’s pork or has pork in it, it’s here.  And it’s also Southern culinary history and background.  This book reminds me of family and home.

John Torode’s Beef and other Bovine Matters (2008 Quadrille; Photography by Jason Lowe) While it is possible to get other good cuts of meat in Italy, a good burger the way the Lord intended one to be made just can’t be found here.  So whenever I go to London, I try to get at least one good one in.  John Torode is the owner of Smith’s of Smithfields, a restaurant which stands directly in front of the Smithfield meat market, and he sells one of the best burgers in London.  John knows beef, and his and his book distills this knowledge in diagrams, photos, and explanations from the different breeds of cow to how to purchase, the cuts and carving the meat, and the preparation.  It starts with the basic beef stock and goes through all manner of recipes which have beef elements, from arancini with ragu, to beef wellington, salted beef sandwiches, yorkshire pudding, and everything in between.  It’s very British, mind you, but if there’s a recipe with “beef” in the title, it’s here.  This is every much a reference book as it is a cookbook.

John Torode’s Chicken and other Birds (2009 Quadrille; Photography by Jason Lowe).  I know, I just told you that John Torode knows beef, and here he is talking about chicken!  Guess what?  He knows birds too!  I have included this book in our round up because of the variety of recipes that are prepared on the grill for all different sorts of birds, including a fair number of kebabs and a chicken burger that will knock your socks off (it has sausage in it of course, but you can experiment without it!).  This book is pure cookbook, not at all the reference book that beef is.  But if poultry is your shtick, this is worth flipping through.

Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi (2010 EBury; photography by Jonathan Lovekin) Admittedly, this should have gone into the vegetable book reviews, but I thought it appropriate to keep a book in this round up for those people who don’t eat meat.  This is not a grilling book, but it is an amazing vegetarian resource which you can use to prepare accompaniments to the food which comes off the grill– AND there are grilling recipes in here.  Preparing any dish from this book will make you everyone’s new best friend, trust me.  Ottolenghi is the food shop you will hear so many people rave about who have visited London.    The recipes are based on the author’s weekly column in the Guardian weekend magazine called the New Vegetarian, and just looking at them makes me hungry:  Caramelized garlic tart, globe artichokes with crushed broad beans, chard and saffron omelettes, soba noodles with aubergine and mango, black pepper tofu.  It goes on and on.  The photography by Jonathan Lovekin (who has done Nigel Slater’s beautiful books) is also so very inviting.  Vegetarians looking to add great recipes to their repertoire, Plenty, and Yotam’s column at the Guardian are fantastic resources.

Soaked, Slathered, and Seasoned:  A Complete Guide to Flavoring Food for the Grill by Elizabeth Karmel (Wiley 2009; photography Jamie Tiampo). I was introduced to Elizabeth Karmel by Rose Levy Beranbaum a few years ago, after telling Rose I was looking for some amazing women in the food profession to interview.  Elizabeth is the Queen of the Grill, and I blindly trust anything she says about grilling.  If it can be grilled (and believe me, it can), she has grilled it and can tell you how to maximize its flavor through soaking, slathering, or seasoning.  This book is a comprehensive book of rubs, sauces, butters, marinades, brines, dipping sauces, techniques, tips, and any other vital information about how to uses these elements on your food.  It is a handy paperback size and the perfect grilling reference.  I got this book last year, and admit that I haven’t felt such an affinity for a grilling book since I bought Steve Raichlen’s BBQ Bible years ago.  If you’re going to grill, ever, you should have a copy of this tucked away.  You can find Elizabeth at Twitter, get her weekly recipes from GirlsattheGrill.com and Grillfriends.com or find her out and about on the national BBQ circuit.

Kansas City Barbeque Society Cookbook 25th Anniversary Edition by the Kansas City Barbecue Society (2010 Andrews McMeel) I love community generated cookbooks.  I think it tells you so much about people and their cultures.  I’m a huge fan of Junior League Cookbooks for snapshots of culinary history and how people ate at any one given time.  The Kansas City Barbecue Society is the world’s largest organization of barbecuing and grilling enthusiasts, and they’re celebrating their 25th anniversary with this book.  If you are curious about the world of competitive grilling, you want some award winning recipes for barbecue (so you know they’ve been tested and are good), like to have a quick reference for grilling temperatures for doneness, or you just like to peek into the history and stories of a group of people with a common interest, you’ll really like this book. Earlier editions of this book even have the calorie breakdown of recipes, but this edition has swapped those out in favor of very useful technical information about equipment, safety tips, barbecuing terminology, metric conversions, etc.

Seven Fires:  Grilling the Argentine Way by Francis Mallmann with Peter Kaminsky (2009 Artisan; photography by Santiago Santo Monllor) This 2010 IACP Cookbook Award nominee deserved all the attention it got and more.  This is the elegant and captivating story of the relationship Francis Mallmann, one of Argentina’s most revered food professionals, has developed with grilling throughout his life.  It is his story about the history of a place, its people, and culture.  Seven are the types of fires which “form the backbone” of Argentine cuisine: Parrilla (cast iron grate over coals), Chapa (flat piece of cast iron set over a fire), Infiernillo (two fires with a cooking level in between), Horno de Barro (similar to an outdoor bread oven), Rescoldo (cooking by covering in warm embers and ashes), Asador (method for cooking whole animals), Caldero (large cast-iron kettle or dutch oven).  This book has ample recipes for cooking according to all these methods, and the sides and other dishes which go along.  This is primarily a meat-lover’s book, however, there are plenty of vegetarian dishes included.  One of my favorite recipes is neither: the Cast-Iron Seared Octopus with Murcia Pimenton.  Served with grilled potatoes, you will never forget this.  Just one look at this book and you will understand Matt’s love affair with Argentina.

Planet Barbecue! An Electrifying Journey Around the World’s Barbecue Trail by Steven Raichlen (2010 Workman; Photography by Ben Fink, Penny de los Santos, Anastasios Mentis, Steven Raichlen.  Food styled by Jamie Kimm and prop styled by Sara Abalan). I confess that when I saw Penny’s tweet that she worked on this, the book was instantly in my Amazon cart!  And now that I have it here, I can say that I am over the moon with my ‘crime of passion’.  I bought Steven Raichlen’s Barbecue! Bible when it came out and it’s my Barbecue reference.  I’m not going to lie and tell you that if you already have the B! Bible, you need this– the two are quite similar in their geographic coverage, and I can’t really tell if this is a result of the same travels he did for the first book,or if he traveled the world again to write this one. But Planet Barbecue! covers 60 countries vs 25 in B!Bible (albeit fewer recipes), Planet B! has a more “authentic” feel to the recipes, and more variety of recipes, and most important, there are photos!  Mouth-watering photos and how-to photos.     I am especially liking Jose Andres’ grilled bread with chocolate, sea salt, and olive oil!!  One book just seems more ‘modern’ than the other, although there is not any exact recipe overlap. So I’d say if you find yourself in front of both of these books, choose one or the other…unless you need both.

Welcome to our third installment of cook book reviews from Kristina Gill. It’s a spirited edition, don’t say I did not warn you! However, if you’re like me I suspect you’ll enjoy a personal take on some of the themes dealt with in a couple of the books from one of my most favorite people on the planet. I mean, one of my most favorite opinionated people on the planet. And if you don’t enjoy it, don’t be shy about sharing your opinion.  She can take it!  Take it away, Kristina!

The sun has finally come out after weeks of strange weather, and we have at least a promise of great weather to come.  Each year I promise myself I’m going to go convince the farmer across the street to come help me set up my garden (do it myself??  What??), and each year I never do!  So I have a little stack of books here all about gardening, eating from your garden, and all the things you need to know to get busy dibbling and dabbling…or getting good and dirty and starting a serious garden.  These days the topic of “growing  your own food” is always in the context of something a lot bigger, a moral and ethical sales pitch is in there too.  So I’ve included a couple of those titles for you.

The Conscious Kitchen:  The New Way to Buy and Cook Food– to Protect the Earth, Improve Your Health, and Eat Deliciously by Alexandra Zissu (Clarkson Potter 2010; no photography!)  I’ve been sitting with this book by my bedside for a few weeks, and it has been eating away at my brain.  Figuratively speaking.  This is a little manual about tips on how to live a more environmentally friendly life, in the food context.  I think if you’re moderately informed about the issues raised in this book (food miles, local vs organic, carbon footprint, recycling, etc) you will have a strong reaction to its content.  For now, all I will say is that if you’re easily depressed by learning that you’ve been packing your lunch for the past 10 years in something that has known carcinogens in it, this isn’t your book.  However, if you’re interested in knowing how much of the crap in your house is sending the earth to hell in a hand basket and how to move beyond that (NB: it’s about 99.999% of what you own), this is a great book.  If you’re the kind of person who wants to fit in to this movement, but looks for new ways to morally justify all of your exclusive imported food and wine choices to whomever may challenge you, this is your book.  If, like me, you are mortified, even paralyzed by the knowledge that you thought you were making good choices but apparently aren’t, and don’t really have the means to start over and this paralyzes you even more, yet you feel compelled to try do more or at least KNOW what you’re doing wrong, this book is a wealth of knowledge.  I personally feel that everyone should become familiar with the issues raised in the book, regardless of whether they agree with the author’s opinions and conclusions, and the book is short enough and simple enough to read quickly.  NB:  Using salted water in an aluminum pan in place of silver polish didn’t work for me though!!

Lucid Food:  Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life by Louise Shafia (Ten Speed Press, 2009; photography by Jennifer Martiné).  This IACP award-nominated book is a recipe book, interspersed with tips on how to “make great food that will sustain you and the environment”.  Divided into seasons, so you learn when the “right time” of year is to enjoy different fruits and vegetables.  Although not an entirely vegetarian book, this would be a safe (and cherished) vegetarian resource.  The recipes are elegant and refined, quite varied and refreshingly new.  The spices and combinations of ingredients are Asian, European, and ‘New American’, a small sampling of the world.  The only slight drawback is that if you don’t live in a well-stocked city, finding some of the ingredients will be challenging like barberries, rose petals, sheets of yuba, and so forth.  (And of course since you’re trying to be eco-conscious, you won’t mail order anything, will you?)  But don’t get me wrong– I believe that having a hard time finding ingredients periodically just encourages a curious cook to try out new combinations.  Jennifer Martiné’s gorgeous photography ensures that you’ll spend a lot of time studying the pages of this book, and get good use out of it, whether it’s to learn more about how you can lead an environmentally sustainable culinary existence, or to cook, or both.

On a separate note, and one which I do not believe detracts from the utility of Lucid Food as primarily a cookbook, I must admit I was a bit perplexed at certain assumptions Shafia made in the book.  For example:  “…Many of these [out of season] foods come from countries where labor conditions and pesticide use are unregulated.  This produce is usually inferior to locally-grown fruits and vegetables in both taste and nutritional value,” as if our agricultural sector can boast of better labor conditions or pesticide use…  Shafia also writes, “Some will argue that eating local, sustainable, and organic food is simply too expensive– or worse, exclusive or elitist– and that families on fixed incomes can’t afford to eat this way.  I would like to challenge that misconception right off the bat.” and then goes into the hidden costs of “inferior foods flown in from distant countries”, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, keeping money in the local economy etc.  She, like Zissu, obviously assumes that “affordability” is only monetary.   I guess in her world, if families with fixed incomes just realized how beautiful it is to bicycle around town in between their two and three jobs to smell the roses, stop and dig in some good and wormy compost, and get their employers to give them a break during the day to get in a trip to the farmer’s market, these people would so be with the program.  I don’t know though, because she doesn’t deal with the idea beyond this very superficial and common approach we see so often in these sermons.

The Seasoned Vegetarian by Simon Rimmer (Mitchell Beazley 2009; photography by Chris Terry) Phew!  I needed a break from all the shame.  A break from the advice that I should only be eating food which was harvested during the new moon on Monday. And who better to turn to for that than a Brit.  Simon Rimmer’s book is the equivalent of vegetarian comfort food.  Note:  This isn’t traditional British by any means, but the recipes are indeed very ‘modern’ British.  (Goat’s cheese and onion tart, zucchini fritters with green olive salsa, baked cherry tomatoes with ricotta and basil, falafel, hazelnut and chocolate meringues…)  All the ingredients are typical ones you can find where you do your food shopping, without difficulty.  Technique is simple, creativity isn’t at the level of Lucid Food, but then again, comfort food never is!  Rimmer’s recipes are straight forward and easy to produce.  In fact, this would be a good book for someone who is just starting out in the kitchen, regardless of their preference for eating meat.

New Urban Farmer:  From Plot to Plate:  A Year on the Allotment by Celia Brooks Brown (Quadrille 2010; photography by Jill Mead). So if the first two books really convinced you you should run right out and start an environmentally friendly garden, here you go.  This book is a great little treasure.  It follows the months of the year, starting in March (so I’m a little behind in telling you about it).  For each month’s chapter, it has charts that tell you which fruits/vegetables can be grown indoors / under glass, outdoors, or in containers, and then whether there is a recipe in the book.  The beginning chapter explains the basics of what you will need, and each chapter walks you through what you should be doing at each stage of the month.  It’s a very handy book for preparatory reading and a good reference thereafter, including recipes!

Grow Great Grub:  Organic Food from Small Spaces by Gayla Trail (Clarkson Potter 2009) This book could be the companion to Celia Brooks Brown’s book because it covers all the areas that Celia’s book doesn’t:  this is where you learn where and how to make your garden, how to make your containers, what bugs will be destroying what plants and how to deal with them.  There are recipes here too, but few of them.  There is, however, a chapter on how to preserve and can your harvest.  When I read through this book, starting a few plants on my balcony  before heading into gardening in my yard seems doable.  This book is a companion to Trail’s comprehensive website “You Grow Girl”, which by the way turned 10 this year.  Happy Birthday!  I promise I will do at least 1 plant this spring following her methods!

I’m so pleased to bring to you the second installment of the new Cookbook Review column here at Mattbites from our friend Kristina Gill. The fact that she lives in Rome yet doesn’t visit Spain regularly is a point of contention for me but imma let that go for now. Take it away, Kristina!

This week’s book reviews all began with an article in a magazine about San Sebastián, and a conversation with my {Italian} husband trying to convince him to take me to eat my way through Spain.  I began to look for Spanish cookbooks, and settled on what I think is a top quality bibliography.   If you have titles you’d recommend, or restaurants, please share!!  It’s my newest crush!  After my dog Crash! of course.

The Cuisines of Spain:  Exploring Regional Home Cooking by Teresa Barrenechea (Ten Speed Press, paperback 2009; food photographs by Christopher Hirsheimer, location photography by Jeffrey Koehler). This is the starting point for learning about Spanish cuisine.  Basque author and restaurateur Teresa Barrenechea provides a comprehensive look at the geography, customs, and recipes of Spain.  As a Spanish cuisine newbie, I appreciate the notes explaining the origin of the cuisines in the different areas and the usage and preparation of ingredients.  I try to have at least one book like this for each of the cuisines in which I am interested to better understand the people and the place which produced the food I like.

Pintxos: Small Plates in the Basque Tradition by Gerald Hirigoyen with Lisa Weiss (Ten Speed Press, 2009; photography by Maren Caruso) I haven’t been to San Francisco recently, so I haven’t had the chance to eat at one of Gerald Hirigoyen’s restaurants, but after reading his most recent cookbook Pintxos (pronounced “peenchos” in Basque, or tapas in Spanish), I want to skip his place and book a ticket to San Sebastián.  This book is divided into chapters which follow the menu at Bocadillos, Hirigoyen’s San Francisco restaurant.  And while there are quite a few ingredients in the book that I can’t source in Rome, the ones which are readily available more than make up for it.  This book spans all skill levels, offering the easiest of recipes (Griddled Ham and Cheese Bocadillos (sammiches)) through the more involved (Pork Medallions Confit with Curried Apple and Celery Root Salad).  My favorite chapters, wow, how to decide…just about everything except the organ meats!  That means bocadillos (little sandwiches), estofados (stews and braises), fritos (fried bites), ensaladas (salads), pintxos (skewers), and montaditos (bites on bread).  As Hirigoyen points out in his intro, most of these dishes are meant to be served room temperature and can easily be made ahead, so I really really recommend this book for anyone who likes to entertain.  Believe me, you will use it a lot and probably gradually create your own pintxos. { P.S.  I bet this is the first cookbook ever to feature liver and onions on the cover in a way that makes you want to eat it! }

Seasonal Spanish Food by José Pizarro and Vicky Bennison (Kyle Cathie Limited, 2009; photography by Emma Lee). As this book suggests, this is all about seasonal Spanish food.  Organized by season, the book presents recipes by the ingredients which are abundant in each particular season.  The book starts with Spring, and the first recipe is a brilliant green pea soup with Serrano ham (the ham is served on a piece of toast placed on top of the soup).  Every few recipes, there is an information page – about Spanish cheeses, salt cod (bacalao), Easter, vinegar, and so on – to put the food into a greater context, so you have the feeling you’ve made a connection with the place and the customs through Pizzaro’s recipes.  None of the recipes is too difficult– I appreciated his simple technique for preparing Galician-style Octopus, which is much shorter than other recipes I have seen, and produced a lovely dish.  I do recommend keeping an eye out for your preferred level of seasoning as I found some of the recipes, as written, tended to be under salted.  The photography in this book is beautiful, and together with the recipes, makes this a great general Spanish cuisine book, and now I am wondering myself why I didn’t stop at Tapas Brindisa in Borough Market two weeks ago when I was there!!!)

MoVida Rustica: Spanish Traditions and Recipes by Frank Camorra and Richard Cornish (Murdoch Books 2009; photography by Alan Benson). I really saved the best for last this time.    MoVida Rustica is Melbourne-based chef Frank Camorra’s second book about his native Spain’s cooking.  It is the fruit of almost two years of research.  Camorra, owner of MoVida and MoVida Next Door restaurants, ties the recipes together with his own personal experiences and the people and places he got to know as he traveled Spain to put together this volume.  This is not a book for people who don’t like to make an effort in the kitchen, as most of the recipes, although not at all difficult, do require a bit of organization and studying first, like the octopus terrine (can you tell I love octopus??). [You can see a video on how he prepares his octopus here.]This is however a book for anyone and everyone who is captivated, mesmerized even, by amazing food photography.  Alan Benson photographed my top two favorite books from 2009.  And though I don’t like to shunt the food content to the background, this really is first and foremost a high impact visual extravaganza.  The food and travel photography in MoVida Rustica is so fantastic, and the writing flows so well in this book, and the book just feels so nice in your hands, that even if you never cook from it, you’ll find yourself opening it again and again for photographic and styling inspiration.  It is available in the UK and Australia, and I hope that it will be available in the United States.

As food lovers I bet we have this in common: cookbooks. Tons of cookbooks.  Stacks and stacks of cookbooks actually. That’s why I’m so excited to have my good friend Kristina Gill contributing regularly to Mattbites. She’ll be writing regularly about cookbooks here and she just might help me with my desperate case of cookbookitis. Thank you Kristina, I’m so glad to have you!

These cookbook reviews previously complemented my Friday column, In the Kitchen With at Design*Sponge.  We felt that the reviews would be a better fit for a place where people visit for the food (and the photography).

I should properly introduce myself–  I am Kristina.  I live in Italy, but am American.  By day, I work in the field of development, mostly food aid.  If you’ve ever met me, chances are I’ve told you how much I love my dog Crash! (that’s him in the photo, how adorable is he?–matt) and I’ve given you a 30-second elevator pitch on why you should support the UN World Food Programme (and probably told you a bunch of other things, too).  I have a photography portfolio here, I tweet here, can be found every Friday here, and am in the process of resurrecting my own website.

This week’s cookbook selections are a result of my current cravings.  When people hear that I live in Italy, they think “Foodie Paradise!”  Of course, it’s true.  The food in Italy is great– if all you’re in the mood for is Italian.  If you want any other type of food, you have to travel elsewhere, or learn to make it yourself.  That’s what I do (both options) all the time.  When I can’t travel, I cook.

Asian Dumplings by Andrea Nguyen (TenSpeed Press 2009; photography by Penny De Los Santos).  This made all the buzz last year, including NPR’s Best of 2009 cookbook list for a reason.  Andrea has done a bang up job producing a collection of carefully tested recipes for all sorts of dumplings to fill every desire.  The recipes include steamed and fried dumplings, filled buns, spring rolls,  filled pastries, potato dumplings, sweet dumplings, dipping sauces, broths, doughs…everything!!  The instructions are clear, and while I am not so great at following diagrams to learn how to fold things (I use YouTube!), there are diagrams to illustrate the various folding techniques used in the book, and  of course Penny’s food photography is stellar.  If you ever have a craving for any sort of dumpling, this is your book.  Andrea was also nice enough to offer an exclusive vegan dumpling recipe for the In The Kitchen With column on Design*Sponge this Friday, Feb 5th,  breathtakingly photographed and styled by Matt and Adam C. Pearson.

Warm Bread and Honey Cake by Gaitri Pagrach-Chandra (Pavilion 2009; photography by Vanessa Courtier).  I have a sweet tooth.  In fact, I have 32 sweet teeth.  If left to my own devices, I’d eat cake for every meal.  And have been known to do so.  When I travel, I love to try the traditional cakes of the place I’m visiting. Gaitri has put together a fantastic collection of recipes for traditional breads and cakes from around the world.  When I was craving Lamingtons, guess what book I turned to.  Needed to use up some bananas…I opened this book, too.  Had a baklava query, turned to this book (there are three different recipes!).  This book presents international variations on fruit cakes, spice cakes, chocolate cakes, nut cakes, cheese cakes, coconut cakes, and so on.  It covers yeasted bread and all manner of flatbreads.  An Australian food blogger I follow on Twitter calls it her new cookbook crush.  I found cooking with this book to be a cinch, and it is definitely one of my happiest finds in 2009 for the variety of recipes and inclusion of every non-American cake recipe I have ever had a hankering for.  Photography is also quite nice.

My favourite ingredients by Skye Gyngell (Quadrille 2009; photography by Jason Lowe– will be released by Ten Speed Press later this month)  These days, I find that the pursuit of ‘good food’ can sometimes water down recipe collections.  This collection of recipes, based on the author’s favorite ingredients (the book’s chapters are by food type– e.g. leaves, citrus, pulses & grains, nuts, etc.), are really quite simple yet sophisticated.  This is really ‘adult’ food.  You will have to work to pull many of these together– the ingredients aren’t easy to come by in some cases, and the preparation a bit involved– but the end result will be so very satisfying.  For the winter, dishes like Ribollita with great strong cavolo nero (that’s kale isn’t it?), pickled pumpkin with burrata (or butternut squash), Clementines with Medjool dates, pomegranates and honeyed almonds (served with mascarpone), or blood oranges with warm honey and rosemary (and hot red pepper) make you want to stay inside.  But the book overall makes you want to find the time, space, and energy to have your own little garden so you can enjoy these full flavors.  This is a great book if you like to take your time in the kitchen and don’t mind shopping for specific ingredients to prepare a particular recipe.  Alternatively, this is a great book to inspire you to make adaptations with your own favourite ingredients.

Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes from the Editors of Martha Stewart Living (Clarkson Potter publishers 2009; Photography by Con Poulos and others).  OH NO!  NOT ANOTHER CUPCAKE!  I know that’s what you’re all saying.  And if you’re like me, and you look at the $2.75 price tag of a cupcake in a shoppe or bakery and say “Hmph, I can make a dozen of those for $2.75″ then THIS is exactly the book you need.  Martha and her editors have mad skills and need no introduction or explanation.  You know the recipes are -tight-.  You’ve got the decorating step-by-steps, the holiday variations (St. Patrick’s Day, New Year’s, Easter, etc.), and most importantly you’ve got the coconut cupcake recipe, which happens to be the best coconut cake in the world.  This whole book is worth it for that recipe alone.  What more can I say about a cupcake book?

(Matt’s notes: We all know how I feel about Martha, right folks? This book rules and I’m not just saying that because she’s been very good to me. It’s really a great book.)