Browse the Bookshelves Cooking, Food & Wine Selected Titles

Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2022; by Hugh Johnson; Mitchell Beazley; 336 pages; list price: $16.99
The world's best-selling annual wine guide.
Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book is the essential reference book for everyone who buys wine - in shops, restaurants, or on the internet. Now in its 45th year of publication, it has no rival as the comprehensive, up-to-the-minute annual guide.
Hugh Johnson provides clear succinct facts and commentary on the wines, growers and wine regions of the whole world. He reveals which vintages to buy, which to drink and which to cellar, which growers to look for and why. Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book gives clear information on grape varieties, local specialities and how to match food with wines that will bring out the best in both.
This latest edition of Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book includes a color supplement: The Ten Best Things About Wine Right Now, which covers wine blending and orange wine.

Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook; by Cindy Pawlcyn, Brigid Callinan (Contributor), Brigid Callanan, Laurie Smith (Photographer); Ten Speed Press; 288 pages; list price: $39.95
(from Publishers Weekly):  Chef Pawlcyn (Fog City Diner Cookbook) reveals the secrets behind the cuisine of wine country restaurant Mustards Grill in this latest cookbook.  A Napa Valley institution, Mustards is noted for its fabulous California food and innovative wine list.  The cookbook echoes this theme.  Starting with the tasty Morel Mushroom and Goat Cheese Toasts through the grilled Halibut with Tomato Vinaigrette and ending with the easy Cinnamon-Oatmeal Strawberry Shortcakes, the dishes have a light, simple touch.  But simple is not the same thing as easy.  Many recipes, like the Wild Mushroom Burgers with Apple-Jicama Slaw, rely on previously prepared ingredients found elsewhere in the book.  The food ranges from appetizers and soups through main courses to desserts, and also includes chapters on sandwiches, sides and condiments.  Pawlcyn often uses smokers and grills, and devotes a separate chapter to recipes involving those methods.  Many recipes in other chapters also require smoking or grilling, like the Smoked Trout with Warm Sweet Potato Salad and Horseradish Cream and the Ahi Tuna Sandwiches.  The dishes even something as simple as the Roasted Potatoes, prepared with garlic and thyme are uniformly fresh and innovative.  Alongside each of the recipes are enjoyable descriptions, hints, tips and anecdotes that enhance readers' know-how.  However, the often lengthy lists of ingredients may put off the beginner, gearing this book toward more experienced cooks.

Death by Chocolate Cakes : An Astonishing Array of Chocolate Enchantments; by Marcel Desaulniers, Duane Winfield (Photographer); William Morrow & Co; 224 pages; list price: $48.95
For the chocolate lover, there is nothing like biting into a rich, dark slice of chocolate cake. More than a mouthful of something wonderful, it's a chocolate celebration. And nobody knows how to celebrate chocolate cakes better than the "guru of ganache," chef Marcel Desaulniers.

The French Laundry Cookbook (2nd edition, January 2000); by Thomas Keller, Susie Heller (Photographer), Michael Ruhlman, Deborah Jones (Photographer); Artisan; 320 pages; list price: $50.00
(from Amazon.com): To eat at Thomas Keller's Napa Valley restaurant, The French Laundry, is to experience a peak culinary experience. In The French Laundry Cookbook, Keller articulates his passions and offers home cooks a means to duplicate the level of perfection that makes him one of the best chefs in the U.S. and, arguably, the world.
This cookbook provides 150 recipes exactly as they are used at Keller's restaurant. It is also his culinary manifesto, in which he shares the unique creative processes that led him to invent Peas and Carrots--a succulent pillow of a lobster paired with pea shoots and creamy ginger-carrot sauce--and other high-wire culinary acts. It offers unimagined experiences, from extracting chlorophyll to use in coloring sauces to a recipe for chocolate cake accompanied by red beet ice cream and a walnut sauce. You are urged to follow Keller's recipes precisely and also to view them as blueprints. To keep them alive, they must be infused with your own commitment to perfection and pleasure, as you define those terms. ... --Dana Jacobi

The Italian Country Table: Home Cooking from Italy's Farmhouse Kitchens; by Lynne Rossetto Kasper, Dana Gallagher (Photographer), Stephanie Tevonian (Designer); Scribner; 416 pages; list price: $35.00
Lynne Rossetto Kasper's authoritative first book, The Splendid Table, explored the food and culture of Emilia-Romagna, Italy's culinary heartland. In The Italian Country Table, a collection of 200 regional recipes gathered from farmhouse cooks, Kasper once again provides cultural investigation and authentic, workable recipes. The resulting cookbook-cum-chronicle will appeal to anyone seeking delicious, down-to-earth dishes and an introduction to cherished culinary traditions.

The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen : Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing; by Grace Young, Alan Richardson (Photographer); Simon & Schuster; 282 pages; list price: $30.00
The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, with its 150 recipes culled from a lifetime of family meals and culinary instruction, is much more than a cookbook.  It is a daughter's tribute -- a collection of personal memories of the philosophy and superstitions behind culinary traditions that have been passed down through her Cantonese family, in which each ingredient has its own singular importance, the preparation of a meal is part of the joy of life, and the proper creation of a dish can have a favorable influence on health and good fortune.  Each chapter begins with its own engaging story, offering insight into the Chinese beliefs that surround life-enhancing and spiritually calming meals.  In addition, personal family photographs illustrate these stories and capture the spirit of China before the Revolution, when Young's family lived in Canton, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.

The Irish Heritage Cookbook; by Margaret M. Johnson; Chronicle Books; 304 pages; list price: $19.95
The Bookwatch: Margaret Johnson's 'Irish Heritage Cookbook' goes beyond most simple little presentations of traditional dishes: it covers lesser-known fare from Dingle Pie to Smoked Haddock with Cheese Crust, representing the author's culinary investigations throughout Ireland.

Naples at Table: Cooking in Campania; by Arthur Schwartz; Harpercollins; 434 pages; list price: $30.95
Naples at Table is the first cookbook in English to survey and document the cooking of this culturally important and gastronomically rich area. Schwartz spent years traveling to Naples and throughout the region, making friends, eating at their tables, working with home cooks and restaurant chefs, researching the origins of each recipe. Here, then, are recipes that reveal the truly subtle, elegant Neapolitan hand with such familiar dishes as baked ziti, eggplant parmigiana, linguine with clam sauce, and tomato sauces of all kinds.

The Pie and Pastry Bible; by Rose Levy Beranbaum; Scribner; 692 Pages; list price: $45.00
With more than 200 recipes, 150 illustrated techniques, and 32 pages of photos of finished pies and pastries depicted in full color, this complete, practical, and indispensable book can be a magic wand for making the pies and pastries that cooks dream of.

Preserving Our Italian Heritage; Sons of Italy Florida Foundation; Wimmer Companies, Inc.; 222 Pages; list price: $14.95
from the Editor: "Preserving Our Italian Heritage" is more than just a cookbook. It is a collection of recipes from the hearts and minds of our forefathers, many handed down from generation to generation and written down for the very first time in this book. ... These wonderful foods are nostalgic and heart-warming, evoking beautiful memories of the past, entwining and reaching out to today. ... We feel this cookbook is truly a reflection of our cultural heritage.

Cucina Classica: Maintaining a Tradition; Sons of Italy Foundation, Order Sons of Italy in America; Wimmer Companies, Inc.; 221 Pages; list price: $15.00
from the Publisher: Imagine the wonderful smells wafting through your kitchen while cooking these favorite Italian recipes.  Within its 221 pages, there are recipes for appetizers, pasta, rice, meat, fish, chicken, salads, vegetables, and desserts.

Secrets of a Jewish Baker; by George Greenstein; Crossing Press; 384 Pages; list price: $18.95
Professional baker George Greenstein reveals what the home chef has suspected all along--professional bakers get great results because they use dozens of little tricks that make the difference between ordinary loaves of bread and spectacular ones. Here are secrets, tips, techniques, and instructions for everything from yeast breads to whole grain loaves to biscuits to croissants.

Last revised: September 16, 2021