Looking for a gift for the foodie in your life?
Consider one of the many new cookbooks in stores, hot off the presses just in time for the holidays.
"More and more people are eating and cooking at home now than ever before," notes Alison Fryer of The Cookbook Store in Toronto.
There are a number of new recipe collections on offer, from compendiums such as Gourmet Today, edited by Ruth Reichl (its release bittersweet given Gourmet’s recent demise), to a back-to-basics release by Martha Stewart entitled Martha’s Home Dinners.
Is your teen interested in learning to cook? Kitchen Scraps, a Canadian title from Pierre Lamielle, is a fun introduction to cooking that’s jammed with illustrations.
"This is for somebody who’s maybe, doesn’t want the whole Julia Child, spending all day in the kitchen, but wants to get started," Fryer says. "So great for teens, young people, early 20s, leaving home for the first time, that sort of thing."
Anna Olson, known primarily for her baking cookbooks Sugar and Another Cup Of Sugar, releases Fresh, which focuses on local ingredients and eating what’s in season.
"People forget when things are in season now," Fryer notes. "You see strawberries and raspberries in February and you think, ‘Well wait a minute, when are those in season?’"
Thomas Keller of Michelin-starred The French Laundry restaurant also has a title out, Ad Hoc At Home.
"Even the chefs are keeping it simple now. He’s got a fabulous recipe for chocolate chip cookies," Fryer says.
And for the singletons out there who feel as though it’s not worth making the effort? Longtime Julia Child editor Judith Jones has put out The Pleasures of Cooking for One.
Says Fryer, "So many people are on their own now for a variety of reasons — why should they sacrifice taste?"
Here are some other hot-off-the-press cookbooks:
Ghoulish Goodies – by Sharon Bowers
The Pleasures of Cooking for One – by Judith Jones
Kitchen Scraps – by Pierre Lamielle
Clean Food – by Terry Walters
Ad Hoc at Home – by Thomas Keller
Best of Chef at Home – by Michael Smith
Fresh – by Anna Olson
Martha’s Home Dinners – by Martha Stewart
C Food – by Robert Clark
A Year in Lucy’s Kitchen – by Lucy Waverman
Good Food for All – from the Stop
Deluxe Food Lover’s Companion – by Sharon Tyler Herbst
Gourmet Today – editor Ruth Reichl
Earth to Table – by Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann
Baking (in the cooking from above series)
Two Dishes – by Linda Haynes and Devin Connell
All the Best Recipes – by Jane Rodmell