I didn't set out to make this collection, it is simply a byproduct of my interests in food, cooking, nutrition, plants, people, and of course, books. It began with my mother's cookbooks and wisdom, both of which she shared with me over the years as we baked together. The first cookbook that I purchased myself, Kids Cooking: A Very Slightly Messy Manual, came from a school book fair when I was in third grade. It was this book that really sparked my interest in food and cooking. It also came with my own assortment of brightly colored plastic measuring spoons that is still my favorite set. The cookbook portion of my collection really began to grow while I was in high school. Once I was old enough to cook on my own, I wanted as much information as I could find on the subject. After that, the collection began to feed itself; each book I buy makes me want to buy three others! And, through this process, many of my books have actually played pivotal roles in the direction my life has taken. The books led me to culinary school, the plant biology program at MSU, and they are helping to shape my decisions about where I am headed after graduation.

That is what I like best about my collection. It isn't just a bunch of books that decorate my shelves. These are books that I read, learn from, and use every single day. Every time I cook, which is nearly every time I eat, I use at least one thing that I learned from these books, but this collection isn't just cookbooks. It provides me with ideas that I use in every part of my daily life. Even though the collection may seem like it isn't very cohesive, I think my constant use of it illustrates my need for every single one of these books, and several more I am sure, to understand the cultural significance, nutritional importance, and pure fun of food in my life.

Culinary History:

1. Barnette, Martha. Ladyfingers and Nun's Tummies. New York: Vintage Books, 1997.

This book is entirely about the names people have given their food, either ingredients or dishes. The author arranged the information into categories such as, "Tasty Toponyms" (foods named after places) and "Foods That Look Like Clothes". It is basically a long list of funny tidbits she knows about food names and it is really fun to read.

2. Coe, Sue D. America's First Cuisines. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994.

This book explores the origins of a number of common foods through the study of the major indigenous cultures of Central and South America. It is very dry, and difficult to read straight through, but it is an excellent reference book when I am looking for information about native New World produce, meats, and cultures.

3. Foster, Nelson, & Linda S. Cordell. Chilies to Chocolates: Food the Americas Gave the World. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1992.

This book focuses on the variety found in the produce and grains of the New World and how they spread to the rest of the world. This book, like the one previous, is an excellent reference but it is also entertaining to read.

4. Tannahill, Reay. Food in History. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1973.

This is similar to America's First Cuisines in that it is written in a dry, reference book sort of style. This book, however, covers the discovery, cultivation, and preparation of foods throughout the world from 10,000 BC to present day. Considering the huge body of information it attempts to cover, it is very readable and covers each included topic surprisingly well. It gives a lot of information about the people and cultures built and destroyed as various foods made their way around the globe.

5. Visser, Margaret. Much Depends on Dinner. New York: Grove Press, 1986.

This book explores every aspect of the main ingredients of what the author considers a typical America meal. It includes chapters on corn, salt, butter and margarine, chicken, rice, lettuce, olive oil, lemon juice, and ice cream and it truly does cover all aspects of each of these foods. It is not only readable, it is fascinating and funny too.


Food and Health:

6. Balch, Phyllis A., & James F. Balch. Prescription for Nutritional Healing. New York: Avery, 2000

This book looks at individual nutrients and dietary supplements as well as diseases and the nutrients or supplements that might aid in their treatment. This book can be a handy reference if one is feeling under the weather, and reminds the reader of the strong effects food has on one's body.

7. Shepperson Mills, Dian, & Michael Vernon. Endometriosis: A Key to Healing through Nutrition. London: Thorsons, 2002.

This book deals with a subject that most people need not be concerned with. It is only useful to those that suffer from endometriosis and are looking for a treatment option that is gentler than the traditional surgical and drug therapies. For anyone that does suffer from the sometimes debilitating chronic pain of endometriosis (as I do), this book is an invaluable resource. It gives me the opportunity to feel that I am actively taking part in my own wellness. A feeling that I believe leads to healing.


8. Silverman, Harold M., et al. The Vitamin Book. New York: Bantam Books, 1985.

This book focuses on the benefits that each of the essential vitamins offers one's body, but it also covers the foods that best provide each of these vitamins. I think that viewing your food as the nutritional fuel for your body that it is leads to a more full enjoyment of your food as well as better health.

Growing Your Food:

9. Ball, Jeff. The Self-Sufficient Suburban Gardener: A step-by-step planning and management guide to backyard food production. Emmaus, PN: Rodale Press, 1983.

I purchased this book at my local library's used book sale many years ago. I'd had an interest in gardening before reading it, but after seeing what this author was able to do (not only grow his own vegetables, but keep rabbits and fish, create all his own compost through vermiculture, and more) in his own backyard I became completely fascinated with the concept of producing delicious food for myself and the people around me.

10. Guerra, Michael. The Edible Container Garden. New York, Gaia Books Limited, 2000.

I bought this book when my parents finally decided that I could have a very small, mostly container based garden. It is more than just a book about getting food from containers, it provides tons of tips for growing as much food as possible in a small space. It was useful for my garden and it is also full of beautiful pictures that make it fun to go through anytime.

11. Salatin, Joel. You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farming Enterprise. Swoope, VA: Polyface, Inc., 1998.

This is one of the strangest books I have ever read. It is an amazing reference for the person interested in starting a small commercial farm, but, because it is self published, it is also a soapbox for all of the author's somewhat oddball political ideas, and he has several. It seems like all the opinions and preaching would make the book more difficult to read, but I think it actually adds to its credibility. It lets the reader know that the author is, in fact, just a regular guy who found incredible success as a small farmer and has a passionate desire to share his techniques with others.

12. Wilkinson Barash, Cathy. Edible Flowers: From Garden to Palate. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1993.

This is a fun book because it reminds the reader about the other uses of the ornamental plants we grow. It provides everything a person would need to know to grow, collect, and serve the flowers covered in the book. It is easy to forget that flowers are more than just pretty so it is nice that this book is around to tell us which ones are also tasty!

13. Winston, Mark L. The Biology of the Honey Bee. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987.

I bought this book because it is the textbook for the MSU apiculture class, which I hope to take this fall. It is about beekeeping but it goes into much more depth about the biology of the bee (hence its name) then the average beekeeping book. I love it because I am completely fascinated by bees, honey, and everything that has anything to do with them.

Finding Your Food:

14. Brill, Steve "Wildman". Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places. New York: Hearst Books, 1994.

This was the first book I bought of this type and is the most well read book of my collection. I ran across the book at Barnes & Noble, and the first thing I saw when I opened it was a detailed drawing of pineapple weed, a plant similar to chamomile that I had munched on during recess in elementary school. This book led to my healthy obsession with foraging and the build up of a rather large collection of books on the topic.

15. Couplan, Francois. The Encyclopedia of Edible Plants of North America. New Canaan, Connecticut: Keats Publishing, 1998.

This book is not helpful for identifying plants but it provides excellent background information about plants once I have already learned to identify and collect them. It sort of fills in the gaps left by the books that focus on identification, it even gives the etymology of scientific names.

16. Elliott, Doug. Wild Roots: A Foragers Guide to the Edible and Medicinal Roots, Tubers, Corms, and Rhizomes of North America. Rochester, Vermont: Healing Arts Press, 1995.

This book has the most amazing drawings of root systems I have ever seen. They are beautiful, detailed, and delicate, but they also have a haunting quality that reminds me of the illustrations in the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series my friends and I always read at slumber parties. It's worth owning just for the pictures; plus it has loads of info about how to use the roots featured in the drawings.

17. Gibbons, Euell. Stalking the Wild Asparagus. Brattleboro, Vermont: Alan C. Hood & Company, Inc., 1962.

This is the classic guide to foraging. Almost every other author on the subject spends part of his or her book paying homage to Euell Gibbons. Gibbons probably wasn't the first of his kind, but he was certainly the first to write a book about it. It's a good book too. Each chapter is devoted to a different edible wild plant. They all include entertaining personal stories and recipes that make it clear that the author has been an avid forager for his entire life.

18. Naegele, Thomas A. Edible and Medicinal Plants of the Great Lakes Region. Davisburg, Michigan: Wilderness Adventure Books, 1996.

This is an informative book and it is fun because it focuses on the plants of my area, but its style verges on silly. Each plant has a detailed line drawing and an information page. The information includes uses, including historical and commercial, season of availability, habitat, etc. The silly part is the final section, called personal experimentation, in which the author describes his use of the plant. This section invariably includes drinking "over a quart of this decoction with no ill effect", which just makes me picture a man with a notebook sitting alone in a cabin drinking quart after quart of "wild decoctions". It makes me smile.

19. Peterson, Lee Allen. A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern/Central North America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1977.

This is an excellent layperson's field guide for identifying edible plants. It is a little frustrating to use now that I have taken plant systematics classes and have become familiar with dichotomous keys because they are actually much easier to use than this book, which is organized by flower color and basic flower shape. Nevertheless, it is a book that I often turn to when I am out collecting.

20. Seymore, Tom. Foraging New England. Guilford, Connecticut: The Globe Pequot Press, 2002.

This book is well written and informative, although not necessarily a favorite of. I bought it last summer, before an East Coast camping trip I took with my mother and it served me well during the trip so I chose to include it in this list.

21. Tatum, Billy Joe. Wild Foods Field Guide and Cookbook. New York: Workman Publishing Company, 1976.

This book begins with pages devoted to seventy different edible wild plants. The information and pictures are useful, though not quite detailed enough to use for identification without the aid of another field guide. The remaining portion of the book is devoted to recipes for dishes that the author actually served in her own restaurant. The dishes are simple, comforting, delicious, and easy to prepare. The book is a gem because most foraging guides do not contain such practical and tasty recipes.

Ingredients:

22. Author Unknown. Flower Vegetables. Bangkok: Sangdad Publishing Co., Ltd.

I purchased this book in a discount bookstore in Thailand. I'm sure the author's name is on it somewhere but, unfortunately, most of the book is in Thai so I can't find it. Each page of this book is actually a big flash card with a picture and the name, in both Thai and English, of a flower on the front and a description of the flower on the back. Only part of the description is translated into to English, so I am not exactly sure what kind of information is written on the back of the cards. I really like this book because it contains both familiar flower vegetables such as cauliflower, chives, and squash flowers and unfamiliar, like kra-jeaw flowers and phai flowers.

23. Author Unknown. Fruit Volume I. Bangkok: Sangdad Publishing Co., Ltd.

I got this book at the same time as the previous one and it is organized in the same manner. I didn't see a volume II. This book is also a fun mix of the exotic and the familiar, containing everything from watermelons and apples to durian, which is definitely the most exotic fruit I have ever tasted. This book has also come in handy a few times because it has a picture of the dragon fruit, which has become popular in bottled drinks recently. Now whenever a person asks me if there is really such a thing as a dragon fruit (which happens surprisingly often), I can show them this book.

24. Bissell, Frances. The Book of Food: A Cook's Guide to over 1,000 Exotic and Everyday Ingredients. New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc., 1989.

I actually own several books of this type but this one is by far my favorite. It is essentially an illustrated encyclopedia of edible stuff. It's great because it contains just about everything I have ever come across (even things that stumped the master chefs that taught me while I was in culinary school) and, even with so much information, the author is able to speak of each ingredient as though she and the item share a close personal relationship. On top of that, there is a beautiful color photo of almost everything described. What more could I ask for?

25. Swahn, J.O. The Lore of Spices: Their history, nature and uses around the world. London: Grange Books, 1991.

When I found this book at a used book store in Ann Arbor I didn't have the twelve dollars and fifty cents required to purchase it but it was so fascinating that I hid the book and raced home to find some money so I could buy it. I'm glad I did because the book really is as fascinating as I had first thought. It provides very detailed information about every aspect of 35 spices that Europeans and Americans would find familiar. This information includes the growth habits of the botanical source of the spice, the history of the spice in the spice trade, culinary and other uses, and interesting stories about each spice.

The Science & Art of Cooking:

26. Dornenburg, Andrew & Karen Page. Culinary Artistry. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996.

This book aims to teach people how to cook as though cooking is an art and not a necessity. It is not a cookbook, although it does have a few recipes here and there as examples. The book explains how to "compose flavors" and it contains a lot of information about pairing ingredients with their best possible partners as well as menu planning. It actually has a whole chapter consisting of lists of food matches suggested by the worlds most respected chefs. This is the book that I always turn to when I am planning my parents' anniversary dinner or a special meal for someone I love. When creating a really spectacular menu, only decades of experience could be more useful than this book.

27. Labensky, Steven. Webster's New World Dictionary of Culinary Arts second edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2001.

This book contains a definition for just about every word you might come across while pursuing an interest or career in classical culinary arts. It covers everything from cocktail ingredients to special inventories to the Swedish term for butter.

28. McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. New York: Scribner, 1984.

This is really an amazing book. Packed with historical, scientific, and tasty information, it truly embodies all the ideas that this book collection represents for me. I even borrowed its name for the title of the collection. This book is far to vast to even begin to describe, but I think it is sufficient to say that if I ever have a question about food or cooking, this book will have the answer.

29. McGee, Harold. The Curious Cook: More Kitchen Science and Lore. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1990.

This book is just as fascinating as the previous one, but very different. Instead of covering every imaginable food related topic in great depth, the author covers relatively few topics in exquisite detail. The subjects range from the gas producing tendencies of the Jerusalem artichoke to the interactions between cookware, food, and health. Because each subject has its own small chapter, it is easier to just sit down and read than McGee's first work and, like his first work, it leaves you feeling satisfied and stuffed with information.

Basic Cookbooks:

30. Darling, Jennifer et al. Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. Des Moines: Meredith Corporation, 1989.

I think I received this book for my tenth birthday. It was my first "grown-up" cookbook and I was immensely pleased with it. It's just your average busy-mom cookbook, but I loved it and read it so thoroughly that many of its pages are no longer attached to the binding.

31. Rombauer, Irma S. & Marion Rombauer Becker. The New Joy of Cooking. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1953.

The 1953 edition of this classic cookbook, which was first published in 1931, is also a busy-mom cookbook, but it was written for a type of mom that has not existed in my lifetime. It assumes the reader already has some basic cooking skills and then bombards her (the reader is most certainly a woman) with recipe after recipe after recipe for pleasing her husband, nourishing her children, and impressing friends and relatives. Two things I find kind of endearing about this cookbook are its obsession with all things canned (World War II wasn't long past and canned items were still a novelty) and its use of the word rule instead of recipe.

32. Wallace, Lily. The American Family Cook Book. New York: Books, Inc., 1950.

This book seems to assume that the reader has just been released from a cave and must now feed a hungry family of four. It contains a recipe for fresh plumbs which reads like this: "Wash, dry, and serve". It even has a recipe for peanut butter sandwiches. Whenever I pick up this book I imagine a concerned mother-in-law presenting it to her new daughter as a somewhat unflattering wedding gift.

33. Westmoreland, Susan. The All New Good Housekeeping Cook Book. New York: Hearst Books, 2001.

I picked up this book in Meijers and liked the pictures so I bought it. I sort of regretted the purchase afterwards because it is just a basic cookbook without much of anything interesting to it. Over time I have realized that this type of book is very valuable when I am sitting around the apartment and decide that I need to make brownies using only the ingredients that are already sitting in my cupboard. Now I turn to this book whenever I need a good basic recipe.

Textbooks:

34. Decker, Joseph. Pastry Lab Manual. Livonia, Michigan: Schoolcraft College.

This lab manual was written by the master pastry chef who teaches pastries at Schoolcraft College, where I attended culinary school. The manual is full of tips and recipes that Chef Decker took a life time to collect. I am lucky to have it, he was not the nicest of men and he was often unwilling to share his knowledge.

35. Donovan, Mary Deirdre. The New Professional Chef: The Culinary Institute of America, 6th Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1996.

This was my main textbook while I was in culinary school. The first third of it is background information and techniques and the rest of it is recipes with examples from every portion of a menu. It is written for the restaurant rather than the home kitchen but much of it could easily be used at home. It is very informative and I often use it for ideas, but most of the recipes are of the classical French style and that is not usually the way I cook so I don't use it that much.

36. Escoffier, Auguste. The Complete Guide to Modern Cookery. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1979.

Escoffier was the father of French cuisine and this book is the bible of the master chef. This is another book that assumes the reader knows what he is doing and how to manipulate ingredients. (In this case the reader was most certainly a man. The book was first published in France in 1902, a time when all professional chefs were men.) It offers suggestions for pairings of ingredients and components of a dish rather than explaining how to cook. To me this book is more of interest as a historical reference than a cookbook. Most of the dishes described in this book have either become classics, like peach melba, or sound completely gross to the modern reader, such as the many dishes he describes involving aspic.

37. Gisslen, Wayne. Professional Baking, 3rd Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001.

I use this book quite often, more for the pastries than the yeast breads. It is written for a student preparing to become a chef so the recipes are given in both small and large scales. Baking can be tricky and this book explains all the techniques very clearly, plus it has a wide array of recipes that can be used and built on easily. It's just a nice book.

38. Richemont Craft School. Swiss Confiseur, 4th Edition. Lucerne, Switzerland: Craft School and Research Library of the Swiss Master Baker's and Confectioner's Association, 1996.

This is a very strange book. It was the text for my chocolatier class but it also includes a number of different composed desserts and salads. I suppose the main reason for its strangeness is just that it is not a very good translation but even without that, the book is very confusing. It is unfortunate because many of the chocolates in this book were heavenly when we made them in class and I would like to try some of the other recipes.

Baking:

39. Beranbaum, Rose Levy. The Pie and Pastry Bible. New York: Scribner, 1998.

This is one of the most mouth watering cookbooks that I own. Although the recipes are a bit complicated, they always turn out beautifully. The author has also written a book called The Cake Bible, which is equally decadent. The two books are not just cookbooks, they also go into great detail about techniques and ingredients. The Cake Bible even solved an argument for me once due to its wealth of information on the nature of chocolate.

40. Heatter, Maida. Maida Heatter's Cakes. New York: Cader Books, 1982.

The recipes in this book are so good. All of the cakes I have made from this book have been simple, interesting, and absolutely delicious. I haven't tried the sauerkraut chocolate cake recipe yet, but I'm sure that it will be great too.

41. Ortiz, Joe. The Village Baker: Classic Regional Breads from Europe and America. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1993.

I haven't baked much yeast bread on my own. My mother was the baker when I was growing up. I helped, but I let it remain her domain. I made a lot of different yeast breads in culinary school, but we had special steam proofers and brick bottom ovens, not the sort of stuff you find in an apartment kitchen. It seems like baking is more of a science than cooking is, and it is difficult to find recipes that come out perfectly in a home kitchen. This book is different than most I have found because it celebrates the idiosyncrasies of regional breads. The author strives to create breads with interesting tastes and textures, so as long as your bread turns out good, it is perfect. I have made a few of the recipes from this book, including a sour that was made with an apple that was left to ferment on my counter for two weeks, and they have all been very good.

42. Silverton, Nancy. Breads from the La Brea Bakery. New York: Villard Books, 1996.

My boyfriend and I call the author of this book the bread nazi or crazy bread lady. She is a very accomplished and respected baker, but her book is a little insane. She has developed a very specific method for making bread and very generously shares her techniques with the world, but she seems to think that there is only one way to make good bread. Her way. The book is a collection of slight variations on her master technique. The recipes make excellent bread, but the philosophy of the book is the complete opposite of that of the previous book, which I prefer over this one.

43. Wilson, Dede. The Wedding Cake Book. New York: Macmillan, 1997.

I have made some of the cake recipes in this book, they are very good, but I have not yet had the pleasure of making an entire wedding cake. I bought this book because the cakes within it are beautiful and creative. I have had it for a few years now and I still love flipping through it and fantasizing about fabulous wedding cakes.

Single Subject Cookbooks:

44. Aidells, Bruce & Denis Kelly. The Complete Meat Cookbook. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.

Like many people my age, I was a vegetarian all during high school and for some time after graduation, so I didn't have much experience cooking meat. I bought this book right around the time I started culinary school for two main reasons. First, my first class was butchery and, being very inexperienced with (and a little repulsed by) meat, I was looking for any resource that could provide me with some knowledge of the subject. Second, my mother loves all things meaty and I wanted to learn how to make her favorite dishes for her. This book filled both of those needs and, now that I am omnivorous again, has provided me with lots of tasty recipes for myself as well.

45. Carroll, Ricki & Robert Carroll. Cheese Making Made Easy. Pownal, Vermont: Storey Communications, Inc., 1982.

I haven't had the chance to make many of the cheeses in this book, only one actually, because I don't have the space to age them and I am not really sure where to locate the starter cultures needed. The one cheese I did make was really good though, and I like to look through the book and fantasize about making cheese (something I actually do). I'm pretty sure that this book has all of the information I would need to get started making several different types of cheese. The recipes are simple to follow and, from the little experience I have, the results are magnificent.

46. Cook's Illustrated. The Cook's Illustrated Complete Book of Poultry. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1999.

This book was written and published by the editor of Cook's Illustrated, an advertisement-free magazine that aims to explore all aspects of cooking (including the best brand names which is why they have no ads) and teach people how to make the best and simplest food they can. This book consolidates all of the information they have gathered on poultry and presents it clearly to the reader. The recipes within it are very good, but the real value of the book is that it teaches you how to cook with poultry. I have used it to make several dishes that I had no previous experience cooking, like fried or oven roasted chicken, and they all came out great.

47. Katz, Sandor Ellix. Wild Fermentation. White River Junction, Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing Company, 2003.

I just got this book today but it is so cool that I must include it in the collection. Obviously I haven't had the opportunity to try any of the recipes yet, but I am very excited. It contains recipes for run of the mill fermented items like sauerkraut as well as a fascinating corn beer that starts with enzymes added to the corn through chewing. I can't wait to try this stuff. The book also offers a wealth of information about the history and health benefits of fermented foods.

48. Miller, Ashley. The Bean Harvest Cookbook. Newton, Connecticut: The Taunton Press, Inc., 1997.

This book starts out with information on the history, traditions, and methods of bean cultivation as well as detailed information on some of the more common varieties of beans. The recipes that follow are tasty and creative and really show the author's appreciation and knowledge of beans.

49. Weinstein, Bruce. The Ultimate Ice Cream Book. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1999.

This is one of my favorite cookbooks. I love ice cream and the recipes in this book could not be better or more diverse. A few years ago I managed to get an old ice cream maker, the kind you have to put in the freezer, for a dollar from salvation army. Since then, that machine and this book have allowed me to make everything from corn to chocolate chocolate truffle ice cream and the results have always been far superior to store bought.

50. Ziedrich, Linda. The Joy of Pickling. Boston: The Harvard Common Press, 1998

This book contains instructions for creating and storing a huge variety of pickles, from kimchi and dills to walnuts, peaches, and nasturtium pods. I don't have the opportunity to do a lot of pickling, I don't have the kitchen space or the access to the large volumes of fresh produce needed, but I have made a few of the pickles in this book and I've loved them. Plus, the book is written in such an entertaining style and the recipes are so interesting that it is a fun book to read anytime, whether I will be able to do any pickling or not.

Cooking Around the World:

51. Asala, Joanne. Celtic Folklore Cooking. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1998.

This is another cookbook that is fun to read but hasn't seen much use in my kitchen yet. It begins with information about Celtic traditions and holidays, as well as the foods that are most commonly associated with each, and continues with recipes. Dispersed throughout the recipes are Celtic stories and poems and other interesting tidbits of information that give the recipes a depth beyond those found in most cookbooks. As I read this book, it is easy to imagine myself sitting at the breakfast table of a rolling green farm eating fresh eggs and pancakes made with fresh milk before beginning my day in the barns and pastures.

52. Bayless, Rick. Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen. New York: Scribner, 1996.

Although the author of this book is not Mexican, the recipes he provides are beautiful and clearly based on authentic ingredients and methods. It includes dishes that call for delicacies such as huitlacoche, a fungus that grows on corn, which is not appreciated in the US and referred to as corn smut. The author is obviously in love with Mexican cuisine and, after reading his book and making some of the dishes, he has made me start to feel the same.

53. Bishop, Jack. The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997.

I got this book early on in my collecting and I remember sitting up late on school nights reading through the recipes for things like red wine risotto with rosemary and garlic, cauliflower soufflé with pink tomato sauce and rosemary sorbet. Now that I have more experience cooking, I use this book for ideas more than recipes because the techniques of Italian cuisine are generally simple. I often turn to this book when I am planning dishes for my father. He is half Italian and loves Italian food but he is on a special no-fat diet. The vegetarian recipes in this book are a good starting point for designing a fat free dish and he has always been happy with the results.

54. Brennan, Jennifer. The Cuisines of Asia: Nine Great Oriental Cuisines by Technique. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984.

The author of this book is a British woman who was raised in India. I think that this situation gave her a unique perspective on Asian Cuisine. I imagine that even though it was an everyday part of her life, a shroud of mystery hung around it as it was not the food most often consumed by her and her family. This is the feeling conveyed by her book. The recipes are interesting and somewhat authentic but the author often suggests rather odd substitutes for traditional Asian ingredients. At first I took this to be a mark of disrespect for Asian culture, but after consideration I have realized that it may have been a necessity due to the unavailable-ness of many ingredients at the time the book was written. Either way, the recipes I have made from this book have always been quite tasty.

55. Jaffrey, Madhur. Madhur Jaffrey's World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking. New York: Alfred A. Knope, Inc., 1999.

This book provides an interesting contrast to the previous one. The author of this book is an Indian woman, so, to her, Asian food is completely familiar and common place. In addition, the book is entirely vegetarian, which makes for a very different collection of recipes than what is found in the previous book. Also, this book stresses the importance of finding authentic ingredients and provides suggestions for how to do so easily so that the reader can fully enjoy the recipes. I have used this book a lot, mostly for its Indian dishes, and the recipes are perfect.

56. Lew, Judith et al. Thailand The Beautiful Cookbook. San Francisco: Collins Publishers, 1992.

This is a very beautiful book that is probably meant to be more of a coffee table book than an actual cookbook. The pages are very large and the pictures so gorgeous that it would be a shame to accidentally spill a bit of food on them. Thai food is my favorite and this is only one of many Thai cookbooks that I own. I chose to include this one because it helped inspire me to actually travel to Thailand, a once in a lifetime opportunity that I took while attending culinary school.

57. Olney, Richard. The French Menu Cookbook. Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, Inc., 1985.

I have had this cookbook for a long time. It came from my school library and, if I recall correctly, it made its way to me because a friend of mine stole it and then felt guilty so she gave it to me. She did not explain this to me until much later. Richard Olney in an American who studied food in France. His book goes through the process of designing a menu, describes all the components of a menu in detail, including wine, and finally provides menu examples with a recipe for each dish. It is a beautifully orchestrated book and I will probably put it to good use this summer, when I prepare the rehearsal dinner for a friends wedding. She requested that the meal have the feeling of Southern France.

58. Osborne, Christine. Middle Eastern Cooking. New York: Smithmark Publishers Inc., 1994.

This book used to belong to my mother. I'm not even sure she knows I took it when I moved out. Growing up, I found it extremely exotic (even though I am part Armenian and have always had some middle eastern food around) because it contains recipes for lambs' brain, lambs' testicle, and fried liver all on the same page. I used to look at that page and literally gag. Since then, I have eaten liver and brain, although not testicle, and I am proud to say that I can handle reading all of the recipes on page 36. I still haven't made many recipes from this book though, but I did use it a few months ago when I was making a lamb stew. It turned out quite tasty.

59. Uvezian, Sonia. The Cuisine of Armenia. New York: Harper & Row, 1974.

As I mentioned, I am part Armenian. The country and culture have always been very mysterious to me and, of course, the food has always been the aspect that most fascinates me. For this reason, I was very excited when I stumbled across this book. The food is somewhat similar to Lebanese food, which is pretty easy to find in this country, but better. This book very elegantly describes how the food of Armenia demonstrates the diverse influences that act upon the tiny country as well as the tendency for Armenians to hold on dearly to their traditions.

Themed Cookbooks:

60. Klutz Press. Kids Cooking: A Very Slightly Messy Manual. Palo Alto, California: Klutz Press, 1987.

This was the first cookbook that I ever owned myself. It is written for children and even when I was little I thought the recipes were a little silly, but it was mine, not my mom's, so I loved it and still do. I imagine someday I will let my own children use it, perhaps inspiring them to buy cookbooks of their own as well.

61. Lansky, Vicki. Feed Me I'm Yours. Wayzata, Minnesota: Meadowbrook Press, 1974.

This book belonged to my mother. It is similar to the book previous to this one but it is written for parents instead of children. It is full of great ideas about foods, from baby food to smiley face pancakes, that you can make for and/or with your child. My mother gave me this book because she knew that I would enjoy it when I have children of my own. I am glad that she did because I remember leafing through it fondly as a child and the little notes my mother has written to her self throughout the book make me smile.

62. Marks, Gil. The World of Jewish Cooking: More than 500 Traditional Recipes from Alsace to Yemen. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.

This book knocked around for several years before I realized how valuable it is. It always seemed like an interesting book but, now that I have made several recipes from it, I see that it is an amazing collection of recipes from diverse cultures all tied together by their faith and their adherence to certain dietary rules. It is fascinating to see the different interpretations of various traditional Jewish dishes. In addition, all of the recipes I have made from this book, which include quince and sesame candies, breads, and buckwheat groats among other things, have been wonderful. This has become one of my most indispensable cookbooks.

63. The Moosewood Collective. Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990.

This book is based on the international menus created by Moosewood Restaurant, a vegetarian restaurant in Ithaca. It is a good book, although I don't use it a whole lot. The recipes are the authors' own vegetarian versions of authentic dishes and I like to base my cooking off of recipes that describe the real thing. It does have a wonderful recipe for Mexican hot chocolate which I used to create a recipe for a wonderfully rich cinnamon white hot chocolate. The drink is so good that I just couldn't leave this book out of my collection.

Chez Panisse:

64. Shere, Lindsey Remolif. Chez Panisse Desserts. New York: Random House, 1985.

This book was written by the pastry chef at Chez Panisse. It includes recipes for everything from dense chocolate cakes to simple fruit compotes. Every dessert is simple and its ingredients harmonious. Above all, the author stresses the use of the best ingredients one can find, in season, at any time. Like all the Chez Panisse books I have, I love this cookbook.

65. Waters, Alice. Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook. New York: Random House, 1982.

This book features some of the favorite menus served for special occasions at Chez Panisse. They range from birthday to garlic celebration menus and they all have one thing in common. The simple harmony that is found in Chez Panisse dishes.

76. Waters, Alice. Chez Panisse Vegetables. New York: HarperCollinsPublishers, 1996.

Each vegetable featured in this book has its own chapter describing some of the features of the vegetable as well as a few simple recipes. With this book, Ms. Waters shows her readers how to bring out the essence of fresh seasonal vegetables and turn them into the highlight, rather than the side dish, of a meal.