Savory, Sweet, Spicy: Cookbooks and Food Writing

By Arts & Culture Editor Joan Kirschner

As Thanksgiving approaches, with the holiday season hot on its heels, booksellers and publishers are ramping up their offerings of cookbooks, books on food, and icons of the food world, just in time for preparing seasonal specialties and for gift-giving to “foodie” family and friends.

Newspapers and websites have released their annual picks of the latest or most beloved volumes of the genre. Whether you or your gift recipient is a cook, baker, or neither (that’s okay!), more than likely you both enjoy eating good food, whether it’s a homecooked or restaurant meal. You may be thinking about hosting a gathering, or what to bring if you’re invited to a potluck. You may belong to or have been invited to participate in a holiday cookie exchange. Or maybe reading about food and cooking is what you enjoy most.

The New York Times recently published its list of the 25 most influential cookbooks of the last 100 years. The Washington Post wrote about the recent proliferation of cookbook stores, including one outlier: New York’s Kitchen Arts and Letters which opened in 1983 – it’s a store I always stopped by when I was in the neighborhood. A Yelp search for Cookbook Store in Boston brings up a healthy list of options, though none is a cookbook specialist per sé.

Fannie Merritt Farmer was the Boston woman who became famous for her Boston Cooking School Cookbook, which later became known simply as The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, and remains one of the cornerstones of basic American cooking.

For a more contemporary but local take, the Boston Globe Cookbook is available directly from the newspaper.

Looking for a gift cookbook for a baker or ideas for a fabulous creation for your next dinner party? Serious Eats has developed a comprehensive list of cookbooks for bakers of all types and levels. 

An outstanding new book this season is not precisely about cooking, but about the extraordinary woman who brought so many cookbooks and their authors to prominence. The Editor by Sara B. Franklin explores the life of Judith Jones. Jones worked with the cookbook authors Julia Child, Edna Lewis, Claudia Roden, Madhur Jaffrey, Marcella Hazan, and many more, but she also edited countless authors of other genres. Jones was also sensitively portrayed in the “Julia” TV series about Child, which was well-received but unfortunately cancelled after two seasons, but is still available to stream. Jones eventually wrote The Tenth Muse, a memoir, and several cookbooks.

Claudia Roden’s Mediterranean, Treasured Recipes from a Lifetime of Travel, is the newest book by one of Jones’s most celebrated and prolific authors. The British Roden (who was born in Egypt), is now 85 but still a force in the culinary world.

One of artist Maira Kalman’s recent works, in conjunction with food writer Barbara Scott-Goodman, is simply titled Cake, and combines recipes with visual reminiscences of Kalman’s family.

Beloved novelist Laurie Colwin, who passed away unexpectedly in 1992 at just 48, was also known for her food writing in the former “Gourmet” and the “New Yorker” magazines. Her Home Cooking and More Home Cooking were reissued with new cover designs. Food writer Ruth Reichl, who contributed the forward to the new Home Cooking, authored multiple memoirs and novels, and the cookbook My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes that Saved My Life, following the sudden closure of “Gourmet”, where she was editor-in-chief.

Finally, if making reservations is more your style, join Open Table, or check out Eater Boston or Time Out Boston for recommendations.

As Julia Child would say, “Bon Appétit!”

Joan Kirschner is a Boston area writer/blogger who reviews books, museum exhibitions, theater, film, music, and travel experiences. Her commentary previously appeared on SonsiWoman.com, UllaPopken.com, WomenofGloucesterCounty.com, Trazzler.com, and IndieReader.com. She attributes a lifelong love of reading and cultural events to parents who encouraged her interests early on. Joan began as a retail and mail order catalog copywriter when typewriters, carbon paper, X-Acto knives, and hot glue were found in advertising offices everywhere. She advanced through the ranks and changes in technology, eventually taking on corporate communications, social media, and digital advertising and promotion. She managed and mentored younger writers, acquired skills in art direction, and had responsibility for print and digital communications reaching millions of customers. Surrounded by the babble of languages in Manhattan and Brooklyn and sympathizing with the challenges of non-English speakers, she earned a certificate in the Teaching of English as Second Language (TESOL) and began teaching and tutoring adults and college students. Joan now works part-time in grants administration, freelances occasionally, and covers books and the arts on her blog.