I’m not sure how I missed this thread before but was amused to find I share a few firsts -
Complete Asian Cookbook* by Charmaine Solomon that @shrinkrap posted became an early member of my collection. It is still a go-to.
My sister moved to Cambridge, MA after college and took me to East Coast Grill. I think they may have just opened. The place was filled with smoke, as if they hadn’t figured out the exhaust system yet. At the time I thought that was to be expected but future visits were not nearly as smoky. It didn’t stop me from getting The Thrill of the Grill that @tomatotomato mentioned above. While I use several of their recipes for some reason I find the way the the recipes are laid out to be very annoying.
Like @biondanonima my parents had a Frugal Gourmet book. I know they were very early additions to my collection - I have 3 but can’t remember which came first. I remember watching his show too.
The last one I remember getting early in my cooking life is The Frog Commissary Cookbook by Steven Poses, Anne Clark and Becky Roller. I worked in Philadelphia and The Frog and its offshoots were near my office and were all the rage.
I always wanted Mastering the Art of French Cooking but only purchased it about a year ago. Better late than never.
SIMONE ORTEGA: 1. 080 Recetas de Cocina - Biblioteca Tematica Allianza …
Spanish Regional Cuisines. (Copyrighted in: 1972 and my mom gave it to me in the later part of the 1980s) … It is 2 books)…
Books by: Basque Professor Chef Luis Irizar, the Professor of Pedro Subijana and Juan Mari Arzak & Basque Chef Karlos Arguiñano (books and T.V. Cooking Show - came later, early 1990s).
LE CORDON BLEU SERIES (and a couple of courses )
BOOKS BY: Paul Bocuse, Alain Ducasse & Joël Robuchon …
Studied at the Alain Ducasse Culinary Academy and also at the Bocuse Institute …
I had thought to become a Chef, and changed goals …
Yes! Have the book too; BTW, Atlanta Cooknotes is most fabulous, very solid book, and practical. In fact most JL cookbooks have a wonderful simplicity to them - most recipes use basic pantry items, with a minimum of shopping for the recipe components (proteins, veg and fruit), and with end results generally being greater than the sum of their parts. That said, I do own some that are a bit on the “reaching” side @bbqboy.
When I started this thread, totally forgot the cookbook I first used when starting out as a child-adult; I have the ability to totally block out certain things - handy at times! Anyway, lost the book in a breakup, but it was a Betty Crocker cookbook, that I used as a bible. Mostly good results. Later I picked up a copy of Mollie Katzen’s Whole Earth cookbook or something like it. Pretty uninspired recipes, but it was early days back then - at least it informed my shopping lists at the Natural Foods store. Then came the Time-Life Books, followed by Moosewood Cookbook, and the Silver Palate books. Then a lot more, based on interest, and the rest is history. What a trip down memory lane!
My parents got divorced when I was 11, and my mother went to work. I had always loved to cook, and I became the family cook. I used the Joy of Cooking (1967) to teach myself how to make the basics. I always thought it was kind of stuffy, but really learned a lot from it. When I was older, I used The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (1980) which seemed a little more modern.
My aunt gave me a cookbook when I was in high school called French Cooking for Pleasure by Mary Reynolds. It seemed so sophisticated! My favorite and most successful recipe was for Gigot d’Agneau Boulangere, a leg of lamb roasted on a bed of onions and potatoes. It was wonderful and easy, and I made it a lot. I don’t eat lamb anymore (too many trips to visit my daughter at Whitman College driving past fields of cute little lambs), but I still remember the taste. I also made cassoulet Toulousain for my high school French teacher who I had a crush on. Given my lack of cooking experience, I hope it was edible!
When I moved into my first apartment, I started cooking and the first book I remember using was Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything. It was good for the basics. I gifted this to several other friends in their 20s at the time. I haven’t picked it up in years but I credit it for helping me build a foundation for cooking more creatively. My first baking cookbook was Jim Fobel’s, which I still have. It’s a tattered relic by this point that I return to for classic cake and cookie recipes.
Thanks @Phoenikia! I’ve seen that very recipe, and have always wanted to try it - no time like the present. Will report back, soon I hope. I’ve also wanted to make a Coca Cola cake, like the one served at the venerable Jestine’s in Charleston. The recipe, like coke itself is a carefully guarded secret, but I found a recipe that purports to taste identical. That sounds like a good Sunday dinner prospect, along with the ham.
The first cookbook I bought for myself as a 20-something was a small paperback, Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor’s Vibration Cooking. It’s a memoir with the kind of loose recipes that make you think about food as culture while making cooking accessible.
A few decades and a few hundred cookbooks later, I still love it.
This thread is so much fun!
I learned to cook from Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood and then her other cookbooks; plus Frugal Gourmet on PBS.
Now I have waaaay too many cookbooks! But love reading and cooking from them.
Thanks for mentioning this book @pitu! I can’t believe I’ve never heard of it, but the title takes me back to a different era. I read about it this afternoon, and will try to peruse a copy. I’m sure the stories are interesting too.
