Food news antipasto

Somehow the news got past us that the Guinness World Record cookbook collection changed in 2019. Lisa Ekus of Hatfield, Massachusetts (of cookbook literary agency fame) now holds the certified world record at 4,239 book. Ekus actually has thousands more (near 7,000), but some of these may be pamphlets or others that are not included in the official count. The prior record holder was EYB member manycookbooks (Sue Jiminez). On a recent EYB blog post, Sue commented that her collection now contains about 6,300 books.

Two stories pondering the question of whether cookbooks can be life-changed caught my eye this week. The first, by Eater’s Bettina Makalintal, discusses cookbooks that aim to reduce our food waste. In particular she singles out Tamar Adler’s The Everlasting Meal Cookbook and Perfectly Good Food by Margaret and Ilene Li (out this June). Makalintal believes it’s possible for a cookbook to change how we approach food by harnessing our intuition, “which helps us understand what parts of a recipe actually matter, and what can be molded to fit what we have.”

The second article comes from The Guardian’s Rachel Cooke, who remains more skeptical. Cooke wants to “believe that books can change lives. But I’m not quite convinced they ever do, especially those about food,” she laments. However, after reading Henry Dimbleby’s bestselling book Ravenous, Cooke says that she believes “this book really might be a little bit life-changing.”

Keeping with the food waste avoidance theme, Epicurious recently highlighted an ancient salt-making tradition that will help you make use of those odds and ends of herbs sitting in your crisper. This no-waste solution is “inspired by pisi loon, a salt-honoring tradition from the Himalayan foothills.” The recipe itself comes from Naomi Duguid’s cookbook The Miracle of Salt.

Australia’s Good Food has a new correspondent, MasterChef winner Emelia Jackson, author of the fantastic cookbook First, Cream the Butter and Sugar. A blurb on the Good Food website notes that “The baking maven and cookbook author will be sharing her tips, breaking down the basics and techniques for beginners and confident bakers alike.” She starts with five tips to improve your baking.

In a story that should surprise no one, Food and Wine reports that some companies that produce fortune cookies are turning to programs like ChatGPT to write the “fortunes.” Given some of the ones I’ve read, I would have guessed that switch occurred years ago. Kidding aside (it’s probably difficult to churn out new fortunes by the hundreds), this change will result in putting people out of work. I’m sure the same will happen to one of my dream jobs: naming paint colors.