Changes coming to Chicago’s Read It & Eat

We were delighted to profile Chicago cookbook store Read It & Eat when it opened its doors for business in 2015. Owner Esther Dairiam discussed the many events held at the store, located at 2142 N. Halsted in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Today we learned about new developments at Read It & Eat. In a news release, Dairiam announced that the… read more

Gift Guide for the Cookbook Lover and Serious Cook

The madness that is the holiday season is upon us. I will be doing at least two gift guides this year. This guide will include cookbook ideas for a wide variety of subjects. There will be a baker's gift guide with cookbooks and baking gift ideas along with a giveaway hopefully by this weekend! The tag #giftguide will bring up… read more

Diana Henry’s favorite new fall cookbooks

When Diana Henry makes a list of her favorite new cookbooks, it's time to drop everything and make certain that you have all of them on your bookshelf and if not, to get them on the way as soon as possible. The bestselling author knows her way around both storytelling and recipe writing. She spent weeks going through the best… read more

Best cookbooks of the 21st century (so far)

It is difficult - nearly impossible, for me - to consider that we are 20 percent of the way through the 21st century. Nevertheless, it is true. That means we have 20 years of cookbooks to think about when discussing the best books of the century. Helen Rosner at The New Yorker breaks down which books she believes are standouts. … read more

The best French cookbooks, according to French chefs

It's always enlightening to learn which cookbooks chefs find useful and inspirational. When it comes to French cookbooks, who better than Jacques Pépin, Daniel Boulud, and Dominique Ansel to weigh in on which of these cookbooks they recommend. That's what Lauren Masur of The Kitchn thinks, too. She interviewed these esteemed chefs and compiled a list of the best French… read more

Hosting a cookbook swap party

Have some cookbooks that just don't thrill you anymore? Want to have new cookbooks without spending any money? If your answer to either of those questions is yes, you might want to host a cookbook swap. Not sure how to go about it? Meghan Walbert Lifehacker offers some tips on how to host a successful swap.  There is no set… read more

Samin Nosrat’s favorite books

It is always interesting to learn about the books that have inspired our favorite authors. Samin Nosrat, quickly became an EYB Member favorite with the publication of her award-winning tome Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. Nosrat, who is currently working on a new cookbook, sat down with Vulture and and gave them the rundown on her top ten favorite books.  As you might… read more

The cookbooks that authors actually use

We all know (and appreciate) that food writers create amazing cookbooks, but they also use them for inspiration much as we cookbook aficionados do. Which volumes will you find on their bookshelves? Matt and Ted Lee, authors of several books including The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook, have an answer. They interviewed several authors and developed a list of 18 cookbooks that… read more

Cookbook Love Podcast

Sometimes I get tired of reading cookbooks. That's when I turn to podcasts so I can listen to cookbook authors and others talking about cookbooks! Lucky for me, there's another great podcast to add to my queue, as Jenny is returning to Maggie Green's Cookbook Love podcast. (You may remember that last Fall Jenny was a guest on the podcast discussing… read more

Inside L.A.’s only cookbook store

Despite being the second most populous city in the United States and home to what some would argue is the finest food culture in the country, Los Angeles suffered for years from a drought of cookbook stores. The beloved Cook's Library closed its doors in 2009, and it took almost a decade for another cookbook store to emerge. That store,… read more

A limited edition Joy of Cooking goes luxe

Joy of Cooking was the 'gateway drug' for many cookbook collectors, myself included. Before cookbook publishing exploded, it stood alone as a paragon of the genre, teaching multiple generations how to cook for their families. Plenty of people hang on to their grease-splattered and dog-eared copies of Joy, passing them down to their children and grandchildren. New editions continue to… read more

Amazon’s list of 100 best food books

I am a sucker for lists and have been since a very young age. When I was little I used to type up lists of things to do during my summer vacation, banging out a new list nearly every day on my mom's old manual typewriter. Any time I see a "must-have" list of books to read, foods to eat,… read more

The best selling cookbooks of 2018

Last month our friends at cookbook stores around the world gave us their picks for their favorite books of 2018. Now we asked them for their top sellers. In past years we have compared the lists from specialist stores in the USA to that for all US sales from the publishing industry data company, Nielsen.  Unfortunately Publishers Weekly has not… read more

‘The Naked Chef’ turns 20

Can you believe that Jamie Oliver's first cookbook is 20 years old? That's right, The Naked Chef premiered two decades ago when Oliver burst onto the scenic as fresh-faced, exuberant young chef with something to say. He hasn't stopped since, building a veritable empire of restaurants, cookbooks, and television programs. To celebrate this milestone, Penguin are re-releasing Jamie's first five… read more

Best of the best cookbooks 2018

It's hard to believe, but this is the tenth year that Jane has sifted through hundreds of 'best cookbook' lists from all over the world to determine which book is the #1 book of the year. And it's also difficult to believe, but the same author has had the top book six out of the ten years we've been putting… read more

The best cookbooks of 2018 by the experts

Who knows cookbooks better than the owners of specialist cookbook stores? They stock and sell thousands of cookbooks and because their stores are focused on food and drink books, they are true experts. They read the books, cook from them and then share their knowledge with their customers. When shopping for cookbook gifts this holiday season, please think about supporting… read more

Epicurious breaks the mold with new cookbook awards

Readers of this blog are no strangers to cookbook awards. Each year, we provide full coverage of prestigious awards from the JBF and IACP, plus report on Food52's The Piglet and other awards from across the globe. One entity that has heretofore not assembled any cookbook awards is the culinary website Epicurious. This December, that changed, with the announcement of… read more

Leaving a cookbook legacy

If you have a significant number of cookbooks, you may have thought about what will happen to your collection when you are no longer around or able to keep it. You might have a plan for some or even all of your books, perhaps bequeathing them to friends, family, or the local library. But what would you do if you… read more

This cookbook sets the mood with color

Gorgeous, color-saturated photographs of food are a given on Instagram and in most modern cookbooks. One of 2018's new cookbooks takes this concept to the extreme: Pantone Foodmood. Yes, you read that correctly, this is from the color company Pantone, which produces exacting color specifications for corporations, graphic designers, and everyone interested in the world of color. It's often said… read more

Indexing a masterpiece – The Escoffier Cookbook

The average cookbook contains about 175 recipes. Indexing a book with that many recipes takes some time, as Members who have volunteered to index a book well know. Some books fall well below this average and a few books exceed it by a significant number of recipes. Even the most prolific cookbook authors, however, generally do not exceed a few… read more

Omnivore Books celebrates ten years

In the last couple of years, we have brought you plenty of bad news about cookbook stores closing down or facing a precarious financial situation. That's why we are excited to share some good news: San Francisco's Omnivore Books is celebrating its tenth anniversary! Eater interviewed owner Celia Sack on how her store has not only survived, but has thrived… read more

Mark Hix adores this classic cookbook

Mark Hix is a celebrated food writer and renowned restaurateur. He has five acclaimed restaurants, pens a weekly column in the Independent on Saturday magazine, and has written several award-winning cookbooks. Hix has an impressive 2,500+ volume cookbook collection, but he admits he really only reads a few of these with any regularity. One of those is Anna del Conte's… read more

For the love of cookbooks

In July 2017, Debbie Vanni lost almost every one of her cookbooks from fifty years of collecting due to a flood. Vanni, who runs the website theculinarycellar.com, was devastated. Many of the books held special meaning to her, like her grandmother's 1914 Fannie Farmer cookbook. Says Vanni, "Inside she had written her name and address of where she lived while in… read more

Anthony Bourdain’s recommended reading

Die-hard fans of Anthony Bourdain loved reading his books nearly as much as they loved watching his entertaining travel programs. It's sad to know that we'll never enjoy another Kitchen Confidential or Medium Raw. The next best thing might be to read books that he recommended. Now we can do just that, because the New York Public Library has compiled a list of… read more

Another cookbook store closes its door

It's always disheartening to learn of a cookbook store that has closed. This time it's Good Egg in Toronto, Canada. The store closed last month following unsuccessful lease negotiations. "We couldn't come to a mutually beneficial agreement with our landlord, so we've decided to close," owner Mika Bareket says. Bareket would like to reopen Good Egg, but can only do so… read more
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