You know how it works. You’re browsing in the bookstore. The Cooking aisle becons. “No, you say, I already have too many of them”. Or “I never use them anyway, they’re too complicated”. But as your conversation with yourself is in full swing, your feet have taken the decision for you. And pretty soon you find yourself salivating at yet another beautiful picture of a gorgeous cake, or a wonderful rack of lamb, or an exotic curry.
10 minutes later, you leave the shop with YAC (Yet Another Cookbook) which you will barely crack open, and which will end its life, if it’s lucky, on your living room bookshelf so you can answer to inquiring guests that yes, you have in fact tried to make Olivier Roellinger’s Saint Pierre Retour des Indes, and it was sublime.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Some cookbooks are actually useful for our everyday needs. I’ve got a short shelf of books I turn to all the time for inspiration.
Madur Jaffrey
Thierry Marx
Pushpant Pani