Nothing Like A Good Book

One of the things I love to get at Christmas is a book. There's nothing like sitting down and having the whole day to pour over a new book, with no interruptions - a day of total relaxation. . . yes, for all you parents, I live in a fantasy world. . . but then I'm sure they'll look after you in your retirement. . . or something like that!

I particularly like books about food - not cookbooks, but books about the subject of "Food". This can encompass something singular, like Mark Kurlanski's popular history of Salt, to something more encompassing - Jeffrey Steingarten's irreverent collection of short articles on all subjects "food": It Must Have Been Something I Ate.

I think what attracts me about books like these is that they give you an insight into another side of cooking. Learning about an ingredient, like Salt or Oysters (another Kurlansky book), or Lobsters (Trevor Corson's Secret Life of Lobsters), or the darker side of chocolate (Carol Off's Bitter Chocolate) or the world of pirating and poaching Black Cod (Hooked: Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish, Bruce Knecht), is their ability to convey an appreciation of the ingredients that you use in the kitchen.

There's a great story that Michael Ruhlman recounts in his book about the journey through the Master Chef exam, The Soul of a Chef. He tells about the day Thomas Keller had to kill a rabbit with his bare hands; I referred to this story in an earlier blog posting Run Rabbit Run (Feb 2008):

Keller "was alone in the grass with eleven cute little bunnies. . . soft fur, long ears, little pink noses, warm yearning eyes. . . rabbits scream. . . and this one screamed really loud. . . it was awful experience he said. He tried to kill it but the rabbit was screaming so loud and struggling to get away the work was difficult. Then the rabbit's leg snapped as it struggled to get away. So while it was still terrified and now likely in great pain, it could no longer get away, and Keller managed to kill it! " And that taught him Respect! "He took the Life, and so he wouldn't waste it".

To me, this is what these books are about. They're entertaining and relaxing, but they tell a different side of the kitchen: what some had to go through to become great chefs, like Keller or Jacques Pepin (The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen) or Mario Batali (Heat, Bill Buford); or the process of becoming a great chef, Making of a Chef: Mastering Heat at the Culinary Institute of America, by Michael Ruhlman.

So, as an alternative to a cookbook this year, maybe turn to something related, but different.