Cookbooks

Yesterday at a second hand bookstore I came across an Italian cookbook by region. I was tempted to buy it, but I didn't. It seemed like a good coobook, but how can one tell? What makes a good cookbook and how can you tell just by looking at one?

I don't own many cookbooks. In fact I own three - Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volumes 1 & 2 and another cookbook I bought on Provencal regional cuisine. I bought the Julia Child cookbooks in an older edition second hand because they were 4,00 euros for both and I thought why not, but I've never cooked anything out of it. In fact I've never cooked anything out of my cookbooks because I seem to only own cookbooks for French cuisine, which understandably given my French grandmother was a chef I've never needed. My grandma made sure I memorised every recipe she deemed to teach me. I've never learned from a cookbook because I've either learned from someone while cooking with them or I've figured out the recipe myself (I reverse engineer dishes I love from restaurants for example) and knew what techniques the food was going to need.

I've been playing with the idea of making my own cookbook for a really long time, but it's hard work for someone who doesn't use cookbooks. Not only do I have to choose which recipes would make it into a cookbook of mine, but I need people to test the recipes and learn how to write recipes that are easy for other people to follow. Part of this blog was supposed to be about cooking and posting recipes that people might try and then comment on to give me feedback, so I'm going to focus a little bit on that once I'm back from my holidays.

The thing is, even when people compliment my food and tell me I should one day open a restaurant I don't take them seriously. The reason why is mostly because I don't see a particular amount of talent in what I do in the kitchen. In some ways I take my ability to cook for granted because I don't see cooking as particularly difficult. I think anyone could cook what I cook if they practice and like cooking. I'd love to find a way to put that same mentality into a finished cookbook in such a way that people who cooked with my recipes would feel the same way. I cook with passion for people I care about. That's perhaps the secret ingredient to my cooking. I just love watching people I love eat.

My neighbour, for whom I cooked Korean food for his birthday party is still raving about how pleased his guests were. They wanted to know if I gave cooking classes; they asked for recipes and my advice on this or that. And most of these people were French, so I feel a bit more pride at knowing that I got a bunch of French people to try something new (and spicy).

Now I stopped my post here - thanks to Blogger's draft feature - and went back and bought that Italian cookbook. Why? Because I found reviews about it on Amazon that said the author, Ada Boni was apparently a very famous Italian cookbook writer in the 50's and 60's and it had all 5 star reviews by people who obviously loved this book, thought the recipes were truly authentic (not that I don't love Italian-American cuisine because having lived in Boston for so long I really grew to appreciate the Italian-American cuisine found in the North End of Boston), and simple to follow or to find substitutions for certain ingredients (though now that I've looked through the book myself I'm wondering where I'm going to find fresh oregano and beef suet in France).

One reviewer stated that Marcella Hazan, the famed Italian chef that was a pet of the New York Times apparently learned how to cook from Ada Boni's books. This well-loved and well-respected by none other than Marcella Hazan cookbook was a major steal at 10 euros given it's out-of-print and what I like to call an "inadvertent discovery" (books I want for some reason but don't know why, then come home to research only to discover I've somehow wanted that book but just didn't know yet).

More research on Ada Boni turns up a wealth of information that just makes me want to buy more of her cookbooks. Ada Boni started a sort of lady's home journal called Preziosa and that she published a massive encyclopedic volume containing 2000 authentic recipes by region (beating out the former champion of Italian cookbooks Artusi - who deserves his own post - by 1400 recipes) known as the Talismano della Felicità, The Talisman of Happiness. (I found all this information on a wonderful Italian cooking blog you can find here called Memorie di Angelina.)

I'm now terribly impatient to cook something from this new cookbook. I don't know where to start, but I suppose I will start with Venice as I lived there for a year and my memories of Venetian cuisine are still very close to my heart though it's not my favourite overall. Now I love southern Italian cuisine, but in the winter months I crave the type of cuisine one can eat in the north. Osso bucco with saffron risotto is probably my favourite Italian meal. If the weather keeps it up, I might actually be able to justify making it!

Here's the cookbook I purchased which is as I said out of print. You can find copies via Amazon or ABEBooks. Here's a link on ABE which is the same as the one I bought that isn't too expensive.

What are you favourite cookbooks and if you've cooked from one of Ada Boni's books before, what did you think?