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Putting My Cookbooks In Place
I’ve been in my new apartment for almost a week, and like many people who’ve just moved, I’ve lived in a fog of, “Which box is that in?”
No matter how organized you are when you pack, things seem to have taken their own mysterious journey when it comes to unpacking. The exception is books.
Leaving Ann Arbor, I decided to take four bookcases with me. This is a sharp contrast to my life in Arizona, when I had 17 bookcases (I gave many of the bookcases away when I returned to Michigan). The books went primarily to storage, where they remained for half a decade. During the Great Sort in preparation for my move, I weeded them out. I sold hundreds in the estate sale my family had last weekend.
Now, by choice, the majority of books in my New Orleans bookshelves are cookbooks.
I had help from my friend Maggie in unpacking them, and in the evening, when she went home, I checked to see how they were arranged.
As I scanned the shelves, it suddenly felt as if I had a room full of friends, as well as chefs and authors I admired. For the first time in my move, I felt very much at home.
A wide variety
My cookbooks range from very old to some that have not even officially been published yet. Whenever I get an email from a publisher asking me if I would like to see their upcoming cookbooks, I always say yes.
I was curious about cookbook sales over the past two years, when so many of us were stuck at home. As it turns out, sales of baking-related books alone rose 42 percent in 2022 from the previous year. We weren’t just making sourdough bread and using up our ripe bananas; we were seeking out recipes for them.
Roughly 2,000 new cookbooks are published each year, and they have to compete for shelf space and readers with perennial favorites. I was interested to see that there are regional differences and even differences from store to store in what sells best.
In 2021, the top five books at Omnivore Books in San Francisco were
That Sounds So Good by Carla Lalli Music
Mister Jiu’s in Chinatown by Brandon Jew & Tienlon Ho
Taste: My Life Through Food by Stanley Tucci
Cook This Book by Molly Baz
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat
Down the coast, at Now Serving in Los Angeles, the best-sellers were
Cook This Book by Molly Baz
That Sounds So Good by Carla Lalli Music
Foodheim by Eric Wareheim
Eat This Book by Stacy Michelson
Crying in H Mart: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner
At Booklarder in Seattle, the top books were
The Food Lab by J. Kenji López-Alt
Getaway by Renee Erickson
Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple by Aran Goyoaga
Cook This Book by Molly Baz
Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love by Yotam Ottolenghi & Noor Murad
Across the country, at Kitchen Arts & Letters in New York City, the top books were
Vegetable Simple by Eric Ripert
World Travel by Anthony Bourdain
The Frantzén Book by Björn Frantzén
Sourdough Panettone and Viennoiserie by Thomas Teffri-Chambelland
Septime, La Cave, Clamato, D’une île by Bertrand Grébaut, Théophile Pourriat & Benoit Cohen
Who’ll become someone’s best friend?
Looking over the list, I wondered which of these books has the potential to become much-loved, much-gifted publications, in the manner of Ina Garten’s numerous cookbooks, or those published by Dorie Greenspan. Will any of them spawn franchises, like the Milk Street series of cookbooks? Five years from now, will new authors like Vishwesh Bhatt be familiar faces and voices on food programs?
I’m going to guess that many cookbook libraries are like mine: a collection of inherited books, first books, books we bought based on friends’ recommendations and those that simply caught our eye when we were surfing online.
Now that I have my cookbooks and I’ve found my coffee maker, I can push forward with a tough job: unpacking the kitchen. Wish me luck!
New Shows From Two Beloved Food Figures
It’s been interesting to watch Phil Rosenthal’s progression as an authority on food and travel. His original TV show, I’ll Have What Phil’s Having, ran only one season on PBS. It was full of corny schtick, he seemed overly affectionate with perfect strangers, and the travel advice he gave seemed pretty simplistic. Despite his track record as the executive producer of Everybody Loves Raymond, some critics wondered what gave him the credibility to host a food/travel program, other than liking to eat and travel.
Subsequently, his program evolved into Somebody Feed Phil, taking viewers around the world and introducing them to familiar as well as far flung places. While the comedy remains, the programs put a greater focus on people and information than his starter series, allowing the food figures to shine. Phil’s family also has a supporting role.
The shows have unexpectedly captured time with people no longer with us, particularly Phil’s hilarious parents, Helen and Max. I’ll always be grateful that two of his episodes featured my late friend Julia Reed, a tireless advocate for the Mississippi Delta.
Now, the fifth season of Somebody Feed Phil is about to air on Netflix, launching May 25. This season, Phil visits Oaxaca, Mexico, Portland (Maine), Helsinki, Portland (Oregon), and Madrid.
It’s a good collection of places. All have solid food scenes, along with chefs and writers available to be Phil’s sherpas. I’m hoping that he gets to Greece or Turkey someday, as well as India. Comedy wise, Phil and Australia seem made for each other, so there is certainly a potential for more seasons.
Meanwhile, culinary hero Jose Andres and his World Central Kitchen are the subject of an upcoming documentary, called We Feed People. It was directed by Ron Howard, who recently told Stephen Colbert that the film nearly didn’t happen. Despite his ease at greeting people in all parts of the world, Jose doesn’t like talking about himself and did not want the documentary to be a biography of him alone.
Jose is still the unmistakable star of WCK, but the film also focuses on the vast network of people who have led the charity’s mobilization efforts the past 10 years.
We Feed People will be available on Disney Plus, where it starts airing on May 27.
To Market, To Market
It’s been a cool and rainy spring in many parts of the country, which has slowed the start of many farmer’s markets. But as warm weather arrives, markets are picking up, with the choices becoming more plentiful.
New Orleans has three weekly farmer’s markets, on the smallish side compared with some of the sprawling markets in places like New York, Chicago and Ann Arbor. Because it’s in USDA Zone 9, produce arrives much earlier than I’m used to up North.
I was afraid I had missed the Louisiana strawberry season, but I was able to nab some. I also took home some Creole tomatoes and basil, which is currently scenting my kitchen. The New Orleans markets have bread sellers, fishmongers and an array of produce. I’ve never seen bigger heads of cauliflower.
You can also find an occasional produce seller set up by the side of the road. I passed a strawberry man last week, and I’ll be keeping an eye out for the watermelon seller, too.
Keeping Up With CulinaryWoman
I’m doing two private events this week to talk about Satisfaction Guaranteed: How Zingerman’s Built a Corner Deli Into A Global Food Community. If you haven’t gotten your copy, why not pick one up through Bookshop.org? It distributes orders among independent book sellers, and I get a small commission.
You can contact me at culinarywoman at gmail dot com. That’s the place for PR pitches. I’m always available to discuss writing assignments and speaking engagement.
Follow my new Instagram @micki_in_nola which features my experiences here in New Orleans. You can find me on Twitter @culinarywoman.
Mask wearing seems pretty rare in New Orleans these days, although the servers and staff at a number of food places wear them. Please be careful with your health, and see you next week.
Sorry about the garble! I’ve noticed my new WiFi can be a little hiccupy. I’ll proof read more closely.
Very true about the chaos of unpacking after a move. I swear moving proves that it is somehow possible for objects to mysteriously move from one sealed box to another while being transported.
Reading your newsletter on Mother's Day, and about how some people have books handed down from their parents or grandparents, made me miss my mother, who passed away nearly three years ago, even more than I was. Not because my mother was a good cook. On the contrary, as wonderful as she was, my mom was a terrible cook. Awful. Worse than awful. Though I know at some point she had cookbooks, by the time I graduated college, those had all been given away, so I didn't have the benefit others do of having a cookbook, perhaps annotated with notes, being passed along to me. What I do have, though, are adult memories of the disasters of the few times my mother did try cooking. These incidents usually ended with buzzing smoke alarms, blown-up microwave ovens, and lots of smoke - almost always followed by a very silent dinner eaten at a restaurant. In the moment, some of these events were far from fun. Now, they are the stuff of joyful, laugh-filled family lore.