2021 Spring Cookbook Preview, Part 1
January! February!
SPN 2021 Spring Cookbook Preview: January and February
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JANUARY
The Complete Tofu Cookbook: 170+ Delicious, Plant-based Recipes From Around the World by Camille Oger
Needs some more tofu in your life? This cookbook “makes the case for the ingredient as a culinary blank page much like white rice or pasta,” with a whopping 170 recipes from around the world. It’s divided, perhaps unevenly, into geographic chapters touting the tofu traditions of each region: China & Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, Burma, and India. And then in the “Elsewhere” chapter you’ll find less traditional uses for bean curd such as vegan tzatziki, tofu nuggets, and vegetarian bolognese. Weldon Owen: January 5.
The Modern Italian Cook by Joe Trivelli
This book received tons of accolades when it came out the UK two years ago; cookbook author Diana Henry named it one of her favorite books of 2018, and it brought in a slew of awards. The author is chef at London’s famed River Cafe, and in this book he modernizes the Italian food he learned to cook from his grandmother. Seven Dials: January 5.
Black, White, and The Grey: The Story of an Unexpected Friendship and a Beloved Restaurant by Mashama Bailey and John O. Morisano
Unique in the memoir-with-recipes genre, this book follows the friendship of chef Mashama Bailey and entrepreneur John O. Morisano as they restore a broken-down Greyhound station in Savannah, Georgia. Just beautifully written, the book explores race and the South and the bonds that form in building a beloved restaurant. Bonus, it also has great recipes. Lorena Jones: January 12.
A Pocket Guide to Sustainable Food Shopping : How to Navigate the Grocery Store, Read Labels, and Help Save the Planet by Kate Bratskeir
This isn’t a cookbook, but I do think grocery shopping strategy and pantry management are a huge gaping hole in our culinary educations, and more books should focus on or at least incorporate these concepts. This book does all that from an environmental point of view, even better. Tiller Press: January 12.
Vegetarian Chinese Soul Food : Deliciously Doable Ways to Cook Greens, Tofu, and Other Plant-Based Ingredients by Hsiao-Ching Chou
The author of 2018’s Chinese Soul Food goes meatless with this collection of home cooked goodness from author Hsiao-Ching Chou. Of particular note are her vegetarian dumplings and simple vegetable preparations that are perfect for weeknights. Sasquatch: January 19.
Also excited for:
The Low-Proof Happy Hour: Real Cocktails Without the Hangover by Jules Aron
Plat du Jour: French Dinners Made Easy by Susan Herrmann Loomis
Baking with the St Paul Bread Club : Recipes, Tips, and Stories by Kim Ode
The Double Happiness Cookbook: 88 Feel-Good Recipes and Food Stories by Trevor Lui
FEBRUARY
How Wild Things Are : Cooking, fishing and hunting at the bottom of the world by Analiese Gregory
The “bottom of the world” here would be Tasmania, the island off the southern coast of Australia that was home to chef Analiese Gregory’s restaurant, Franklin. Franklin shuttered permanently in May, but hopefully this book can serve as its legacy. Gregory here explores the unique ingredients available in Tasmania, and offers 50ish recipes for them (all wrapped in a nearly perfect cover). Hardie Grant: February 9.
The Lost Orchard : A French chef rediscovers a great British food heritage by Raymond Blanc
Famed UK chef Raymond Blanc has an orchard of 2,500 trees the produce 30 tons of fruit each year at his Oxfordshire restaurant, Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons. Among them are 150 (!) varieties of apple, along with “walnut trees, quince, medlars, apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums, damsons and cherries.” Why is fruit content so soothing? (Related: Big recommend for the @pomological Twitter account.) Headline: February 16.
The Hand & Flowers Cookbook by Tom Kerridge
UK chef Tom Kerridge’s Hand & Flowers pub boasts the distinction of being the only pub in the world with two Michelin stars. Here, he shares 70 of its dishes, including “roast hog with salt-baked potatoes and apple sauce; slow-cooked duck breast, peas, duck-fat chips and gravy; smoked haddock omelette; salt cod Scotch egg with red pepper sauce and picante chorizo; and chocolate and ale cake with salted caramel and muscovado ice cream.” Anglophiles, get psyched. Bloomsbury: February 23
Toaster Oven Takeover: Easy and Delicious Recipes to Make in Your Toaster Oven
by Roxanne Wyss and Kathy Moore
The toaster oven gets more use than any other gadget in my kitchen. I truly don’t know how I would survive Texas summers without it, and it’s great for everything from reheating leftover pizza to baking a half dozen cookies from freezer dough to, you know, toasting bread. Here Roxanne Wyss and Kathy Moore take it even further, offering recipes for “breakfast burritos, stromboli, sweet chili glazed wings, sheet pan fish with olives and capers” and more. Tiller Press: February 23.
The Origins of Cooking: Palaeolithic and Neolithic Cooking by Ferran Adrià
And end at the beginning: Ferran Adrià’s sure-to-be epic exploration of the more philosophical questions about cooking. Per the publisher’s copy, these include “Is the choice of raw food an act of cooking, or does cooking begin when specific tools are used to adapt it? Can food be considered 'cooked' when eaten in its raw state?” It also promises an actual examination of prehistoric cooking. Phaidon: February 24.
Also excited for:
Africola: Slow Food Fast Words Cult Chef by Duncan Welgemoed
Buckeyes : The Legendary Candy of the Midwest by Cyle Young
Serendip : My Sri Lankan Kitchen by Peter Kuruvita
SPN 2021 Spring Cookbook Preview: January and February
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