What were your favorite cookbooks that you found in 2014?

2014 seemed to go by in a flash for me and I still have a pile of recipes or concepts that I wanted to try but just never had the time. I did find some very good cookbooks this year (either gifts, from the library or ones that I purchased) and I would love to hear about the cookbooks you discovered and enjoyed in 2014. They do not have to be books published in 2014, just ones that you found and thought were special this year.

Here are a few of mine:

The Banh Mi Handbook by Andrea Nguyen. This should actually be called the Banh Mi Bible. It contains everything from how to make the perfect bread to the sundry of ingredients and everything else needed to make your own Banh Mi at home.

The New Romagnolis' Table While I will always be a Hazan fan and when someone asks me for an Italian cookbook recommendation I always steer them towards her, this book provides some great recipes and a new find for me this year.

The Slanted Door: Modern Vietnamese Food I had already made several of these recipes at home or had them at Phan's restaurants going back to when he first opened his original restaurant in a less than glamorous part of San Francisco (to put it nicely), but I purchased the book to have some of the other recipes on hand. Great cookbook.

Jerusalem I heard many compliments about Ottolenghi and Tamimi on eGullet and Chowhound so I purchased this book and is even on loan to a friend. It is very intriguing and I look forward to trying several of these recipes in the new year IF I ever get the book back.

The New Portuguese Table by David Leite. This was a Christmas gift so I have only paged through it but many of the recipes sound outstanding. I think a good place to start will be with the spicy Azorean garlic roasted pork.

So how about you? Which interesting cookbooks did you find in 2014?

Over the last few years, I've taken to using Epicurious much more than cookbooks, which is a little ridiculous given all of the cookbooks we have around here. I have cooked a number of meals this past year out of several of the Ottolenghi books, though. I think Jerusulem was the one used most, with a couple of meals coming from Plenty. We just got Plenty More and I'm looking forward to trying out some of the recipes from that one.

I've heard of the Banh Mi Handbook (maybe from you, Dave?) and will have to get that one.

My favourite new cookbook was Paris Express, the new book from Laura Calder, as much for the philosophy as for the recipes. Reading one of her cookbooks always feels like I'm sitting down and listening to an old friend talk about their experiences.

The other main source of new recipes this past year was Fine Cooking magazine's online recipe database (I have a digital/print subscription, and get regular emails with recipes). I find not only do they have great recipes, but they have the best (or at least the most gasto-pornish) pictures.

None! Got the new recipes offline, including here.

2014 seemed to go by in a flash for me and I still have a pile of recipes or concepts that I wanted to try but just never had the time. I did find some very good cookbooks this year (either gifts, from the library or ones that I purchased) and I would love to hear about the cookbooks you discovered and enjoyed in 2014. They do not have to be books published in 2014, just ones that you found and thought were special this year.

Here are a few of mine:

The Banh Mi Handbook by Andrea Nguyen. This should actually be called the Banh Mi Bible. It contains everything from how to make the perfect bread to the sundry of ingredients and everything else needed to make your own Banh Mi at home.

The New Romagnolis' Table While I will always be a Hazan fan and when someone asks me for an Italian cookbook recommendation I always steer them towards her, this book provides some great recipes and a new find for me this year.



The Slanted Door: Modern Vietnamese Food I had already made several of these recipes at home or had them at Phan's restaurants going back to when he first opened his original restaurant in a less than glamorous part of San Francisco (to put it nicely), but I purchased the book to have some of the other recipes on hand. Great cookbook.

Jerusalem I heard many compliments about Ottolenghi and Tamimi on eGullet and Chowhound so I purchased this book and is even on loan to a friend. It is very intriguing and I look forward to trying several of these recipes in the new year IF I ever get the book back.

The New Portuguese Table by David Leite. This was a Christmas gift so I have only paged through it but many of the recipes sound outstanding. I think a good place to start will be with the spicy Azorean garlic roasted pork.

So how about you? Which interesting cookbooks did you find in 2014?

David my impression of The Slanted Door was it was at it's best in it's original location and went down in quality and interest in each new location until in it's present place that I never bother to attend .

Mike, I will seek out Plenty and Plenty More. I had not heard of them until you mentioned something so thank you for the input.

Lou, Interesting comments regarding Slanted Door and I mostly agree with you. I became acquainted with SD when it first opened on Valencia. Excellent QPR, to use a wine cliche. One of the offspring they have now in the shopping mall on Market is mediocre at best and nothing close to the quality of food when they only had one location on Valencia. The flagship restaurant in the Ferry Terminal I still think serves the same quality of food as the original place on Valencia but at much higher prices and obviously caters to a different clientele. Regardless of the evolution of Slanted Door, the recipes in the book are still solid.

The only version of the Slanted Door I've been to is the one at the Ferry Terminal. I thought it was excellent, albeit quite pricey.

[Jenise]

2014 seemed to go by in a flash for me and I still have a pile of recipes or concepts that I wanted to try but just never had the time. I did find some very good cookbooks this year (either gifts, from the library or ones that I purchased) and I would love to hear about the cookbooks you discovered and enjoyed in 2014. They do not have to be books published in 2014, just ones that you found and thought were special this year.

Here are a few of mine:

The Banh Mi Handbook by Andrea Nguyen. This should actually be called the Banh Mi Bible. It contains everything from how to make the perfect bread to the sundry of ingredients and everything else needed to make your own Banh Mi at home.

The New Romagnolis' Table While I will always be a Hazan fan and when someone asks me for an Italian cookbook recommendation I always steer them towards her, this book provides some great recipes and a new find for me this year.

The Slanted Door: Modern Vietnamese Food I had already made several of these recipes at home or had them at Phan's restaurants going back to when he first opened his original restaurant in a less than glamorous part of San Francisco (to put it nicely), but I purchased the book to have some of the other recipes on hand. Great cookbook.

Jerusalem I heard many compliments about Ottolenghi and Tamimi on eGullet and Chowhound so I purchased this book and is even on loan to a friend. It is very intriguing and I look forward to trying several of these recipes in the new year IF I ever get the book back.

The New Portuguese Table by David Leite. This was a Christmas gift so I have only paged through it but many of the recipes sound outstanding. I think a good place to start will be with the spicy Azorean garlic roasted pork.

So how about you? Which interesting cookbooks did you find in 2014?

I got the Charles Phan book for Christmas and am enjoying reading through it. I even bought some chayote the other day to make his shrimp and chayote stir-fry. Otherwise I don't believe I bought any new cookbooks in 2014--only an old copy of Mimi Sheraton's The German Cookbook comes to mind. It was more a year for taking stock and re-delving into the many books I own and haven't paid enough attention to: depth over breadth, you could say.

Re Chowhound, do you cook along with their Cookbook of the Month exercises? The lady who runs that department, Linda Nightshade, lives here in Bellingham and is one of my best friends. If you ever saw the photos of her wedding buffet, I cooked most of it.

Mike, I will seek out Plenty and Plenty More. I had not heard of them until you mentioned something so thank you for the input.

Lou, Interesting comments regarding Slanted Door and I mostly agree with you. I became acquainted with SD when it first opened on Valencia. Excellent QPR, to use a wine cliche. One of the offspring they have now in the shopping mall on Market is mediocre at best and nothing close to the quality of food when they only had one location on Valencia. The flagship restaurant in the Ferry Terminal I still think serves the same quality of food as the original place on Valencia but at much higher prices and obviously caters to a different clientele. Regardless of the evolution of Slanted Door, the recipes in the book are still solid.

Dave, went there about a year and a half ago with my brother and his wife, who had heard so much about the restaurant that we took them. The quality of the food is not really close to the original location and as you mentioned much more expensive. I wouldn't go if it was around the corner here in Napa. My wife who is a gourmet cook says the cookbook is solid and they should try emulating it in The Ferry Building.

Re Chowhound, do you cook along with their Cookbook of the Month exercises? The lady who runs that department, Linda Nightshade, lives here in Bellingham and is one of my best friends. If you ever saw the photos of her wedding buffet, I cooked most of it.

Jenise, I did not even know they had Cookbook of the Month exercises on Chowhound. Do you cook along with them? It sounds like an interesting concept.

No, I have never heard of Linda Nightshade. Is that her stage name or the one she uses on Chowhound?

Do you have a link to the wedding buffet pictures? If you cooked it I know it would be outstanding.

Mike, I will seek out Plenty and Plenty More. I had not heard of them until you mentioned something so thank you for the input.

Lou, Interesting comments regarding Slanted Door and I mostly agree with you. I became acquainted with SD when it first opened on Valencia. Excellent QPR, to use a wine cliche. One of the offspring they have now in the shopping mall on Market is mediocre at best and nothing close to the quality of food when they only had one location on Valencia. The flagship restaurant in the Ferry Terminal I still think serves the same quality of food as the original place on Valencia but at much higher prices and obviously caters to a different clientele. Regardless of the evolution of Slanted Door, the recipes in the book are still solid.

Dave, went there about a year and a half ago with my brother and his wife, who had heard so much about the restaurant that we took them. The quality of the food is not really close to the original location and as you mentioned much more expensive. I wouldn't go if it was around the corner here in Napa. My wife who is a gourmet cook says the cookbook is solid and they should try emulating it in The Ferry Building.

Good to know Lou. What did you think of the wine list at the Slanted Door location in the Ferry Terminal?

[Jenise]

Jenise, I did not even know they had Cookbook of the Month exercises on Chowhound. Do you cook along with them? It sounds like an interesting concept.

No, I have never heard of Linda Nightshade. Is that her stage name or the one she uses on Chowhound?

Do you have a link to the wedding buffet pictures? If you cooked it I know it would be outstanding.

No I don't. Oh, they also have a Dish of the Month. Maybe that's what Linda moderates--everyone cooks risotto all month and shares their pics and recipes. Something like that. That's the name she uses on Chowhound. Coincidentally we met there, not in the cooking forums whose threading I find tedious, but in the restaurant chatter by region area as we were both kvetching about the sad restaurant scene in our town. (If I had realized it was as bad as it is, with lots of local resistence to anything better, I don't believe I'd have chosen this for my future home--it's THAT bad.)

Re Chowhound, do you cook along with their Cookbook of the Month exercises? The lady who runs that department, Linda Nightshade, lives here in Bellingham and is one of my best friends. If you ever saw the photos of her wedding buffet, I cooked most of it.

Jenise, I did a search and found a post on Chowhound titled "My Chowhound Wedding" by a poster named L. Nightshade in Bellingham, Washington. I am surprised to learn you cooked most of the food because she posted photos and credited all of the cooks but never mentioned your name once (I noticed in other threads on Chowhound that you post under your full real name). A pretty crappy thing to do to a best friend, IMO.

Or perhaps this is the wrong event?

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/984000 ... 25#9092925

[Jenise]

That's the right one--I'm Neecies. I wasn't actually aware that I've ever posted on Chowhound under any other name. Wonder when I did that?