Jeff Houck

The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.

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20 Essential Cookbooks

Posted Nov 9, 2007 by Jeff Houck

Updated Nov 9, 2007 at 10:54 AM

Looking to shore up some holes in your culinary library? The James Beard Foundation Book Awards Committee has chosen it’s 20 most-essential books. (Selections were limited to books currently in print.)

Included in the list is a book by Longboat Key resident and Italian cooking matriarch Marcella Hazan.

(FYI: I’ve been to her home and I can tell you that “The Joy of Cooking” is on Marcella’s kitchen bookshelf, too.)

Alphabetically, the list is:

• American Cookery (BBS Publishing, 1996), James Beard.

• Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico (Morrow, 2007), Rick Bayless.

• Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (Better Homes and Gardens, 2004).

• Classic Indian Cooking (Morrow, 1980), Julie Sahni.

• Complete Techniques (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2001), Jacques Pépin and Léon Pererr.

• Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (Macmillan, 1995), Marcella Hazan.

• How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food (Wiley, 2006), Mark Bittman.

• The Joy of Cooking (Scribner, 2006), Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker.

• The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook (Countryman Press, 2003).

• Maida Heatter’s Book of Great Desserts (Andrews McMeel, 1999), Maida Heatter.

• Martha Stewart’s Hors d’Oeuvres Handbook (Clarkson Potter, 1999), Martha Stewart.

• Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume One (Knopf, 2001), Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck.

• The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking: Techniques and Recipes (Morrow, 1996), Barbara Tropp.

• The New Food Lover’s Companion (Barron’s, 2007), Sharon Tyler Herbst.

• The Oxford Companion to Wine (Oxford, 2007), Jancis Robinson.

• Rick Stein’s Complete Seafood (Ten Speed, 2004), Rick Stein.

• The Silver Palate Cookbook (Workman, 2007), Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso.

• The Thrill of the Grill: Techniques, Recipes, and Down-Home Barbecue (Morrow, 2002), Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby.

• Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (Broadway, 2007), Deborah Madison

• The Way to Cook (Knopf, 1993), Julia Child.

Committee members included: Pat Adrian, formerly editor-in-chief of The Good Cook; Pat Brown, former editor of Bon Appetit and Cuisine Magazine; Lee Svitak Dean, food editor of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune; Doralece Lipoli Dullaghan, director of strategic partnerships for Sur La Table; Jan Turner Hazard, former food editor of Ladies Home Journal; Martha Holmberg, food editor of The Oregonian; Kathleen Purvis, food editor of The Charlotte Observer; Irene Sax, reviewer for The New York Daily News and Epicurious; Nach Waxman, owner of Kitchen Arts & Letters; and Rita Wolfson, former editor with Doubleday & Co.