When I first heard about this book, I was interested. I am a huge cookbook fan, with the overflowing shelves to show for that. Having chef's talk about their favorite cookbooks? Sounds like fun. It would make a nice gift for a chef, professional or home, and it would be interesting to flip through on a cold winter afternoon. It's like a compilation of online best-of lists, right?
Ummm, no. It's not like that at all.
This book has weight. Not just the heaviness weight of a hardcover cookbook. I mean, it has weight. The depth of information, the breadth of cookbooks, the expanse of cuisines--The Chef's Library is a roadmap to culinary genius.
Broken down into three sections, this book gives you a glimpse into chefs and cookbooks from around the world. The first section is Chef's Favorites, where you get Aquavit's Emma Bengtsson's explaining why she loves The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson and Top Chef's Tom Colicchio talking about his fascination with Viana La Place's Unplugged Kitchen. Now add to that information dozens more chefs talking about their go-to cookbooks, food books, or in one case, a novel and beautiful photographs introducing you to each of those inspiring books.
But that's just the appetizer. From there, you wander into section two, Influential Cookbooks. One by one, these books are placed before you, sublime inspiration page by page. There you learn more about some names you found in the first section and some new ones beside. Authors such as Jane Grigson, Massimo Bottura, Auguste Escoffier, Danny Meyer, Marco Pierre White, Elizabeth David, and Yotam Ottolenghi grace these pages with their passion, their magic, their allure.
And then the third course, Cookbook Directory. Here you'll find a shorter listing of significant cookbooks that take you around the world. From the 1759 A Complete System of Cookery to last year's The Food Lab, this covers the everything from soup to nuts. Although this is the shortest section of the book, it packs just as heady a punch of gorgeous photos and a deep understanding of what each author brings to the table.
This book could have been successful as a lightweight listing of chefs and their favorite cookbooks. It would be a fun gift and easy reading. But that's not the way author Jenny Linford went. With a powerful exploration of each cookbook and as complete a listing of cookbooks as I've ever seen all in one place, The Chef's Library takes on a lasting and powerful resonance. Any professional chef, potential professional chef, culinary student, or hard-core home cook needs this book, as well as an assortment of the books found in its pages. I know my wish list has grown while I've been reading it.
Galleys for The Chef's Library have been provided by the publisher through NetGalley.