Page-Turners: Tasting Table's Fall Cookbook Preview
The books we can't wait to get our hands on
September used to mean buying textbooks. Now, we're all about stocking up on the new crop of fall cookbooks. Here are the books that have us aching to get into the kitchen.
Noma-philes, get ready to geek out for not one book, but three, from René Redzepi, chef at the now legendary Noma in Copenhagen. A Work in Progress ($40; pictured above) is three volumes packaged together: a cookbook of 100 recipes divvied by month; a super voyeuristic diary written by Redzepi; and third, a collection of Polaroid-style snapshots.
Plan your next Sunday feast around Suzanne Goin's The A.O.C. Cookbook ($25). Its recipe inspiration comes from the small plates at her sophomore Los Angeles restaurant (duck sausage with candied kumquats, and roast curried cauliflower), reinterpreted as main courses for the home cook.
Daniel Patterson says in his new book Coi ($50) that "most of the recipes, in their entirety, would be too labor-intensive or troublesome to make outside of a professional kitchen." Why bother? Pure, unadulterated inspiration. Each recipe is accompanied by a thought-provoking essay and gorgeous photos.
New Orleans golden boy John Besh is back with Cooking From the Heart ($40), a collection of 140 recipes that span his cooking education, from his travels in Europe to training under Southern chefs.
We're totally crushing on Alex Atala's heartfelt and gorgeous love letter to the people and ingredients behind his modern Brazilian cuisine. In D.O.M: Rediscovering Brazilian Ingredients ($50), Atala may very well do for Brazilian ingredients what David Chang did for Korean ones.
One of NYC's most iconic restaurants for nearly 20 years, Gramercy Tavern had never released a cookbook until now. Complete with a history by uber-restaurateur Danny Meyer, The Gramercy Tavern Cookbook ($50) spans the New American favorite's dishes, both classic and new.
His restaurant opening in New York City this fall is already being hailed as the Second Coming of Ramen, so we can't wait to get our hands on a copy of Ivan Orkin's Ivan Ramen ($30) cookbook. Happy slurping.
One of our favorite Japanese chefs, Tadashi Ono, is at it again with food writer Harris Salat. Japanese Soul Cooking ($28) is a thoughtfully written and beautifully shot exploration of the home-style foods that have become everyday favorites, like ramen, soba and okonomiyaki.
The fall's most rock-and-roll memoir slash culinary manifesto comes from Roy Choi, the rough-and-tumble genius behind L.A.'s Korean taco-wielding Kogi food truck (and arguably the chef that launched the whole food-on-wheels trend). Expect a litany of culture-crunching food talk in L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food ($30).
David Kinch devotees have been awaiting a cookbook for years; his Manresa: An Edible Reflection ($50), written with Christine Muhlke, puts on the page the beauty and artistry you would find on a tasting menu at his Los Gatos, California restaurant. Flowering coriander ice, risotto without rice, confit melon soup: It's all in there.
Food writer and cookbook author Anya Von Bremzen's Mastering the Art of Soviet Cooking ($26) offers poignant, funny and tear-inducing tales of her childhood in Russia. Expect Soviet-era longing and a choice few choice recipes, each marking a decade of the bygone era.
Langdon Cook's The Mushroom Hunters ($26) is a behind-the-scenes look at the territorial cat-and-mouse games played by funghi foragers across the country. It's a fascinating look into the shrouded and often dangerous pursuit of the tasty things that grow in the dark.
It's not new, but it's new to us. After poring over Jerusalem last year, and Plenty before that, we're delighted that Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's Ottolenghi: The Cookbook ($35) is being released Stateside this fall. We'll be making dishes like eggplant-wrapped ricotta gnocchi nonstop in the months to come.
All we had to do was see the title of Oxford, Mississippi chef John Currence's upcoming book–Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey ($40)–and we knew it would earn a place on our bookshelf. Organized by down-home technique, such as Slathering and Brining/Smoking, we consider it one of the new classics in Southern food.
Two words: those wings. Andy Ricker of Pok Pok and Pok Pok Ny explores Vietnamese home and street cooking in Pok Pok ($35).
You may not be able to wait for hours at the Bushwick, Brooklyn pizzeria–or shell out gobs of cash for dinner at the adjoining Blanca–but now you can get inspiration, both thin-crust and otherwise, from the Roberta's Cookbook ($35).
Scott Conant has been on the forefront of New York City's New Italian movement for years. The Scarpetta Cookbook ($35) shares recipes from his stylized Meatpacking District restaurant, including, yes, the infamous spaghetti with tomato sauce.
The first was all about desserts; the second, bread. In Tartine Book No. 3 ($40), bread-baking guru Chad Robertson explores baking with whole grains.