“Cookbook Book”: A Compendium

Some people buy cookbooks for the recipes, some people buy them for the pictures or narrative. And some people buy them for all of those reasons and more. I used to collect regional cookbooks, but the massive quantity of cream of mushroom soup and spinach dip recipes became distressing so I sold them all at a yard sale.

“Cookbook Book,” a compilation by Annahita Kamali, an art director, and Florian Bohm, an artist, which was published by Phaidon, is a coffee table book that covers all the bases. Almost. The authors gathered 125 cookbooks spanning hundreds of years. Each page opens up to an actual-size color photograph of a chosen recipe from each book. As this is an international volume, the back of the book gives translations for such recipes as Kogebog for Hvermand’s mashed tripe and minced sausage, and Housewife’s Friend (1936, Tokyo), Yoshino tofu with prawns, should you be so inclined.

From a dedicated cook and cookbook collector’s perspective, this book has some serious flaws and misses some major culinary talent. But, it was delightful to see that some local chefs and authors made the cut. Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey are included, as they should be. Myrna Davis’s 1972 “The Potato Book” is included, with Truman Capote’s amusing foreword. He waxes poetic about foraging for unharvested potatoes and chilled Russian vodka, and laments the “new houses that are steadily popping up to mar the long line where the land ends and the sky begins.” He also gives a shout out to the then Hampton Day School, saying “it is as open in spirit as its surroundings and for that we can be grateful.”

 The local watercolorist and illustrator Lauren Jarrett’s exquisite work can be seen in “Catalan Cuisine.” It’s a shame that some other “locals,” such as Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin and Sheila Lukins of Silver Palate fame didn’t make the cut. Surely, the 1980s fame of Silver Palate and New Basics cookbooks deserved a place in this tome?

Since this is a British publication, however, it is heavy on British authors. While I admire Jamie Oliver a great deal, I’m not sure his “30 Minute Meals” is a worthy addition. There is also quite a bit of infatuation with totally kitschy cookbooks, mostly American, natch. There is “The Mafia Cookbook,” “The Special Effects Cookbook,” “White Trash Cooking,” “The Astronaut’s Cookbook,” “Singers and Swingers in the Kitchen,” “I Hate to Cook Book,” “DC Super Heroes Super Healthy Cookbook,” and worst of all, “Bridget’s Diet Cookbook.”

Do you remember the brief, sad fad of the ’70s with calendars, cards, and, yes, a cookbook with a fat, nude girl named Bridget? The chosen illustration for “Cookbook Book” is Bridget eating a plate of bird seed. Sooooo politically incorrect nowadays. Probably even better (or worse) is the “Super Heroes” recipe for Invisible Banana French Toast. The comic strip shows Batman wondering where the banana is. Robin replies, “You get that taste by putting the banana in the Batman . . . er, I mean the batter, Batman.” There have been sniggering jokes for decades about Batman and Robin’s sexuality, but such innuendo in what is supposed to be a children’s cookbook?

The book is divided into chapters/categories such as “Design Mavericks,” “Enduring Classics,” and “World Flavors,” but these, too, contain flaws. Sylvia (Queen of Soul Food) Woods, the owner and proprietor of the eponymous Sylvia’s of Harlem, is a true blue American, not African. However, it is heartening to see that Yotam Ottolenghi gets a page from his “Plenty” cookbook, and there are some single subject books that enchant, such as Rose Levy Beranbaum’s “The Bread Bible,” Pierre Herme’s “Macarons,” and Myrna Davis’s aforementioned “The Potato Book.”

There are also books for cooks that may not catch your eye at a Barnes and Noble. “Visual Recipes: A Cookbook for Non-Readers” is an example. “The Eskimo Cook Book,” written by the students of Shishmaref Day School, was published by the Alaska Crippled Children’s Association in 1953 and has charming drawings by the children, along with some very regional recipes for seagull eggs, dried salmon eggs with berries, conch, and tomcod.

As Colman Andrews says in the introduction, “Volumes like these bring us not just cooking lessons but inspiration, insight, and context.” And even a touch of our own local flavors.

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