Question of the Day | 04/20/2009 11:00 pm

What is your favorite cookbook of all time? Do you remember any special recipe you love from it?

Joan Ganz Cooney | 04/20/2009 11:00 pm

Joan Ganz Cooney on the Art of Cooking

Julia Child’s The Art of French Cooking. It’s been so long since I’ve cooked that I don’t remember the recipes. I do remember that I used to hate it when I’d spend hours on some recipe, sit down with guests and then everyone would just eat it all up and my "art" was gone. Being a painter would be much more satisfying to me than being a cook.

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Candice Bergen | 04/20/2009 11:00 pm

Candice Bergen: The Silver Palate and the Potential Peril

I wish I had a joke here but all I have is Silver Palate. There was a time when all I would use was the Silver Palate cookbooks. We all did. There was something comforting about them, plus they had recipes even an idiot could make, which, for me, was crucial. We spent every summer in the ’80s in France in the country, where we always ate in, so our Silver Palate was frayed and grease- and tomato-stained and half the pages were hanging out and we all had favorite recipes in it. We always had a huge zucchini surplus in the garden, so I made a lot of zucchini bread. I liked a couscous recipe with chicken and prunes that was something I actually enjoyed making. It was a festive, fun cookbook that didn’t intimidate. That mattered to me as I saw the kitchen as a place of potential peril.

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Liz Smith | 04/20/2009 11:00 pm

Liz Smith Cooks With Elvis

Oh, puh-leeze, I got lots of mileage already, writing in my book Dishing about the collection of Elvis cookbooks. These actually exist. Are You Hungry Tonight? …The Presley Family & Friends Cookbook … The I Love Elvis Cookbook, and the one that is my all-time favorite, Life & Cuisine of Elvis Presley. I noted that I often go to bed hungry and just read through this book with my mouth watering.

I wrote an entire chapter on Elvis and food in Dishing and it is still my favorite. I offered this thought: "Elvis might have lived longer if he’d eaten only fish, tofu and vegetables. But can one call that living? I can’t see Elvis getting off food anymore than he could get off drugs. Linus had his blanket … Proust his Madeleine … Elvis had his (cook) Pauline on duty."

If I am not cooking à la Elvis, then I just fall back on Joy of Cooking.

1 Comment

Sheila Nevins | 04/21/2009 8:15 am

Sheila Nevins: A Convenient Cookbook

A restaurant menu. Or coffee-shop takeout.

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Read more about: Books, Cooking, Culture, Elvis Presley, Food, France, Julia Child, Recipes, Silver Palate

98 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

I do not cook. I burn everything I touch. So, I stay out of the kitchen.

By siasp surate on 04/21/2009 12:07 am

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Most know that I grew up in two families, birth and foster/adoptive. There were many kids that were there and my mom hired a live in cook. Her name was Joanne Appleby - no kidding. She was from Missouri, or as she called it - Misery. She was the best person ever, and we all loved her. Never heard a cross word from her and her patience was legendary. She taught us to cook, sew, decorate cakes, make costumes, and taught us why it was important to sleep with sourdough starter to keep it warm so the bread would be just right.

As we got older my mom decided it was time for us to take on more responsibility, and Joanne had a wonderful steady beau named Joe (no kidding again). They decided to get married and so Joanne would be leaving the ranch. We threw her a big wedding on the front lawn, we made the dresses and barefoot led her down the aisle and handed her over to Joe. We sang and cheered and then danced all night.

When it was time for her to leave, she handed me a box and when I opened it there was a little cookbook that she had lovingly written all of my favorite recipes down in - from wilted lettuce, egg custard, swedish meatballs and even a cookie quite like a little french macaroon, but it was malted. I love that book, although now the spine and binder have separated, I still refer to it at times, although for the most part I now know the recipes by heart.

By Frannie Em on 04/21/2009 1:42 am

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Lovely story! My mother was of the "a pinch of this, a dash of that" school of cooking. Nothing was written down. Sadly, I was never able to master my favorite dishes that she would make. I have found recipes for some, but they just don’t taste the same.

By Deena B. on 04/21/2009 7:28 am

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My dad cooked with pinches and dashes and I remember him making up new recipes and he would go to the spice shelf and open jars and "scent" out whether it was an ingredient he wanted. He always said he cooked more with his nose than with tasting. He was a great soup maker and could grill the best steaks.

By Frannie Em on 04/21/2009 6:47 pm

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Frannie––is Joanne still living? How pleased she would be to see herself portrayed so lovingly. Her gift to you was/is so considerate and thoughtful–––I just loved that. (wilted lettuce with bacon and vinegar?)

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 04/21/2009 10:27 am

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Phyllis- yes, Joanne is still alive I just sent her an Easter Card and got a sweet letter back. I have told her on many occasions how much she meant to all of us, and how much we learned from her. And yes - wilted lettuce with bacon and vinegar. Yum - she would make it for dinner at times, but sometimes one of us would beg her to make it and she always would. Every Saturday night she would dress up and go to town and go ballroom dancing. She loved to dance and that is how she met Joe.

By Frannie Em on 04/21/2009 6:45 pm

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My Mother’s sister had a large plot of land where she and her husband grew many crops including corn, so we always had fresh vegetables during the warm seasons. I remember the butter lettuce, that soft silky feel to it, that we fixed with vinegar and bacon––so good! Am glad to hear Joanne is still alive and knows how much she meant to all of you. Did she have children of her own?

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 04/21/2009 11:14 pm

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Joanne was married young in Missouri and lived on a farm with her husband’s family. Her mother-in-law was cold and treated her in a "sorry fashion". She had 3 sons and the oldest was called George the Third. I always marveled about that nickname because his father wasn’t named George. Although she was tall and blonde her sons were all tall dark and handsome. I had a crush on one of them for a long time, but I was like 16 and he was a lot older. She lives near her oldest son and many of her grandchildren and always tells me how well they take care of her. She deserves it.

Aren’t fresh vegetables right out of the garden great? Butter lettuce would be great for wilted lettuce, I think I might try it that way. Lately I have been getting butter lettuce from Whole Foods and they sell it with the roots still attached and it stays fresh longer. I make a salad of butter lettuce, avocado and some Rosemary and Roasted Garlic dressing. Yummmm.

By Frannie Em on 04/22/2009 12:05 am

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Cookbook? What’s that? Actually when I was younger I always used the Better Homes & Garden cookbook. Wore it out eventually. Was not a gourmet cook.

By Lizzie R. on 04/21/2009 12:52 am

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I have a shelf full of cookbooks that are gathering dust. I get prepared meats in a sauce, add some frozen veggies and instant mashed potatoes, seasoned with a little French onion dip, and I am eating like a queen. Live by my microwave. Few dishes to wash, no messy ovento clean and a meal in 10 minutes or less. Yum. By the way, frozen brussel sprouts in butter sauce is so good they taste like candy.

By Judy K. on 04/21/2009 1:21 am

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Ha! Cooking was never my ‘forte’. Yet, I had five sons to feed. Soooo, I had lots of cookbooks on my kitchen bookshelf, and the one I used more often was, BETTY CROCKER’S COOKBOOK.

I never had a favorite receipt ‘per se’. Yet, what I referred to more than the many recipes in my numerous assortment of cookbooks were my monthly BON APPETITE magazine subscriptions, from which I often attempted a recipe that appealed to me.

By Maizie James on 04/21/2009 1:47 am

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PS: [A confession.]

I never attempted to baked desserts. Instead, I used to order cakes, pastries, etc., from SUTTON PLACE GOURMET, in Bethesda, MD, not far from Chevy Chase.

By Maizie James on 04/21/2009 1:59 am

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I learned to cook using BETTY CROCKER’S COOKBOOK. I made just about everything in the cookies / dessert sections. The sourcream spice cake with easy penuche frosting was always a hit. I can improivise fairly well now with whatever I have on hand. My Mom gave me her 1955 edition of Lily Wallace New American Cook Book. Looking through it, it surprized me how much lard was used in practically everything. I’ve got a handed down recipe for czarnina (duck blood soup) which is great, but you can’t get the blood for it anymore.

By B Clark on 04/21/2009 7:24 am

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I’ve always loved to cook and am a natural cook. When younger loved The Silver Palate, as much for the recipes as the charming sketches. Very good Salmon Mousse, Cioppino, Hazelnut Cake, Chicken with olives, pancetta and figs, etc.

My three favorite categories of books are great cookbooks, like ‘The French Laundry.’ Fiction…historical and contemporary. And true stories mostly from women [some men like Bernard Berenson on Italy] who relocate to another country [generally Mediterranean] which includes a lot about food as so organic to place. Like MFK Fisher & Peter Mayle’s Provence series. My current favorite, My French Life, Vicki Archer. Austrailian who buys a 17th c. farmhouse in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, involves food too.

I didn’t think of my novel French Heart having an extraordinary amount of cooking involved, but it is set partly in Provence, and that is the culture. Was surprised when the darling editor returned the MSS with comments that included: "I appreciated the large role food plays in French Heart. With the exception of two books I’ve read in recent years—Julia Glass’s The Whole World Over and Lolly Winston’s Good Grief—food and eating appears way too infrequently in fiction. I fell in love with the foods and wines and extravagant meals in France and it reinforced my understanding of the way of life there. You’ve captured the culture with authority and grace, and picked up the rhythm of life in France beautifully.’ A huge compliment coming from this woman.

I don’t watch Rachel Ray but did catch a repeat of a fantastic travel piece she did on Arles and Aix-en-Provence and visiting the Farmer’s Markets and great restaurants…just so wonderful. Then would switch to U.S. food commercials that just so totally differentiated the worldviews.

By Suzanne de Cornelia on 04/21/2009 1:52 am

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Suzanne, I enjoyed reading your post.

Your mentioning that among your favorite categories of books are fiction and non-fiction cookbooks, including, THE FRENCH LAUNDRY, brought to mind one of my favorite movies … BABBETTE’S FEAST.

Thank you for sharing.

By Maizie James on 04/21/2009 2:07 am