Cooking in the Stacks

Do you love to cook or do you get your cooking fix by just “reading” cookbooks?  I am a sucker for a beautifully thought out and photographed cookbook regardless of whether or not I actually prepare one of the recipes!  In this day and age when most cooks search for individual recipes on the Internet, I am mildly surprised at how popular the Mechanics’ Institute’s collection of cookbooks continues to be, circulating on par with our popular Chess collection.

Over the past 18 months, some of our most circulated cookbooks have been Food 52 Vegan: 60 vegetable-driven recipes for any kitchen, Verdure: vegetable recipes from the American Academy in Rome, and The Brokea$$ Gourmet Cookbook.  Additionally, other popular books about food and cooking were Baking by Hand, How to be Vegan, Fresh Fish: a fearless guide to grilling, shucking, searing, poaching and roasting seafood, The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Dinnertime, A Short Guide to Foodie French, Dinner: Changing the Game, and Flavor Flours: a new way to bake.

Current trends in new cookbooks seem to fall broadly into four categories: healthy, quick, one dish/bowls, and famous chefs (a perennial favorite). Samples of recently acquired cookbooks in our collection that fall into these categories are:

Healthy

• 100 Days of Real Food: fast & fabulous: the easy and delicious way to cut out processed food

• The Healthiest Diet on the Planet: why the foods you love -- pizza, pancakes, potatoes, pasta, and more -- are the solution to preventing disease and looking and feeling your best

• Skinnytaste Fast and Slow: knockout quick-fix and slow cooker recipes

• Sugardetoxme: 100+ recipes to curb cravings and take back your health

• You Have It Made: delicious, healthy, do-ahead meals

Quick

• Damn Delicious: 100 super easy, super fast recipes

• Make It Easy: 120 mix-and-match recipes to cook from scratch with smart store-bought shortcuts when you need them

One Dish/Bowls

• Bowl: vegetarian recipes for ramen, pho, bibimbap, dumplings, and other one-dish meals

• Bowls of Plenty: recipes for healthy and delicious whole-grain meals

• One Pan & Done: hassle-free meals from the oven to your table

• The Pho Cookbook: easy to adventurous recipes for Vietnam's favorite soup and noodles

Famous Chefs/Restaurants

• Appetites by Anthony Bourdain

• Dorie’s Cookies by Dorie Greenspan

• EveryDayCook by Alton Brown

• In My Kitchen by Deborah Madison

• My Master Recipes by Patricia Wells

• The Red Rooster Cookbook by Marcus Samuelsson

• Tartine All Day by Elisabeth Prueitt

Check out the cookbooks in our collection and be inspired to try a new cuisine or to make an old classic recipe!