Gremolata Books

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Gremolata Gourmet Media presents our holiday list of food and wine books, just in time to round out your gift list for the gourmands in your life, or your own list before mailing Santa. We've divided our Top 10 Lists into two categories:

1. Top 10 Books of 2004: for those who want to keep current; and

2. Top 10 Classics: books that are a must have for any gastronomic library.

Like all top ten lists, these two are completely fallacious; there may well be 10 other books in either category that are much better. But, in the end we all like lists and Gremolata thinks these are all great books, each worth at least one read.

All of these titles are available at Amazon.ca or are widely available wherever good cookbooks are sold.

Top 10 Books of 2004

Top 10 Classics

1. Feast: Food to Celebrate Life by Nigella Lawson. Nigella doles out her trademark common sense and kitchen forgiveness with an eye to cooking for occasions. Will be a classic in 10 years, much like How To Be a Domestic Goddess.

2. The Trout Point Lodge Cookbook by Daniel Abel, Charles Leary and Vaugn Perret. Nova Scotian ingredients meet California/Cajun sensibilities. One of the best Canadian cookbooks ever published.

3. Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers. This book was way ahead of the whole 2004 "fast food/30-minute" trend. So good and so easy from Tuesday night specials to lazy dinner parties.

4. Les Halles Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain. The most amusing cookbook ever written. It's worth the cover price just to read the introduction. Also very good French Bistro stuff, including charcutier...but really, it's Bourdain's writing that makes it a wonderful armchair read.

5. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee. 20 years after the 1st edition, McGee has completely reworked his masterpiece. The foodie world went agog in November when it was published. A food-nerd must have.

6. Poet of the Appetites: The Lives and Loves of M.F.K. Fisher by Joan Reardon. Finally, a comprehensive biography of the great American lady of food letters. Also, some saucy stuff.

7. A Matter of Taste: Inspired Seasonal Menus with Wines and Spirits to Match
by Lucy Waverman and James Chatto. Finally! A seasonal cookbook for the Great White North.bb

8. Jamie's Dinners by Jamie Oliver. It's easy to pick on Naked, but his cookbooks communicate a wonderful playfulness and love of fine food that always wins over his readers.

9. Marcella Says... by Marcella Hazan. Who would argue with Marcella?

10. Bouchon by Thomas Keller. Yes, that Thomas Keller of French Laundry and Per Se fame. Bouchon is the name of his two "casual" restaurants in Yountville and Las Vegas...whatever...as Amanda Hesser pointed out recently about this book, his technique is interesting and thought provoking enough to justify the cover price.

1. Elizabeth David Classics by Elizabeth David.

Three early masterpieces from the greatest food writer in the English language: Mediterranean Food, French Country Cooking and Summer Cooking. These books are as relevant now as they were 50 years ago.

2. The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher. Second only to David as the greatest, this Fisher reader is an excellent introduction to the master's work.

3. Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck. Child got the credit as the well-known American, but this volume truly is a
great survey of classic French cooking.

4. The French Menu Cookbook by Richard Olney. Olney is a cult figure on both sides of the Atlantic and an impassioned cook. Once you read him, you will be hooked.

5. Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook by Alice L. Waters. Worth it just to read the menus from famous dinners at the famous Berkeley restaurant.

6.Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia
by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. This Toronto-based travelling couple wrote the definitive book on this cuisine.

7. The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. Okay, so it's a little 80's, but this is still a great cookbook. If you grew up with the SIlver Palate ladies in your mother's kitchen you will want this back!

8. The Moro Cookbook by Samantha Clark and Samuel Clark. Husband and wife, Sam and Sam Clark, trained at the River Cafe and then opened Moro several years ago serving Spanish, Turkish and Moroccan inspired food. recipes form this book creep up on alot of menus these days.

9. Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany by Ben Schott. This is the ultimate stocking stuffer (small and cheap). Page upon page of foodie trivia.

10.The River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Another River Cafe alumnus, Fearnley-Whittingstall is famous in the U.K. for living (well) off the land and insisting on organic foods. He captures the contemporary sentiments of food lovers around the world as well as anyone.