Hello December! Hello holiday season! Hello holiday shopping! For the food enthusiast in your life, how about a new cookbook (you can never really go wrong with a cookbook, I find!)? But with so many new cookbooks released in 2013, what to choose? Never fear – Alison and the folks at The Cookbook Store have compiled a list of what they consider the 12 best books of 2013 to help you choose. AND we have a fun giveaway for you at the end of the post (yes, even you international readers!).
The Art of Simple Food II by Alice Waters
Alice Waters is to whole plant cooking what Fergus Henderson is to whole animal cooking. Along with ways of improving your garden and gardening skills, her recipes demonstrate that the lowliest of plants, and their parts, can morph into the most elegant of dishes. Hardcover, $39.95
Bountiful by Todd Porter and Diane Cu
California-based bloggers, food photographers, and stylists Todd Porter and Diane Cu have created a stunning collection of recipes built on the produce grown in their garden. The freshness of ingredients and simplicity of preparation are the hallmarks of this book. Organized by type of vegetable or fruit, the recipes range from pickles to galettes to granola and beyond. The couple’s blog is WhiteOnRiceCouple.com. Hardcover, $40.00
This book could make you fall in love with Donna Hay all over again. With lashings of Asian flavours and a high ratio of vegetables and grains to poultry, fish, and meat, these dishes are satisfying without ruining your waist line unless you overindulge in the dessert section. Softcover, $34.99
The Flavour Principle by Lucy Waverman and Beppi Crosariol
Using eleven different taste sensations, The Globe and Mail’s food and wine columnists have joined forces to create extraordinary menus complemented by thoughtful and sometimes unusual wine, beer, and spirit pairings. What is constant is Lucy Waverman’s ability to reconfigure the familiar. Hardcover, $40.00
One Souffle At a Time by Anne Willan
Through her LaVarenne Cooking School and her books such as LaVarenne Pratique, Anne Willan has had great influence over professional chefs and home cooks. Her memoir is particularly interesting for women working in the culinary industry because, unlike pioneers like Julia Child, she was able to build her career while also raising a family. Hardcover, $31.99.
The Kinfolk Table by Nathan Williams
For those familiar with Kinfolk magazine, you’ll instantly recognize the popular Kinfolk style that means spectacular photography set in an abundance of white space. As always, the recipes are delicious and simple, making use of local and artisanal ingredients. What makes The Kinfolk Table even more beautiful and special are the profiles collected on each of the contributors. We’re let into the homes of the chefs, bakers, writers, bloggers, artisans, and artists who make up the Kinfolk table and we’re completely jealous. Hardcover, $43.95
The Gramercy Tavern Cookbook by Michael Anthony
The Gramercy Tavern, now almost 20 years old, is sharing its recipes for the first time. These signature dishes serve up a festival of the senses, as pleasing visually, texturally, and aromatically, as taste wise. Hardcover, $57.00
Wintersweet by Tammy Donroe Inman
When the temperatures drop, it’s time to turn on the stove and not just for soups and stews. It’s time for heat in the sweet kitchen, both physical warmth and the sort given by spices and more intense flavours. Think spicy prune cake, compotes, and steamed puddings.Hardcover, $33.00
The Model Bakery Cookbook by Karen Mitchell and Sarah Mitchell Hansen with Rick Rodgers
Since its rebirth in St. Helena, in the Napa Valley, in 1984, the Model Bakery with its century old building and ovens has been a major landmark in the community. The 75 recipes collected here show why: who wouldn’t want to hang out in a bakery that makes pain au levain, sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, pecan pie, lemon brulee tart….Hardcover, $41.00
Ricardo Slow Cooker Favourites by Ricardo Larrivee
The personable, Quebec-based chef raises the bar for slow cooker cuisine with dishes such as veal cheeks with figs, maple and beer braised ham and even crème brulee. Forget the tasty but brown sludge you might have tried in the past for dishes where the look equals the taste. Hardcover, $34.99
How to Feed a Family by Laura Keogh & Ceri Marsh
From the creators of sweetpotatochronicles.com, the time and nutrition savvy updates on classic family cooking will make this a weekday go to cookbook. The breakfast ideas, such as slow cooker oatmeal, are particularly inspired. Softcover, $29.95
Back to Basics by Michael Smith
He’s back! This is Michael’s seventh book and each time he manages to give us something new and interesting on the pages all the while showing us cooking can be fun and creative. However if cooking is not your forte he teaches you the basics in a relaxed manner and he will make you a better cook. Softcover, $32.00
A worldwide cookbook giveaway!
That’s right – thanks to the generosity of The Cookbook Store, I have one of the cookbooks in this list to give away to a lucky reader – open to anyone, anywhere in the world!
To enter, simply leave a comment on this post telling me which book you’d want from this list and why?
For a bonus entry, tweet the following message: Enter to win one of @cookbookshop ‘s top cookbook picks for 2013 on @eatlivtravwrite http://bit.ly/1jY3LNx (Worldwide giveaway!)
then come back to leave me a comment on this post telling me you did.
Eligibility and contest rules
- Open to anyone, anywhere in the world. I’m covering the shipping myself so I reserve the right to send it the most economical way that doesn’t take 6 months!
- No purchase of any product necessary for entry.
- Winner will be chosen using Random.org from all qualified entries on Monday, December 9th 2013 after 6pm EST.
- Winner will be contacted via email on Tuesday December 10th 2013.
If you’re lucky enough to live in Toronto or are heading downtown to do some holiday shopping, be sure to stop by and say hi to Alison, Jennifer, John and the gang – they’re always happy to chat cookbooks!
the cookbook store
850 Yonge St. (at Yorkville Ave)
Toronto, Ontario, M4W 2H1
tel 416-920-2665/1-800-268-6018
fax 416-920-3271
The Cookbook Store website
The Cookbook Store Blog
TheCookbookStore on Facebook
The Cookbook Store on Twitter
_____________
Canadian readers – win a KitchenAid Architect® Series Stand Mixer with 5 quart glass bowl in Raspberry Ice! Ends December 6th 2013 at 6pm EST. Enter here!
I’m fundraising for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation KitchenAid Cook for the Cure Culinary Showdown event on December 7, 2013. Support me here.
I’d love a copy of “Bountiful” by Todd Porter and Diane Cu – love their beautiful blog posts so am curious to see how the book turns out 🙂
And here’s the Tweet: https://twitter.com/lilianlau/status/407484795971596288
Man there are so many good choices in this list! I’m pulled toward Winter Sweets and Fresh and Light, polar opposites, and would be thrilled with either!
Bonjour,
I know it will appears wierd to you,but I would love to have: model bakery.
(Since I am french,I’m suppose to live french bakery…).
I’m changing my 25 years in the fashion industry to open a place where you can eat American food..So that book will help me.I am crazy about bakery from America…So much fun and tasty.Not as dramatic as we do it here…
Merci beaucoup.
I hope you will choose me.
I cross my finger. Who knows,you could be my lucky star for my project!…
Love,
Sophie.
tweeted! https://twitter.com/LostNCheeseland/status/407482789601099776
I’m coming back to you because I just Retweeted your post about it!
Sophie.
I love a copy of either Wintersweet as I love being in the kitchen baking away this time of year or a copy of The Model Bakery as living in the UK there are no unique bakeries, just chain stores so I’d like to make sweet treats myself.
wintersweet .bc i love to be in the kitchen and to create comfort foods for loved ones
I’m having a hard time deciding between The Model Bakery Cookbook or How to Feed a Family!
Hi! I would absolutely love a copy of The Art of Simple Food II by Alice Waters. I am trying to cook more vegetables (especially in 2014) and don’t have any of her books yet. Isn’t that just a crime that must be rectified?
Also just tweeted!
So many fabulous books! I would choose the Flavour Principle because I am cuirous about the first line : using eleven different taste sensations. Love having unusual and surprising pairings.
Love the styling of The Kinfolk Table, hence would loooove a copy. Will also tweet the contest link!
I’d love to have Bountiful. I really like that Diane and Todd’s recipes look like a lot of work but are often easy enough and usually require widely available ingredients.
Maybe Wintersweet for the beautiful cover as I don’t know any of these books!
Definitely Ricardo Larrivee’s Slow Cooker Favourites, if I won, please. I’ve had a slow cooker for years and I use it regularly to make stock from the carcass of a roast chicken, but I’ve not had much success using it for cooking. The only thing I cook in it is poached whole chicken, as an alternative to the roast. I’d really like some good recipes that are both appealing, innovative and that work, to help me get more use from it.
So hard to choose, but I think I’d go with the slow cooker book.
This is great! I’m attracted to Bountiful by Todd Porter and Diane Cu both for the lovely design/photographs, and because I’d like to use my garden to the best of it’s abilities! Thanks!
I tweeted also. https://twitter.com/frentertaining/status/407521294582693888
Tweeted! 🙂 https://twitter.com/ginamussio/status/407521497918361600
The Flavour Principle… I have been so keen to read more about pairing and more!
I tweeted!
And I also loved working on recipes from How to Feed a Family by Laura Keogh & Ceri Marsh such smart fun recipes, for big and little hands alike!
Thanks for offering this one worldwide!
I already have some of these beautiful cookbooks, but would
love to read
Kinfolk or One Souffle.
Thanks, Mardi!
Bountiful by Todd Porter and Diane Cu Please! Everything looks delicious!
I would have to choose Bountiful because the photos make me want to try every recipe!
I’d love to read Anne Willan’s memoir. She’s so inspiring–a great cook who knows how to explain things clearly!
What a great list! So difficult to choose one, but I think “Kinfolk” or “The Flavor Principle”. They each incorporate parts of what I love about cooking: the stories behind food and sharing, and re imagining the way we think about food.
Fresh and Light by Donna Hay would be my choice. Donna Hay’s recipes and photographs are always phenomenal!
The Gramercy Tavern Cookbook is my choice.
What a difficult decision. However, I think I’d like Michael Smith’s Back to Basics cookbook. The Bountiful one looks great too though.
It would be the Back to Basics book by Micheal Smith but the Model Bakery cookbook is a close second.
I’ve been seeing a TON of great recipes from How To Feed A Family, so that’s my choice. And here’s the link to my tweet!
https://twitter.com/FlorenceMcC/status/407627109465485312
As I am your father, I presume I’m knocked out of this competition… but if I were to enter, I would like “The Kinfolk Table”. Reason: food, fine photography and an “inside” look at movers and shakers in food. Even the cover looks wonderful.
I would love The Model Bakery Cookbook. Tried, tested and true recipes are one my favorites to go by because they’re true classics and I love to bake!
Hello Mardi! I would love to read the Kinfolk and learn about the recipes and profiles of their contributors. It would be fun to see their wonderful photographs too. Then the Model Bakery will be fun to read too as I enjoy baking.
I just tweeted the Cookbook giveaway.
Tweeted ( by @jcharnishcurrie)
Since I already have (and love) the sweet potato chronicles book, I would have to say either “the flavour principle” (because Lucy waver man has never let me down), or “back to basics”…as a working mom with a toddler and one more on the way, simple is a must!!!
I’d have to choose The Model Bakery Cookbook. I LOVE to bake… and I love Napa.
I’d love to win a copy of Wintersweet. I love baking in the winter – I don’t feel guilty about the oven heating up the house, and there’s just something so warm and cozy about baking inside when it’s cold and snowy outside!
I just tweeted! 🙂
https://twitter.com/kitchenfrolic/status/407678195605839872
I’d choose The Flavour Principle. It looks and sounds amazing and it not on my shelf yet…
LOVED Wintersweet and Chef Michael’s Back to Basics.
This is a very nice list. I would chose The Model Bakery Cookbook because I don’t own it yet and I do love baking. Thanks for the giveaway!
I tweeted about the giveaway!
I have just tweeted the link.
As for the book, I personally don’t mind which one. They all look so good.
Best of luck to all the other entrants.
How to Feed a Family… mostly because the cover was the first one to really catch my eye. All of these books look fabulous though!
tweeted: https://twitter.com/justtellmewhen/status/407758938751246337
Back to Basics by Michael Smith!
https://twitter.com/Jemrah1/status/407830141922861056 – i tweeted!
What a great give-away. They all look wonderful, but I am probably most curious about Kinfolk’s book.
P.S. I tweeted, but am not sure how to post a link to my tweet 🙂 (Yes, I have the technology skills of a slug)
Hello! Thank you for this contest! As a new mom I would love the How to Feed a Family cookbook. I also tweeted the contest under @NachoAvgSnack
Hello! Thank you for this contest! As a new mom I would love the How to Feed a Family cookbook.
Hello! Thank you for this contest! As a new mom I would love the How to Feed a Family cookbook. Tweeted under @nachoavgsnack
The Model Bakery.
I understand sweets a bit better than when I make meals.
I love the Wine Country of California as well and this bakery is there.
I want One Souffle because I read that Anne Willan is great people in cooking stuff. She is legend. I think i would like to learn from her.
Here is my twitter link of share: https://twitter.com/Mey_Liechandra/status/407891665546788865
I would love Back to Basics by Michael Smith because these are the simplest and best meals.
I’d choose The Kinfolk Table because I’ve now read several good reviews of it.
Several on here I’d love to have and don’t have yet but I’d choose Bountiful. The reason I’d choose Bountiful is that I think I would cook from it the most of those listed. I love to cook things that are in season from the Farmers Market or a neighbors garden. I don’t have a green thumb myself but I love to cook the bounty from those who do. I also enjoy putting up (canning, freezing) as well.
Flip a coin…kinfolk or flavour principle. They all look great
Flip a coin…kinfolk or flavour principle. They all look great but these two look like they would stretch my comfort zone in the kitchen
Ricardo Slow Cooker please. Thank you for the contest!
Wintersweet!
I’d love Bountiful because I’ve been wanting it forever! Todd & Diane are great.
I tweeter it here: https://twitter.com/JayneTinkers/status/408089261322145792
The Model Bakery Cookbook- one of my “resolutions” of the New Year is to master baking.
I’d love to win the model bakery cookbook (been during that book for awhile now)! Thinking of pursuing pastry so I’m ready to do a lot of practice during the holidays! 🙂
Tweeted as well!
Back to basic
Love chef Michael Smith simple approaches to cooking which is perfect for at home cooking
Tweeted
@kiki_BFF
I’d love a copy of Wintersweet as I love being in the kitchen baking away this time of year.
would like to have the “The Gramercy Tavern Cookbook by Michael Anthony” book. i’m not a good cook but would like to give his cookbook a shot to impress others =)
I am curious about the Alice Waters book if I were so lucky as to win the contest.
Thanks for the suggestions!
I think I will buy the How to Feed a Family as a gift.
I would love a copy of How To Feed A Family!
HI! WEll the cookbook i would like to receive is Wintersweet. I was planning to gift this for my friend if i was selected to and she loves baking. She loves the holidays and to add to that, her birthday is two days after Christmas. I know that she would love it if i gave it to her.”
Would love the Donna Hay book – looking forward to a new year of healthy and delicious meals!
Tweeted as well!
I like How to Feed a Family
roddjackson at hotmail.com
I’d have to say I’d love to see The Gramercy Tavern Cookbook. I’ve only seen their recipes in print in The New York Times or one of their cookbooks, and their dishes always sound amazing, just the type of food I love to cook. Braises, salads, and pizzas with big flavours. Thank you for the giveaway, what an amazing collaboration.
I´d choose the Back to Basics by Michael Smith 🙂 It sounds good and I´m sure it would inspire me with cooking. Sometimes the basic things are the best!
I want “The Art of Simple Food II by Alice Waters” because I already have the first book, and it was absolutely amazing. I’m looking forward to the second book.
I also tweeted. https://twitter.com/_aneb/status/408525002003083264
I want the book by Michael Smith Back To Basics and I tweeted https://mobile.twitter.com/sparklerave/status/408795285595226112
The Flavour Principle – love Lucy Waverman, I think I have all of her other cookbooks.
I would love the Bountiful by Todd Porter and Diane Cu, for the use of fresh ingredients and simplicity of preparation. Thank you 🙂
I would like The Flavour Principle by Lucy Waverman and Beppi Crosariol since I read Lucy’s articles in the Globe and Mail and also follow her on twitter.
Bountiful 🙂
Also tweeted!
They all are amazing but I’m really curious about: Bountiful by Todd Porter and Diane Cu 🙂
So hard to choose, but perhaps Bountiful!
The Art of Simple Food II by Alice Waters because the first book was brilliant and I’m looking forward to reading the second.
Also tweeted https://twitter.com/Alyiakal/status/409497113278423040
So many fabulous choices! I already have Chef Michael Smith’s book. Maybe ‘How to Feed a Family’? Mainly because I love feeding my family and friends!
I would like How To Feed a Family because it looks like the recipes are simple to make. I tweeted (@greenurlifenow).
I’d love Wintersweet…..I love comfort food!
I commented!
So hard to choose from so many wonderful cookbooks, but I choose The Model Bakery Cookbook by Karen Mitchell and Sarah Mitchell Hansen with Rick Rodgers because I love to bake and would like to try some of their recipes
just tweeted supremeoverlord@TheWomanDragon
I’d like bountiful. It looks like my kind of food.
I would love to win Ricardo Slow Cooker Favourites by Ricardo Larrivee since I’m always looking for new slow cooker recipes now that the weather has turned cold.
I tweeted here: https://twitter.com/JubleeW/status/409880521452163072
Would love a the Ricardo Slow Cooker favourites. His recipes are interesting that sound simply delicious. I enjoy juicy dishes with lots of gravy!
One Soufflé at a Time would be my pick, as there is nothing so wonderful to read as a cooking memoir!
I’m a fan of Donna Hay so my choice will be Fresh and Light.I’d love to add it to my collection of cookbooks!
I want book Back to basics ‘cos i don’t have a clue about cooking so this would be great gift form me to learn how to cook finally 🙂
tweet:https://twitter.com/doliii2212/status/410095480522039298
mail: doliii@hotmail.com
And twieeted https://twitter.com/carollushka/status/410172820673421312