Friday Food Finds Revamp
Cookbook lists, the way I choose which cookbooks to buy, and a new approach.
If you’re at all a fan of cookbooks, this time of year is an especially magical one. Cookbooks are being released almost daily it seems, and with them comes just about every media outlet’s list of favorite or most anticipated titles (I’ve included some of them at the end of this newsletter).
While I am generally a fan of all this coverage and recognition given to cookbooks, I find that they tend to cover a lot of the same titles. More problematically, they often ignore a lot of the same titles too (from authors that are typically less well known), leading to a rich-getting-richer-type of scenario.
I also get the impression that with most of these lists, the person reviewing the books often has not actually cooked or baked from any of the recipes within them. Most of the copy in these listicles, fluff up and summarize cookbook content rather than provide a sense of what it’s like work from the recipes. And although this is somewhat useful for those of us who do genuinely love to read cookbooks cover to cover, it doesn’t necessarily benefit those of us who want to cook or bake from them.
That’s why after reading through a few of these cookbook round-up pieces, I’ve gotten into the habit of seeking out more thorough coverage (beyond a mere listed summary) of the ones I find that I might want to buy. More specifically, if I am less familiar with the author, I look for more information and background about them. I then also seek out at least one recipe of theirs to test before I consider buying their book.
In certain ideal cases, it’s possible to find a republished sample recipe from the cookbook I’m interested in buying1. But if I can’t find a recipe from the book, I usually try to test another recipe the author has developed, whether it be from their own website or on some other platform.
It’s in testing a recipe that I get a feel for a cookbook author’s (or recipe developer’s) style, voice, and personality. In essence, it elevates the author from being a stranger to more of an acquaintance, at which point I can decide whether I want to make them a long-term kitchen companion and buy their book.
Now, why am I sharing all this with you? I’m certainly under no illusion that my strategy will be universally adopted or perhaps even very popular. After all, this process doesn’t leave much room for an impulse purchase of a cookbook after browsing through it or hearing the author speak at your local bookstore, nor is it necessarily the most efficient way of helping you decide whether to buy a book.
So no, I don’t expect you’ll approach your own cookbook buying in this way (unless of course you want to, in which case let me know how it goes!). Instead, the point I want to try to iterate here is that there is always someone worth getting to know behind every recipe (and cookbook). Whether or not they’ll be your go-to companion in the kitchen is less relevant than the simple recognition of the humanity in recipes, cookbooks, and other food-related content.
This is a level of awareness I want to address more directly as I pursue this newsletter. As a result you’ll likely see some upcoming editions take on a different format. I still intend to share plenty of recipes, but I will also endeavor to provide more information about the people behind those recipes. Some editions of Friday Food Finds will spotlight a single recipe developer and/or cookbook author (not necessarily a recently published one — there’s a lot to love in a backlist2!), featuring up to three recipes of theirs (from their cookbooks or elsewhere) that I have tested and enjoyed. These editions will also include more background on the recipe developer and perhaps some links to other content they've created.
Ultimately, I hope my new approach will not only give all of us new cooking and baking inspiration, but will also add some balance to our food media diets. In a society that likes to constantly push us to try the next viral TikTok recipe (good golly, those butter boards!) or trendy flavor combination, or to buy the one ingredient or tool that will make our fill-in-the-blank dish the best it has ever been; I personally want to be more considerate of what I’m consuming both on and off my plate. And I’d love for you to join me!
As always, please share feedback with me at any point; it’s most welcome. In the meantime, thank you for coming with me on my newsletter journey. I appreciate you and am ceaselessly grateful to have you here.
Best,
Charlotte
As mentioned, here are just some of the many fall cookbook lists circulating around the internet:
Paula Forbes who writes the newsletter Stained Page News has just about the most comprehensive list of cookbook releases that I’ve seen. Epicurious is not far behind with a list of 803.
Food & Wine made a best-of list that includes 28 titles, while the list from Simply Recipes stops at 24. Eater pares their list down to 10, and The Spruce Eats and Thrillist both wind up with one more at 11.
Outside of the food media world, Publisher’s Weekly came out with a list of 10 cookbooks, National Geographic has a list of 5, and Forbes calls out 13 titles that more or less represent the best of a certain (sometimes very specific) category.
Some media outlets, in their coverage of cookbook releases and authors, get permission to share a recipe. Otherwise, authors might publish a recipe from their book(s) on their own website.
A publisher’s list of older books that you can still purchase.
In full transparency, I haven’t counted the titles among all of Paula’s different lists, but it certainly seems like they amount to more than 80.
Bravo about delving into the cook's and the recipe's backstory. As you likely know from my wine substack posts, I review wine but also focus on the people, the land, the grape, and the history of place as well. I salute your holistic approach.