The Washington Post says that Michael Ruhlman is a “very accomplished and plugged-in author.”

Based on the number of media hits his new cookbook,  Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, received today, he is definitely the latter.

Several libraries are showing heavy reserves on light ordering. It’s currently at #81 in Amazon’s sales rankings (and #3 in the cooking category, after Hungry Girl: 200 Under 200 and The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which is hardly a cooking book, but Amazon categories can be strange).

Consumer coverage:

• Washington Post, Book Report
• New York Times, Everyday Cooking Is as Easy as 3:2:1
• Newsday, Michael Ruhlman demystifies recipes in ‘Ratio’ Sylvia Carter |
• Los Angeles Times, For precise cooking, get on the kitchen scale

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking Michael Ruhlman Price: $27.00 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Scribner – (2009-04-07) ISBN-10: 1416566112 ISBN-13: 9781416566113

The winner if the International Association Culinary Professionals in the General Category was a book on a timely topic from South Portland, Maine independent publisher, Sellers Publishing. The winners were announced on Saturday at the IACP Conference in Denver.

The full list of winners is at IACP Cookbook Awards. The link is also available on our “Book Awards ‘09″ links, to the right.

Do It For Less! Weddings: How to Create Your Dream Wedding Without Breaking the Bank Denise Vivaldo Price: $19.95 Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: Sellers Publishing – (2008-10-21) ISBN-10: 1416205195 ISBN-13: 9781416205197

And, since doing things for less is the current watchword, we thought we’d mention the previous title is the series, by the same author, on parties. Preview pages are available on the book’s web site.

Do It for Less! Parties: Tricks of the Trade from Professional Caterers’ Kitchens Denise Vivaldo Price: $19.95 Paperback: 240 pages Publisher: Terrace Publishing – (2005-04-01) ISBN-10: 0965327515 ISBN-13: 9780965327510

It’s the anti-Fannie Farmer, according to the Wall Street Journal (”A Shift to Recipe-less Cooking“). It seems Ms. Farmer took the joy out of cooking by obsessing over exact measurements. 

The article focuses on Cooking Beyond Measure, a cookbook from a brand-new Portland, OR publisher, 76 Ave Press (this is their first book; the next one will be Hippie Kitchen). It was reviewed in Publishers Weekly, but clearly by an FF type;

This odd recipe collection…feels more like a conversation with a quirky cooking enthusiast than a full-fledged cookbook. Instead of using the traditional recipe format-lists of ingredients followed by detailed instructions on what to do with them- [it] relies on “recipe notes”…

WorldCat shows no libraries owning it.

Cooking Beyond Measure: How to Eat Well without Formal Recipes Jean Johnson Price: $16.95 Paperback: 212 pages Publisher: Seventy-Sixth Avenue Press – (2008-08-01) ISBN-10: 0981527108 ISBN-13: 9780981527109

The second book in this trend is coming this fall, written by well-known cookbook editor Judith Jones (she worked with Julia Child and published her own memoir last year, The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food)

The Pleasures of Cooking for One Judith Jones Price: $27.50 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Knopf – (2009-09-29) ISBN-10: 0307270726 ISBN-13: 9780307270726

Among the 33 finalists for the James Beard Foundation Cookbook Awards, ten titles also appeared on the IACP list. We’ve listed them below and included the number of libraries that own each title, according to OCLC, to help you focus on what you may be missing.

The winners of the James Beard Awards will be announced May 4th.

• Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited
by Arthur Schwartz
(Ten Speed Press); owned by 331 libraries (OCLC)
• The Art and Soul of Baking
by Cindy Mushet, Sur La Table
(Andrews McMeel Publishing); owned by  318 libraries (OCLC)
• Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide
by Thomas Keller
(Artisan); owned by 120 libraries (OCLC)
• The Bon Appétit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook
by Barbara Fairchild
(John Wiley & Sons, Inc.); owned by 416 libraries (OCLC)
• The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life
by Ellie Krieger
(The Taunton Press, Inc.); owned by 712 libraries (OCLC)
• Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid (Artisan); owned by 295 libraries (OCLC)
• The Science of Good Food
by David Joachim and Andrew Schloss, with A. Philip Handel, Ph.D.
(Robert Rose Inc., Canadian publisher); owned by 238 libraries (OCLC)
• Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes
by Jennifer McLagan
(Ten Speed Press); owned by 185 libraries (OCLC)
• Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China
by Fuchsia Dunlop
(W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.); owned by 384 libraries (OCLC)
• Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef
by Betty Fussell
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt); owned by 448 libraries (OCLC)

One of the Beard finalists appears to be self-published by the author/chef, who also has an extensive web site. OCLC shows only 5 libraries owning it. Where it is owned, it is circulating quickly. 

Southeast Asian Flavors Robert Danhi Retail Price: $45.00 Hardcover: 400 pages Publisher: Mortar & Press – (2008-10-01) ISBN / EAN: 0981633900 / 9780981633909

Last year, everyone was looking for books on green weddings. Now we’ve got them in spades, just as brides-to-be (or anyway, their mothers) are looking for books on cheap weddings.

Happily, one of finalists for Best General Cookbook from the International Association of Culinary Professionals is Do It for Less: Weddings from independent publisher, Sellers Publishing. WorldCat shows it is owned by just 120 libraries.

Do It For Less! Weddings: How to Create Your Dream Wedding Without Breaking the Bank
Denise Vivaldo 

• Paperback: $19.95; 240 pages
• Publisher: Sellers Publishing (October 21, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1416205195
• ISBN-13: 978-1416205197

We’re happy, but not surprised, to see that Baked, from EarlyWord’s favorite Brooklyn bakery is a finalist in the Baking category. It’s already appeared on several best cookbooks of ‘08 lists. WorldCat shows it’s owned by 269 libraries. And, the reserves? Fugeddaboudit, they’re tru da roof — 37 on 7 copies in one NorthWest library system.

Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
by Matt Lewis, Renato Poliafito, Tina Rupp 

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Stewart, Tabori & Chang (October 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1584797215
• ISBN-13: 978-1584797210

And, speaking of Brooklyn, a book on a cuisine that is not widely covered, Senegalese, by Brooklyn resident Pierre Thiam, is one of the finalists for IACP’s Julia Child Award for First Book. It’s also from an independent press, Lake Isle Press. WorldCat shows it’s owned by 128 libraries.

Yolele! Recipes from the Heart of Senegal
Pierre Thiam

• Hardcover: $21.95; 192 pages
• Publisher: Lake Isle Press; illustrated, (September 25, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1891105388
• ISBN-13: 978-1891105388

Hold on, they’re coming! According to Publishers Weekly, several spring and summer cookbooks will focus on how to feed more people for less.

Below are the titles mentioned in the article:

Eat Cheap But Eat Well: The Poor Chef Cookbook
Mattocks, Charles

• Paperback: $18.95; 208 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (April 27, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 0470293365
• ISBN-13: 978-0470293362

—————————————-

 $3 Meals: Feed Your Family Delicious, Healthy Meals for Less Than the Cost of a Gallon of Milk
Brown, Ellen 

• Paperback: $14.95; 256 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press (April 1, 2009)
• ISBN-10: 1599216078
• ISBN-13: 978-1599216072

—————————————-

100 Meals for $5 or Less: Thrifty Meals in Tough Economic Times
Maughan, Jennifer

Caution: this one is sprial bound 

—————————————-

Taste of Home series: Taste of Home Dinner on a Dime
Reader’s Digest Books

This year has been notable for cookbooks not meant for use; books that give an inside view of kitchens that produce food most of us could never afford, much less cook. They are dream books for epicures and aspiring professionals as well as for the thousands of people who avidly watch Top Chef and Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. Yet, many of these titles are owned by very few libraries.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, Raymond Sokolov takes a look at the trend in  A Bumper Crop of Cookbooks: From Adrià to Keller, some of the world’s top chefs open a window into the future of food. Sokolov writes the paper’s “Eating Out” column and has written several books, including cookbooks.

He decided to highlight these “non-cookbooks” because they,

…give an idea of what these chefs do that gets them all the fame and also because their books show the way the wind will soon be blowing in dozens and hundreds of ambitious kitchens from Dubai to Dubuque.

Earlier, the LA Times took a much dimmer view of the trend, preferring “user-friendly” cookbooks.

Sokolov, has little regard for contemporary French cooking and dismisses two recent titles by famous French chefs, saying,

…if you want an explanation for France’s loss of influence in the culinary world in the past 20 years, these books will show you how a great food culture got trapped in its own bubble, while foreigners who admired the French food of the ’70s and ’80s learned all its maneuvers and gave it a future on their home ground.

But not all is lost for French chefs; a couple have redeemed themselves by moving elsewhere and adopting influences from their new countries.

Escape from France

On the Line 

Eric Ripert and Christine Muhlke 

Ripart runs the famous New York seafood restaurant, Le Bernardin and was also a judge on Top Chef, where he made contestants weak in the knees. Sokolov says, “Any epicure interested in learning the nuts and bolts of the way great food gets to her table should read [this]…detailed rundown of life behind the scenes at Le Bernardin.” WorldCat shows the book is owned in just 17 libraries.

• Hardcover: $35; 240 pages
• Publisher: Artisan (November 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1579653693
• ISBN-13: 978-1579653699

The Complete Robuchon 

Joël Robuchon 

• Hardcover: $35; 832 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; (November 4, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0307267199
• ISBN-13: 978-0307267191

Sokolov calls Robouchon, “the best living culinary intelligence” and says this book actually works for the home cook; “an encyclopedia of winners for the amateur cook.” WorldCat shows 62 libraries own it.

—————————

The Radicals

Sokolov describes the following as radicals, whose

…fascination with lab equipment, with gels and foams, with Mr. Wizard stunts like reconstituting an olive as an olive-seeming ovoid of pure olive taste, has earned them the unwelcome group monicker of molecular gastronomers. And while they are interested in science and razzle-dazzle, they each harness the gee-whiz stuff to create startlingly delicious food that makes the fuss and cost of worshipping in their shrines worth the detour.

Adrià, Ferran

A Day at elBulli: An Insight into the Ideas, Methods and Creativity of Ferran Adria

• Hardcover: $49.95
• Publisher: Phaidon Press; (October 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0714848832
• ISBN-13: 978-0714848839

“For the two million queued-in diners who fail to get a rez at the world’s most famous and farthest out eating place, an obsessive photo essay showing 24 hours at the enchanted cove where Mr. Adrià presides north of Barcelona.” Anthony Bourdain featured elBulli on one of his shows. According to WorldCat, no libraries own this one [later: Seattle Public reports that they own this titles and found that my info. was wrong -- WorldCat shows it's owned by 84 libraries. Thanks for the correction! Seattle has 6 copies with 30 holds. I double-checked the other titles in this post on WorldCat and the information for them is correct].

Alinea 

Grant Achatz with Nick Kokonas, Mark McClusky, Michael Nagrant, Michael Ruhlman, Jeffrey Steingarten 

• Hardcover: $60; 416 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (October 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1580089283
• ISBN-13: 978-1580089289

“… boy-wonder Achatz [is} an icon of invention. 100 detailed recipes for gasping at, but don’t even think about cooking them at home.” WorldCat: 76 libraries own copies.

Heston Blumenthal

Big Fat Duck Cookbook

• Hardcover: $250; 532 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (November 11, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1596915501
• ISBN-13: 978-1596915503

“With three Michelin stars for his small Thames-side hyperbistro, the amiable Mr. Blumenthal tells all, in a fantastical collection of cartoonish illustrations, science lectures and steroidally imaginative recipes.”  At $250, it’s probably unsuprising that just 5 American libraries own it.

Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide

Keller, Thomas

• Hardcover: $76; 304 pages
• Publisher: Artisan (October 15, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1579653510
• ISBN-13: 978-1579653514

“The great man demonstrates how the revolutionary technique of slow, low-temperature cookery known as sous vide (under vacuum) works wonders of tenderness and visual brilliance. All it takes is a vacuum bagger, a circulating water bath with a very precise thermostat and these provocative recipes.” Owned by 40 libraries.

How many of you equate Brooklyn with delicious baked goods?

Change your tune, non-Brooklynites. TWO of NPR’s picks of the best cookbooks of the year (Baked and The Sweet Melissa Baking Book) come from Brooklyn bakeries (both within walking distance of EarlyWord).

We’re waiting for our favorite street vendor, “The Treats Truck,” which also does its baking in Brooklyn, to produce a cookbook.

But, we digress. 

Holds are building on the following titles that were specifically mentioned on the show.

NPR correspondent Susan Chang’s top pick is by an NPR colleague, Lynne Rossetto Kasper.

The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper: Recipes, Stories, and Opinions from Public Radio’s Award-Winning Food Show.

• Hardcover: $35; 352 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter (April 8, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0307346714
• ISBN-13: 978-0307346711

To see the rest of the titles, including The Sweet Melissa Baking Book, go to The 10 Best Cookbooks Of 2008. But don’t go if you’re hungry; NPR includes recipes from each title.

If you haven’t seen it, take a look at the cover of the NYT “Dining & Wine” section, featuring a gorgeous blue cake, radiant with electric lights built into the frosting (the electrical circuit is edible; I’m guessing the light bulbs are not).

It’s from a new book The Hungry Scientist Handbook: Electric Birthday Cakes, Edible Origami, and Other DIY Projects for Techies, Tinkerers, and Foodies.

Fortunately, for those who want to replicate these projects, the book is a real manual, with line drawings and step-by-step instructions.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t feature the kind of pretty pictures that the NYT shows. To get the eye candy, you need to go to the hungryscientist,com, or to the sites of fellow mad food scientists, instructables.com, (currently featuring a truly gross Halloween spread) and evilmadscientist.com (love those edible googly eyes!).

The Hungry Scientist Handbook is owned in small quantities in all the libraries I checked, with comfortable holds to copy ratios.

The Hungry Scientist Handbook: Electric Birthday Cakes, Edible Origami, and Other DIY Projects for Techies, Tinkerers, and Foodies

• Paperback: $16.95; 224 pages
• Publisher: Collins Living (September 23, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0061238686
• ISBN-13: 978-0061238680

A Platter of Figs is shaping up as THE cookbook of the season. Both today’s New York Times and the new People magazine (11/4) include it in their seasonal cookbook roundups. It was also featured in the LA Times list of standouts in what they call a “dazzling season” of cookbooks.

Julia Moskin, NYT  ”Dining” section reporter, calls it the “most alluring and useful” of all the books discussed (or coming out this season, it’s not entirely clear). 

The book went from #862 on Amazon to #117. Several libraries have not ordered it; those that do own it show reserves.

A Platter of Figs

Tanis, David

• Hardcover: $35
• Publisher: Artisan (September 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1579653464
• ISBN-13: 978-1579653460

Several books from high-profile chefs are out this season, some with high-end price tags to match (but, at $250, The Big Fat Duck Cookbook still costs less than a meal at London’s Fat Duck restaurant). Recognizing that most of these books are beyond the skills of even the best home cooks, Moskin says you should think of them as “art books, deluxe professional manuals and creative memoirs that happen to be in recipe form.” After all, you wouldn’t expect to be able to paint a masterpiece after reading a Jackson Pollock memoir.

Of the high-end books, Moskin says she would choose Alinea, from the award-winning Chicago restaurant (tasting menu, $125), because of the book’s “relatively reasonable” price and “seductive photography.” 

It rose from #209 to #126 on Amazon. It’s owned in small quantities by some libraries and is showing holds.

Alinea

Achatz, Grant 

• Hardcover: $60; 416 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (October 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1580089283
• ISBN-13: 978-1580089289

The LA Times “Cookbook Watch” column separates out the high-profile chef books from those that work for the home chef from this season’s “dazzling cookbook lineup.” 

Six books for the Home Cook

The following are considered  ”the most consistent, intelligent and creative” by the LA Times:

A16: Food + Wine

Appleman, Nate

• Hardcover: $36; 278 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (September 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1580089070
• ISBN-13: 978-1580089074

The LA Times calls this the “best of the bunch.” Of the six titles, this and the Jamie Oliver are on order the most widely and have the highest holds to copy ratios.

Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life

Oliver, Jamie

• Hardcover: $37.50; 416 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (September 16, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1401322425
• ISBN-13: 978-1401322427

The LA Times calls Jamie’s book on cooking from his home garden “folksy, endearing”

A Platter of Figs

Tanis, David

• Hardcover: $35
• Publisher: Artisan (September 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1579653464
• ISBN-13: 978-1579653460

This book has appeared on EarlyWord before (it was featured in the NYT Magazine). The other coast’s Times considers it “a lovely read. The recipes are nice too, although the book can be frustrating for those cooking for fewer than eight.” it’s on order by fewer libraries than the previous two titles.

The following three are considered “less reliable but often more inspiring” than the above titles:

Olives & Oranges: Recipes and Flavor Secrets From Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Beyond

 Jenkins, Sara and Fox, Mindy

• Hardcover: $36; 384 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin; 1 edition (September 8, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 061867764X
• ISBN-13: 978-0618677641

Olives & Oranges is on order for half the libraries I checked. The libraries that have it on order are showing holds.

The River Cottage Family Cookbook

• Hardcover: $32.50; 416 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (August 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1580089259
• ISBN-13: 978-1580089258

Holds are showing for the libraries that have it  on order.

Two Dudes, One Pan 

Shook, Jon and Dotolo, Vinny 

• Paperback: #24.95; 240 pages
• Publisher: Clarkson Potter (August 26, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0307382605
• ISBN-13: 978-0307382603

Owned widely, with some holds.

High-Profile Chef Books

The LA Times takes a dim view of high-end cookbooks, which require “special equipment and ingredients (liquid nitrogen canisters, toad skin melons).” If you check out food bloggers, however, you will see a lot of excitement about these books.

You may not want to spring for the $250 Big Fat Duck Cookbook, but consider the others as “dream books”, or for the chefs in your area.

In one of the libraries I worked in, we had a customer who checked out dozens of cookbooks each week. I said, “You must be a terrific cook!” 

“Oh, no,” she said, “I read them like fiction.”

Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide 

Keller, Thomas 

• Hardcover: $76; 304 pages
• Publisher: Artisan (October 15, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1579653510
• ISBN-13: 978-1579653514

Mike Rockliff, points out in his most recent Workman Update newsletter for librarians, (to get it, email mrockliff@workman.com with “Subscribe” in the subject line) that the “sous vide” technique is not necessarily out of the range of the home cook. The Wall Street Journal recently ran Trying Sous Vide at Home: A restaurant technique makes its way to consumers’ kitchens; Nathan Myhrvold’s 72-hour short ribs.” And, according to the NYT  Applebee’s (yes, really) is interested in adapting the technique. The Today Show will feature Keller on Nov. 18th, followed by CBS Early Show, and Weekend Today. 

Under Pressure is on order for a few libraries. The following titles are not on order for any of the libraries I checked:

A Day at elBulli: An Insight into the Ideas, Methods and Creativity of Ferran Adria

Adrià, Ferran

• Hardcover: $49.95
• Publisher: Phaidon Press; (October 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0714848832
• ISBN-13: 978-0714848839

Alinea

Achatz, Grant 

• Hardcover: $60; 416 pages
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press (October 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1580089283
• ISBN-13: 978-1580089289

Big Fat Duck Cookbook

Heston Blumenthal

• Hardcover: $250; 532 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (November 11, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1596915501
• ISBN-13: 978-1596915503

This week’s NY Times Magazine features A Platter of Figs, a cookbook by David Tanis, sending it from #192 (already fairly high for a cookbook, bearing out the article’s assertion that the book is “long-awaited”) to #84 on Amazon’s sales rankings. None of the libraries I checked have ordered it.

The author was a chef at Alice Water’s influential restaurant, Chez Panisse in Berkeley, CA. The book is inspired by the meals Tanis cooked for friends in his Paris apartment, using seasonal ingredients from local markets. Says the NYT Magazine reviewer,  

After cooking my way through A Platter of Figs, I found other cookbooks disconcerting, their long lists of ingredients often superfluous and distracting.

A great way to stay on top of demand is to get to know niche publishers and buy directly from their catalogs, rather than wait for prepub reviews (that’s one of the reasons we link to PDF’s of publisher catalogs). Artisan is a good case in point, a publisher with a strong track record of being on top of cooking trends (download their catalog here). Some of their cookbooks are aimed at the high-end cook (like the new book by Thomas Keller on sous vide cooking, Under Pressure), but even everyday cooks like to dream! 

• Hardcover: $35
• Publisher: Artisan (September 1, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 1579653464
• ISBN-13: 978-1579653460

Congrats to Judith Sutton, LJ’s cookbook columnist. She’s the co-author, with Mario Batali, of the Italian Grill, which went on the NYT Hardcover Advice bestseller list at #6.

With all the attention it’s been getting, it’s no surprise the Edgar Sawtelle went on nearly every bestseller list this week, with the exception of the WSJ and Los Angeles Times lists. Its highest position is on the Washington Post list, at #4.

As a result, the Harper imprints now have three dog books on the NYT bestseller lists. The Art of Racing in the Rain and Edgar Sawtelle (Harper Ecco) sit next to each other on the Fiction list, at #13 and #14, respectively. Marley and Me is on the Paperback Nonfiction list at #8.

The Monster of Florence, also getting a lot of review attention, went on all but the Indie list. It’s highest position is #4 on the NYT list.

USA Today’s “Book Buzz” column takes note of a new entry on their bestseller list, Hungry Girl: Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World by Lisa Lillien. It enters their list at #6, with 350,000 copies in print (it went out at 200,000).

We noted the book last month, when it went on the Amazon list prior to publication. It has since been reviewed by Library Journal:

Whether they taste great is debatable, but many of the soups, salads, and main courses are very high in sodium. Nevertheless, Hungry Girl [the web site[ has many fans, and there is sure to be demand

The book has remained in Amazon’s top ten since its debut on April 1 and is now at #7.

Hungry Girl:

Recipes and Survival Strategies for Guilt-Free Eating in the Real World

by Lisa Lillien

• Paperback:$17.95
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Griffin (April 29, 2008)
• ISBN-10: 0312377428
• ISBN-13: 978-0312377427