By Ginna Parsons
Daily Journal
If you’re looking for the perfect holiday gift for that foodie on your list, look no further than your local bookstore.
“There are lots of really wonderful cookbooks out there,” said Lyn Roberts, general manager of Square Books in Oxford. “It seems to me we’re in this wonderful time – you’d think they’d be on the decline, with all the websites that are out there, but people like to hold books, look at the pictures.”
Roberts said what’s selling best in Oxford are the cookbooks that deal with the region.
“’Big Bad Breakfast’ by John Currence is our No. 1 seller,” she said. “He has the restaurant here in Oxford and now he’s expanded to Alabama and Florida. There’s just not that much competition out there for cookbooks about breakfast.”
Susan May, bookstore manager at Reed’s Gum Tree Bookstore in Tupelo, said she thinks “BBB” is popular because breakfast is the Southerner’s favorite meal.
“There aren’t that many cookbooks out there just dedicated to breakfast,” she said. “Plus the author is a James Beard award winner. People want to go to his restaurant in Oxford and eat and then go home and try to cook it themselves.”
Another regional cookbook Roberts likes is Vivian Howard’s “Deep Run Roots.”
“Her thing is she’s professionally, classically trained,” Roberts said. “She worked in New York’s top restaurants, but she wanted to go back home to North Carolina, a farming area. Her parents helped her open a restaurant in her hometown. She cooks very seasonally and the cookbook is a lot about her journey. The book is divided by ingredients – corn, beans, peas, greens. The emphasis is on what’s seasonal and fresh.”
Star Newsom, manager at Barnes & Noble in Tupelo, said any book by The Pioneer Woman, aka Ree Drummond, is a top-seller.
“We sell a ton of those because she has a TV show and a blog,” Newsom said. “Everything she makes looks good.”
This year, Newsom recommends “The Food Lab” by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt for someone who likes science and cooking.
“He’s on ‘The Chew’ a lot. He’s the one who determined the best way to cook a steak is to start with a frozen one. It’s all about the science.”
She also suggests “Modernist Cuisine at Home” by Nathan Myhrvold with Maxime Bilet for the true foodie. At $140, it’s more of a coffee table book, but with lots of practical advice.
“It’s a gorgeous book, with step-by-step instructions,” Newsom said. “He really breaks it down. This one also mixes science and cooking and with it you get a kitchen manual, which is very detailed.”
May likes “Southern Appetizers” by Denise Gee, which is chock-full of finger foods and Southern party foods.
“It’s all one-bite things,” she said. “The author lives in Dallas. She talks about how to arrange food for buffets and parties. It’s got everything from fried black-eyed peas to deviled eggs to mint juleps and bloody Marys.”
Roberts also recommends “Victuals” by Ronni Lundy, an author from North Carolina.
“She grew up in Appalachia and here she explores Appalachian cookery, recognizing a cuisine that has been overlooked,” Roberts said. “Everybody is trying to get back to what is fresh and what is local to people, not Chilean sea bass caught on the other side of the world.”
She also likes “My Two Souths” by Asha Gomez, an Indian-American chef living in the South.
“She blends these two cuisines,” Roberts said. “She has recipes for puffy ginger hoecakes, where the hoecakes are Southern and the ginger is an Indian flavor. Her book is a little more exotic.”
May suggests “South” by Julia Reed, a cookbook author and regular contributor to Garden & Gun magazine.
“Each chapter is broken into a meal – spring lunch, cold Creole supper, fall hunt breakfast. There are 11 seasonal events. She introduces you to a lot of potters and florists and fabric designers. She sets the mood for every meal, from the invitations to the wine pairings. The photographs are by Paul Costello and they’re beautiful. They’re as nice as the recipes.”
Newsom wants to go old-school with “Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook,” a reprint of the iconic cookbook from 1950.
“This is a piece of nostalgia,” Newsom said, “complete with pictures of really bad-looking food. There are recipes for Jell-O molds. This would make a nice gift for someone who grew up in the 1950s or ‘60s.”
And finally, May said, you can’t go wrong with “Cooking for Jeffery,” the latest offering from Food Network celebrity Ina Garten.
“These are the recipes her husband and their friends request her to make most often,” May said. “One chapter is just bread and cheese. She talks about the power of food and cooking for those you love.”
Newsom said cookbooks make perfect gifts because everybody likes to eat and many of us like to cook.
“Cookbooks are a way to express what you love and then you give one to someone else you love,” she said. “So many people are now getting their recipes online and then they can’t go back and find them. Cookbooks are nice to have on a bookshelf. I make notes in all my cookbooks. It’s almost like a history of my life.”
Other notables
• “The B.T.C. Old-Fashioned Grocery Cookbook” by Alexe van Beuren and Dixie Grimes
• “Death & Co.: Modern Classic Cocktails” by David Kaplan, Nick Fauchald and Alex Day
• “The Southerner’s Cookbook” from the editors of Garden & Gun magazine
• “Mario Batali Big American Cookbook” by Mario Batali
• “Poole’s: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner” by Ashley Christensen
• “The Hattie’s Restaurant Cookbook” by Jasper Alexander
• “Appetites: A Cookbook” by Anthony Bourdain
• “The Spice Companion” by Lior Lev Sercarz
• “The Del Posto Cookbook” by Mark Ladner
• “Mastering the Art of Japanese Home Cooking” by Masaharu Morimoto
• “Taste and Technique: Recipes to Elevate Your Home Cooking” by Naomi Pomeroy
• “South Your Mouth Some More” by Mandy Rivers
• “Holiday Kosher Baker” by Paula Shoyer
• “The Up South Cookbook: Chasing Dixie in a Brooklyn Kitchen” by Nicole A. Taylor