by Beard, James;
Illustrations/Photography by: Hollander, Earl

Published in 1972 by Little, Brown and Company, Boston
Binding: Hardback
Condition: Very good
Comments: This is a terrific find—a hardback copy of the 1972 edition of “James Beard’s American Cookery” that hasn’t been loved to death. Though it’s full of charming illustrations by Earl Hollander, this is a cookbook that’s made to actually be cooked with, not sit there and look pretty. It’s used, but hasn’t been abused—nobody seems to have broken the spine in an effort to make it stay open on their counter, for instance (though it does seem to do a good job of that), and it’s not full of grease stains and pencil marks. In fact, the pages are perfectly clean and the text block is solid, with no loose or missing pages or tears. There is a little wear on the cover, with slightly bumped corners and slightly bent caps on the spine, and a very small stain at the bottom of the back end papers, but otherwise is in remarkably good condition for a 53 year old book. This is an all-round useful cookbook, one that belongs on the shelf next to “The Joy of Cooking”—in fact, Irma Rombauer, the original author of “The Joy of Cooking,” is one of “my favorite great ladies of the American kitchen” and Beard dedicates his book to her. It’s not quite correct to say the recipes follow the old saying of “from soup to nuts;” instead, they follow a more modern menu, starting with a first chapter titled “Cocktail Food” and going through twenty-five food categories before ending up with Candy. Along the way Beard makes fun detours to tell us what to do with what he calls “edible weeds” like dandelion and pokeweed and how to perk up canned vegetables. On the other end of the spectrum, he has recipes for fancy dishes like Stuffed Veal Shoulder in Jelly, but most of the recipes handily fall in the middle and comfortably within the abilities of most home cooks. Beard recognizes that, in a country of immigrants, “American Cookery” is in many ways international cookery, and it has recipes with origins from all over the world, as well as with origins deep in American history, some dating back to the Colonial era. He loves telling the stories of where all of these foods came from and how dishes developed, and provides practical information about what is available now—the different types of potatoes cooks will find in grocery stores, for instance, and which potato is best used for which dish. The book ends with a useful index and—unusual for a practical, as opposed to academic, cookbook—an extensive bibliography. See our photos for details. Very good+.

Seller Inventory #: 0000506

by Kenedy, Jacob
Illustrations/Photography by: Sooley, Howard

Published in 2011 by Bloomsbury USA, New York
ISBN: 1608194884
Edition: First U.S.
Binding: Hardback
Condition: As new
Dust Jacket included. Condition of Dust Jacket: Fine
Comments: When Jacob Kenedy (and yes, it’s spelled with one “n”) opened his upscale Italian restaurant, Bocca di Lupo, in London in 2009, it was a smash hit, and it is still going strong all these years later. It specializes in regional Italian cooking, and Kenedy lists the provinces where he found the recipes for his dishes along with the names of the dishes on the menu. Two years later, he published this cookbook, “Bocca Cookbook.” The “Independent on Sunday” newspaper called it one of “the year's most fashionable cookbooks” when it had its writers whip up dishes from a year-end sampler of of the year’s top cookbooks in December of that year. In the case of the writer assigned to “Bocca Cookbook,” he opted for a full three-course dinner, seemingly designed both to test himself and his guests to the limit: Suppli al Telefono, a kind of rice croquette from the Lazio region, which centers on Rome; Trippa alla Romana, a tripe dish, also from Rome; and, for desert, Sanguinaccio (from Calabria), a chilled pudding featuring chocolate, Marsala, candied orange peel…and pig’s blood. With other recipes in the cookbook going into detail about how to make your own sausage at home, including how to stuff it into casings, and including ingredients such as squab or zucchini flowers, obviously, this is a book for adventurous cooks! On the other hand, you can’t get much easier—or probably better—than Kenedy’s Bread and Vegetable Soup from Puglia or his Blood Orange, Red Onion and Oregano Salad from Sicily. The book is amply illustrated with gorgeous full-color photographs. Most of these are full-page pictures, and while many are of the dishes described, many are simply of Italy, particularly of the markets and harbors and kitchens and orchards from which its food comes.

This volume is in excellent condition and, in fact, may never have been used. The dust jacket show some scuffing from shelf wear on the covers and there is the tiniest of closed tears on the bottom rear cover of the dust jacket. The binding of the book itself, on the other hand, only shows some light bumping on the bottom of the spine. There are no marks, tears, or creases on any of the pages and the text block is tight and square. This copy is a first U.S. edition and appears to be a first printing—unusually, the copyright page is at the end of the book instead of at the front. See our photos.

Seller Inventory #: 0000508