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Books For The Naughty, Nice And In-Between

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By JEFF HOUCK

jhouck@tampatrib.com

Published: November 30, 2008

If you've been to the bookstore lately, or clicked around online, you know the shelves are crammed with cookbooks and food-related texts. The holiday buying season is prime time for publishing new titles.

How to choose? It helps to know what the cook, eater, baker or wine connoisseur enjoys most. Sure, Rachael and Paula have books out, but there are loads of other great options that fill niches and shouldn't be overlooked.

Toward that goal, we've carved out a few categories to help you narrow your search for the food book that will make your gift-giving a success.

FOR FANS OF RACHAEL RAY

"Rachael Ray's Big Orange Book," by Rachael Ray (Potter, $24.95)

The biggest collection of her trademark 30-minute meals reads more like several half-books collected into one, mostly because it is. The reason? Viewers of her chat show and readers of her books and magazine keep asking for more niche dishes. That explains the chapters highlighting meals-for-one, as well as vegetarian, kosher and holiday dishes. (Separately, not together. That would be weird.) Be sure to stock up on the EVOO. It's an ingredient in almost every yum-o dish - even the "sammies."

FOR NON-FANS OF RACHAEL RAY

"Every Freaking Day With Rachell Ray," by Elizabeth Hilts (Grand Central Publishing, $12.99)

If you despise The Perky One, you'll love this parody of the Every Day With Rachael Ray magazine. From the exclamation points punctuating every third sentence and recipe ingredient to the overall tone of text written under the influence of 1,000 gallons of Dunkin' Donuts coffee, Hilts nails this mockazine to the wall. Burgers of the Month is a particular hoot, if only because it's so plausible that RR would go for a Mac n' Cheeseburger, with macaroni between two buns. Perhaps the best joke comes last in a goof on the "(Minor) Celebrity Fridge" interview with "Paula Deane." Along with a photo posed at an unattractive angle, it offers a glimpse of what her shelves are stocked with. Hint: It rhymes with utter.

FOR FOODIES WHO LOVE HISTORY

"Mrs. Charles Darwin's Recipe Book," by Dusha Bateson and Weslie Janeway (Glitterati, $35)

While Charlie the biologist was floating around on the HMS Beagle looking at swimming iguanas, his wife (and, um, cousin) Emma was at home keeping careful track of the family's domestic intake. The recipe diaries she maintained were collected in a book after her death and are republished here, complete with fascinating context and images of her own handwriting. Something about seeing dishes from the 1800s replicated in color makes the glimpse of Victorian Era food all the more interesting and revealing.

FOR THOSE WHO LOVE NEW ORELANS

"Cooking Up A Storm," by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker (Chronicle, $24.95)

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, residents began swapping recipes as a way of replacing those swept away in the storm. Bienvenu and Walker at the Times-Picayune newspaper in New Orleans facilitated the sharing by connecting those seeking to rebuild their culinary memories with restaurant chefs and home cooks who were able to keep their recipes intact. Along with this collection of 250 recipes are the warm and powerful stories shared by the cooks who loved them.

FOR FANS OF FOOD CONTESTS

"Pillsbury Best Of The Bake-Off Cookbook," by the Pillsbury Editors (Wiley, $29.95)

Six decades after Pillsbury began promoting its products by holding the most lucrative competition in the country for home cooks, its award-winning recipes are collected in book form. Sprinkled amid the dishes for Chai Crunch and Easy Cheesy Crescent Sandwich are thumbnail profiles of past bake-off competitors who share how they became involved in the contest.

FOR MOMS WHO BAKE

"Mom's Big Book of Baking," by Lauren Chattman (Harvard Common Press, $21.95)

You may have noticed that moms don't have a lot of time lately for cooking. So, when they choose to do so - be it for parties or potlucks or, you know, for enjoyment - the recipe had better be for something delicious. This book offers kid-friendly baked treats that are streamlined for time and efficiency. (Mom, if you're reading this, we'll take a plate of Cranberry-Orange Pancakes.) Rhetorical question: What about dads who bake?

FOR HEALTH-CONSCIOUS COOKS

"Diabetes & Heart Healthy Meals For Two," by the American Heart Association (American Diabetes Association, $18.95)

It's not the sexiest book in the world. You'd never confuse this cookbook with that of, say, The Naked Chef. But it will help your insides be sexier. Wait, we mean healthier. That's sexy. Sort of. Oh, nevermind. Anyway, the diabetic or healthy eater will find lots of delicious dinners that fall within the American Heart Association's guidelines for a healthy eating plan.

FOR HOME-COOKING GOURMANDS

"Home Cooking With Charlie Trotter," by Charlie Trotter (Ten Speed Press, $25)

When you're a chef and restaurateur as accomplished as Trotter, your food can often seem unapproachable to average cooks. Trotter boils his style down for home consumption with basic techniques and ingredients. And along with such delicious dishes as Apricot-Curry Chicken and Quinoa salad, Trotter walks the reader through the basics of stocks, reductions and loading the pantry with staples that help make recipes successful.

FOR THE YOUNG READER

"The Bite of the Mango," by Mariatu Kamara with Susan McClelland (Annick Press; $24.95 hardcover, $12.95 paperback)

Mariatu Kamara's life was savagely turned upside down at age 12 when rebel soldiers invaded her rural village in Sierra Leone, kidnapped and tortured her. During the attack, they cut off both her hands. This children's book, which fits squarely in the tradition of "The Diary of Anne Frank," tells how Kamara survived the attack, wandered the streets and miraculously found her way to safety in Canada. Oh, the mango? It was the first food she ate after the attack. The flavor reaffirmed her desire to live.

FOR PAULA 'DEENIACS'

"Paula Deen's Kitchen Wisdom and Recipe Journal," by Paula Deen with Sherry Suib Cohen (Simon & Schuster, $18.95)

How best to gauge the homespun quotient here? Consider the following words and the frequency in which they appear on the first page of this cookbook/journal: cookin' (five times); stirrin' (once); bubblin' (once); intoxicatin' (once); offin' (once); hopin' (once); momma (six times); grandmomma (three times); like a duck on a June bug (once); banking (once).

FOR FOOD NETWORK GROUPIES

"Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," by Guy Fieri with Ann Volkwein (William Morrow, $19.95)

Here's what you really want to know: Yes, Fieri includes Bay area restaurants he visited for his Food Network road-trip show in this companion book. They include Keegan's Seafood Grille in Indian Rocks Beach (with a gumbo recipe) and Ted Peters Famous Smoked Fish in South Pasadena (and its smoked fish spread). There are other notable places of deliciousness included from across the country. Bonus: Only four photos of the spiky-haired host jamming food into his pie-hole. How to put it mildly ... Fieri attacks cheeseburgers the way large-mouth bass go after wiggly lures.

FOR SOUP LOVERS

"300 Sensational Soups," by Carla Snyder & Meredith Deeds (Robert Rose, $24.95)

We don't subscribe to the theory that we're heading into soup season. True soup aficionados will tell you that the season lasts all year. Especially when you consider, as Snyder and Deeds write, that soup is "comfort in a bowl, love on a spoon, satisfaction simmering on the stove." From chilled soups to chowders, this book is filled to the brim with delicious recipes. A personal note to Hot Guacamole Soup With Cumin and Cilantro: Your days of missing from our soup repertoire are numbered.

FOR HARD-CORE HOME COOKS

"Fine Cooking Annual Volume 3; A Year of Great Recipes, Tips & Techniques," by the editors of Fine Cooking Magazine (Taunton Press, $34.95)

Fine Cooking is one of our favorite food magazines. We've learned tons of great advice for how to cook restaurant-quality meals at home. (New York-based celebrity chef Suvir Saran swears by the mag.) This annual collection gathers the previous year's best dishes in one volume. Just try to resist the Seared Roasted Pork Chops With Balsamic Fig Sauce. Or the Chocolate Espresso Pecan Pie. Or Gingerbread Pear Cobbler. We dare you.

FOR THE WINE CONNOISSEUR WHO COOKS (OR FOR COOKS WHO LOVE WINE)

"Wine Enthusiast Magazine Wine & Food Pairings," by editors of Wine Enthusiast Magazine (Running Press, $29.95)

If at any point you're implausibly wondering to yourself, "What would Bobby Flay serve with this dish?" this is the book for you. Along with recipes from celebrity chefs such as Flay and Rick Bayless, the book helps match fancy dishes to spectacular wines. (See chapter titled "Big, Powerful Red Wine" for further assistance.) Of particular help is the section on fortified and dessert wines to go with such taste-bud tempters as chocolate souffle.

FOR COOKS WITH A SWEET TOOTH

"Sweet! From Agave to Turbinado, Home Baking with Every Kind of Natural Sugar and Sweetener," by Mani Niall (Da Capo, $18.95)

A Yiddish proverb holds, "If you are bitter at heart, sugar in the mouth will not help you." What does that have to do with this book? Nothing really, except that we were trying to look cool while writing about this book, which offers lots of alternatives for bakers who avoid using processed granulated sugar. That by no means implies that the dairy-free pumpkin pie or the lemon cupcakes with mascarpone cream and raspberries are dull and flavorless. If anything, it should inspire cooks to experiment with more nutritious ingredients.

Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at (813) 259-7324.

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