Cookbook Crazy
I came across a list recently (sorry no link) that gave the top 20 or so books that used bookstores cannot keep in stock due to high demand. One of them was Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I have a few cookbooks, but I don't collect them. Even if putting cookbook collectors aside, the cookbook market is huge. Most people have some, some people have many. Most bookstores will have a section of them, and there are surprising number of booksellers who sell them exclusively.
Master the Art of French Cooking, by Julia Child
Abebooks offers a guide to collecting cookbooks that says there are two cookbooks that may hold claim to being the oldest printed in the United States. The Compleat Housewife by William Parks (1742) and American Cookery by Amelia Simmons (1796). The older 1742 title was primarily republished content from an earlier British volume, so there is some basis for the argument that the 1796 title is the oldest original cookbook printed in the United States. Cookbooks from this era can easily command four-figure prices. Abebooks' list of the 10 most expensive cookbooks sold on their website tops out with $7,500 for a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking signed and inscribed by Julia Child and co-author Simone Beck. Burnside Rare Books in Portland, Oregon currently offers 13 copies of a variety of editions of this famous title.
Lynn Nelson, owner of Kitchen Garden Books & Antiques in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida details the relatively obscure book Julia Child contributed to before the release of The Art of French Cooking.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History was fortunate to receive Julia Child's entire kitchen as a gift when the author moved from Massachusetts to California in 2001. The exhibit, called Bon Apetite!, has a companion online interactive tour that includes many stories about Julia.
Kitchen Garden Books & Antiques, Santa Rosa Beach , FL
Kitchen Arts & Letters, a nearly 40 year-old New York City bookstore, claims Julia Child as one of their early customers. Inside the Lexington Ave store you'll find 12,000+ titles ranging from cookbooks to food history and even technical manuals The also have a frequently updated social media presence on Facebook where you can find many photos of the store. Reviews call the store a "hidden gem" and a "secret hideaway." Google Street View even allows you to take a virtual walk through the store.
There are many other bookstores and booksellers specializing in the literature of cooking and food. After perusing their online storefronts it's apparent that there is a hierarchy among specialists. As you move up the ladder you progress from purveyors of simple cookbooks to the more expansive realm of culinary arts and finally to dealers of antiquarian gastronomy residing at the apex. Below are links to just a few of the booksellers in this space.
Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks
New York, NY
www.bonnieslotnickcookbooks.com A cozy shop in the NOHO/East Village area, in business for more than 30 years. The shop also maintains a Facebook page.
Book Larder
Seattle, WA
www.booklarder.com Offers both new and used titles and has an in-store demonstration kitchen. Find them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Omnivore Books on Food
San Francisco, CA
www.omnivorebooks.com Operates out of an open and airy space, jam packed with books. Currently showcasing quarantine quenchers, a selection of titles to fill your pandemic idle time. Find them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Stir
Boston, MA
A chef-owned demonstration kitchen and cookbook store that even offers cooking classes. Find them on Twitter and Instagram.
With so many specialists in the cookbook and culinary arena, there's clearly no shortage of customers hungry for the genre. But just how hungry are they? Setting aside the cumulative stock of the bookstores themselves which can reach tens of thousands of titles, is there a bibliophilic gastronome out there who has the most? Turns out, there is. Sue Jimenez, a retired forensic anthropologist from Albuquerque, NM is the unofficial title holder, according to SeriousEats.com, with nearly 7,000 titles in her collection as of 2018.
The rituals and habits associated with food preparation and consumption around the world are among the most social activities we participate in regularly as humans. Although food and cooking oriented websites with a social component are nothing new, Eat Your Books has landed on a novel way to combine the social aspect with cookbooks and an archive boasting a quarter million recipes. Adding your cookbooks from your own library automatically adds all of the recipes to your personal index. The index makes recipes searchable by ingredients, ethnicity and a myriad of other factors. Users can also tag favorites, add notes and create menus. Connecting with other cookbook lovers for recipe sharing, tips and advice is the icing on the cake.
No discussion of cookbooks would be complete without taking a look at some of the more obscure and odd titles out there. This list shows that there's truly something out there for everyone. Every title is verified 100% genuine, fortunate or not, depending on how squeamish you are.
