Lu's Foodie Books

What are foodie books? Well Culinary Mysteries & Novels, Literary essays, Books about the History of Food, Table Settings & Decorating, all fit into this category for me.
There are a surprising number of great essays and non fiction books out there written on the subject of Food and Eating.
Recently, I've been trying to increase my collection in this area and have had a lot of fun doing so.. plus I've learned a ton along the way.
I do hope that you'll browse through this section, and enjoy what you see... I will be sharing with you my personal opinions about each of the books,
and would love to hear suggestions from you as well.
As an associate member of Amazon.com, you can order many of these Books
through RecipeLu with a simple click of your wrist. Just click on the title which will link you to Amazon, or for general searching use the Amazon icon below.
Commissions earned from this site will go towards offsetting the costs of the RecipeLu list and site, and I thank you for your support.
This section is set up alphabetically by Title... happy reading !

] [ B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M]
[N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z]

[ A

Titles that start with "A"

, by James Villas, $11.96
Lu's Review: An interesting book, covering the specialty items and areas know throughout the America's. Kentucky Bourbon, Carolina BBQ, Cajun and Creole cooking along with a hilarious essay on training as a Fine Dining waiter for a week... It gives one new respect for the servers of the world to be sure ! I bought this to do specific research for a school paper, but have enjoyed reading all the short stories in addition to the one I used as reference material.

$13.97
These 80 seductive recipes gathered from celebrity entertainers and well-known restaurateurs like Marla Trump and Placido Domingo, as well as recipes from exotic places like the Kenya Hemingway Safari and the hyper-luxurious Orient Express, are sure to arouse and satisfy by bringing magic into the lives of those who cook and eat with love.

Titles that start with "B"

Titles that start with "C"

Titles that start with "D"

$14.36
The History and Recipes of America's Golden Age of Railroad Cuisine.

By: Bob Shacochis, $10.36
One of the first of this Genre that I read, this was a faced paced, humourous, slightly racey look at food in the 90's. I stayed up for 3 nights to finish reading it, and afterwards started the hunt for more of it's kind. Culinary Essays are hard to come by, although recently seem to be becoming quite popular. Amazon Synopsis:
For 17 years Bob Shacochis has been living in unwedded bliss with the woman he calls "Miss F." He has also been cooking for her. This lyrical, irreverent, and often mouth-watering "prose stew" takes in Shacochis' thoughts on monogamy and hot sauce, sex and seafood, and the enduring consolations of soup. It is the ideal valentine for lovers of prose and food.

Titles that start with "E"

By: Jay Jacobs, $11.16
With his mental knife sharpened by wit and experience from his stint as "a hired belly," aka restaurant critic, for Gourmet magazine, Jay Jacobs carves up fresh insight into the vocabulary of food. He explains many everyday food-related expressions that pepper the English language and traces how basic foodstuffs like apples and corn, cooking methods like barbecue, and dishes like cioppino and lobster Newburg got their names.

Titles that start with "F"

Fascinating food facts can be as appealing as mouth-watering recipes. Hence the allure of The Food Chronolgy: A Food Lover's Compendium of Events and Anecdotes, From Prehistory to the Present. From this tour de force, you learn when the first tuna was canned, the first Hershey Kiss introduced, and the first Baci candy made in Italy--all in 1909. In 1995, the hardcover edition of this paperback won the Julia Child Cookbook Award for Best Food Reference. This paperback edition, published in 1997, deluges you with the same information, including material on politics, art, economics, medicine, in all, a total of 50 fields, all related to food.

Titles that start with "G"

By, Peri Wolfman $21.00
Recommended by: Sue M.
The authors of Forks, Knives & Spoons and Birdhousing turn their attention to the dining table, where they go beyond place settings to lend stylish flair to both formal and casual meals. Each of the featured settings is accompanied by detailed information about plates, flatware, and centerpieces. As a bonus, 30 recipes for dishes featured in the book are included. 160+ color photos.

A Cordon Bleu chef incorporates his real-life culinary expertise into a mystery novel in which the Gourmet Detective, a chef specializing in ancient recipes and obscure ingredients, is asked by Scotland Yard to aid in the investigation into a murdered TV journalist.

Titles that start with "H"

, by Laurie Colwin, $9.60
Authored by a famed novelist -- an elegantly written treasury of culinary memories, recipes, tips and stories that is as pleasurable to read as it is to cook from. I thoroughly enjoyed this book which caused me to laugh out loud on more than one occasion. Laurie Colwin had a true love of food and family which shines through in this wonderful book.

Titles that start with "J"
Titles that start with "K"
Titles that start with "L"

By: Lilly Golden, Editor $9.60
A Literary Feast is a sumptuous gathering of stories, essays, and excerpts that expound upon the art of eating, penned by some of the finest writers of our century. These twenty-seven pieces were chosen first for their literary quality and second for the gustatory pleasures they explore. They should prove excellent sustenance for those who are as passionate about reading as they are about eating.

Titles that start with "M"

By: Laurie Colwin, $9.60
Following the success of Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin returned to the kitchen to cook up this delightful mix of culinary recipes, advice, and anecdotes. As informative as it is entertaining, More Home Cooking is a rare treat for Colwin's many fans, and for anyone who loves to spend time in the kitchen. Another Gem by Ms. Colwin, I actually read this before Home Cooking, having found it by accident on the dusty bottom shelf of a bookstore that always carries and interesting selection of books.

Titles that start with "N"

Titles that start with "P"

$16.80
Pass the Polenta is a collection of essays about home cooking, which is to say it's a book about home and family and tradition and the unspoken connectedness that comes of people pushing their knees under a table and passing plates of food back and forth.

By: Jean-Anthelme Brillat Savarin, $11.96
This is a must read for those who are seriously interesting in Gastronomy. Although written in the early 19th century, the this thought provoking book of essays is captivating and surprisingly "current" in it's content.

Titles that start with "R"

Titles that start with "S"

$13.97
This offbeat, 81-page novella takes you behind the scenes to Dr. Kay Scarpetta's kitchen, where you'll learn how to make her "Bad Mood Pasta Primavera," "Holiday Pizza," and "Childhood Key Lime Pie"--just to name a few. Along for the culinary festivities are the doctor's trusty cohorts, Pete Marino, captain of the Richmond police department, and Scarpetta's niece, Lucy. Both add their favorite concoctions, such as Marino's "Cause-of-Death Eggnog" and Lucy's "Friendly Grill." Those who have read Cornwell's Point of Origin will find a double delight in Winter Table, as it's amply stuffed with references from the bestselling thriller. Recipe in this book are not exact, but rather rough ideas of how to prepare dishes.

$12.80
James Beard a culinary hero is a well known and loved name in everyone's kitchen. Take a closer look at the man behind the wonderful food in this biography.

$20.97
Find out all there is to know about the 2 womem who brought us the all American favourite The Joy of Cooking. Take a peek into the lives Irma Rombauer and her daughter Marion Rombauer Becker, their triumphs and tribulations alike are all shared here.

Consider, young Jedi: Why bake a plain old cookie when you can bake a super-Chewie Wookiee Cookie?" So begins the delightful Star Wars Cookbook. Aimed at young cooks, but fun for all ages, the cookbook provides recipes for treats such as Princess Leia Danish Dos, Twin Sun Toast, Tusken Raider Taters, Sandtrooper Sandies.

Titles that start with "T"

Titles that start with "W"

By: Mark Winegardner, $9.60
In We Are What We Ate: 24 Memories of Food, some of America's best writers recall how food has defined their existence. "In my house, curry would have been more exotic than heroin," professes editor Mark Winegardner in the introduction. "Maybe it's a family thing. Maybe it's the potassium benzoate," explains Jill McCorkle in her hilarious admission to a life of junk-food addiction. Food is at once the most common and most personal experience we all have, and in these 24 essays, the authors explore the varied experiences that accompany our sustenance.

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