Jewish Cookbook Ranks #3 in Top 50 List
Trying to decide the world’s best cookbooks is a futile endeavor. As food critics Jay Rayner, Bill Buford, Rachel Cooke and Allan Jenkins write in this weekend’s Observer Food Monthly “After all, one person’s sauce-stained personal favourite is another’s shelf-filling waste of space.”
But the team of writers, along with several other noted foodies, made an honorable effort when they compiled “The 50 best cookbooks.” The list, which is dominated by Brits, spans the earth’s cuisines, including Chinese, French and American fare. And, in a pleasantly surprise, it lists Claudia Roden’s 1996 “The Book of Jewish Food” at number three. Jay Raynor, the toughest critic on Bravo’s Top Chef Masters praises it: “In truth it is less a cookbook than a cultural over view of the entire Jewish diaspora, with appropriate recipes attached.”
Other classics, including Julia Child’s original “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and Alice Water’s “Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook” come in at 21 and 11 respectively, not even breaking into the top ten.
Israeli/British chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s vegetarian cookbook “Plenty,” which debuted in the UK earlier this year, rings in at number 40.
For excerpts from several of the books, check out Eater’s coverage of the list.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
