Today’s the second day of Hanukkah and as much as I wish I could tell you that I’m frying latkes and spinning dreidels and unwrapping Hanukkah gelt in celebration, I’m actually sitting here next to a pile of cookbooks trying to figure what constitutes the Best of 2009. You see, many of my food blogging contemporaries–David, Deb, Eat Me Daily–have already offered up their take on what you should buy for you and yours this holiday season and now it’s my turn to separate the wheat from the chaff or the sour cream from the apple sauce (latke joke!). Are you ready for some hardcore gift-buying ideas? Come along with me.
The Best Food Books of 2009
[Note: click any of the images to go directly to the Amazon page.]
Our first category is books so let’s jump right out of the gate and start with my favorite cookbook of the year, a book by a guy who’s both a celebrity chef but also just a down-to-earth, normal human being. His name is Michael Symon and I had the pleasure of interviewing him earlier this year outside the Standard Hotel (see here). At that point, I hadn’t cooked from his cookbook yet, so I didn’t know what to expect when I put it to the test. Now that I have, I declare “Live To Cook” the cookbook of the year: