A Look at Cookbooks

Lengthy story by Laura Miller in last weekend's Wall Street Journal about the latest offerings in cookbooks.

Cookbooks not mentioned in Ms. Miller's story, but that I know that I want to check into include:

• The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook by Gloria Bley Miller. This book was mentioned recently by Lynne Rossetto Kasper on the Splendid Table. It's been out there a while, the original copy right is 1966, but it might turn out to be one of those fundamental, must-have works.
  

• La Technique by Jacques Pépin. In The New York Times magazine last Sunday, chef Tom Colicchio named this book as the one he uses most often.
  

• In the New York Times, Colicchio said, "Recipes tell you nothing. Learning techniques is the key." Along that line of thinking, I'm interested in checking out Ratio by Michael Ruhlman, which the Times described as "an elegant book on technique."

Cookbooks: Because if we aren't eating or cooking, we should be reading.