History

Red or Green

Chile is the heart and soul of New Mexican cuisine and in restaurants across the state visitors are asked, “Red or green?” Diners have strong opinions on which color best complements a dish, so much so that in 1999 “Red or Green?” was adopted as the official state question.

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The Way We Ate

Take a trip back in time through the rich culinary tradition of the last American century with more than 100 of the nation’s top chefs and food personalities.
An innovative work of history and a cookbook like no other, The Way We Ate is the story of a nation’s cravings—and how they continue to influence the way we cook, eat, and talk about food today.

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Repast

What we ate, how we ate, and how eating changed during America’s first real food revolution, 1900–1910.

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A Century of Restaurants

Rick Browne, best-selling author, host, and producer of Barbecue America, has traveled to 100 of the oldest restaurants across America to share the charm, history, and appeal that made these establishments successful for 100 years or more

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Inside the California Food Revolution

In this authoritative and immensely readable insider’s account, celebrated cookbook author and former chef Joyce Goldstein traces the development of California cuisine from its formative years in the 1970s to 2000, when farm-to-table, foraging, and fusion cooking had become part of the national vocabulary

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Sweet Delights

From delicious pastries, filled with pistachios and fragrant syrups, to luscious puddings, biscuits, and pies, it is the ideal addition to any kitchen. A unique insight into Middle Eastern culinary history, this book is a must-have for anyone with a sweet tooth.

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The Frugal Housewife

The Frugal Housewife was the first American cookbook to replace Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery, still in use since publication in 1796, and it was also the first to emphasize the themes of thrift and economy in the kitchen.

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Breakfast

How did the ‘most important meal of the day’ become what it is? With it’s own unique foods and customs. And what do people around the world do for this same meal?

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The Telling Room

In a cave dug into a hillside on the edge of town, an ancient door leads to a cramped limestone chamber known as “the telling room.”… It was here, in the summer of 2000, that Michael Paterniti found himself listening to a larger-than-life Spanish cheesemaker named Ambrosio Molinos de las Heras as he spun an odd and compelling tale about a piece of cheese. An unusual piece of cheese.

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The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book

As stated in the introduction, The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book was published “to assist housekeepers generally to set a dainty and appetizing table at a moderate outlay; to give recipes clearly and accurately with simplicity and exactness” and the recipes blend a fantastic array of influences from French style and Spanish spices to African fruits and Indian gumbos.

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How to Host a Dinner Party

This book guides readers through everything they need to know about hosting, starting with the golden rule — that the goal of a dinner party is to have fun with our friends, not to show off our cooking skills.

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Amish Cooks Across America

The celebrated columnist and cookbook author known as The Amish Cook explores why one Amish community in the Northeast makes Shoofly Pie while another settlement in the South favors Muscadine Pie.

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Classic Candy

Whether classics like Hershey’s, Mars and M&Ms or trend-setters like PEZ and Atomic Fireballs, candy has a special place in the hearts and memories of most Americans.

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At Home On The Range

While moving into a new house, Elizabeth Gilbert unpacked some boxes of family books that had been sitting in her mother’s attic for decades. She discovered a book called At Home on the Range (or, How to Make Friends with Your Stove) by Gilbert’s great-grandmother, Margaret Yardley Potter, and soon found that she had stumbled upon a book far ahead of its time.

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Steal the Menu

Four decades of memories from a gastronome who witnessed the food revolution from the (well-provisioned) trenches—a delicious tour through contemporary food history.

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Afternoon Tea

A delectable peek at the tradition of afternoon tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel — and the enchanting history of taking tea

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