The Classics
Mary J. Lincoln (1844-1921)
The Peerless Cook Book
Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, c1901
Mary Johnson Bailey Lincoln is recognized as one of the founders of the Domestic Science field, who pioneered addressing the science of nutrition in food. She was the first principal of the Boston Cooking School, one of the first, and most famous cooking schools in the country. The title of ‘America’s first celebrity chef’ has been given to many people, but it’s worth noting that her first published cookbook was titled Mrs. Lincoln’s Boston Cook Book (1884), an unusual choice at the time.
Click to cover to read to book
TX715.L754 1901
Lizzie Black Kander (1858-1940)
The Settlement Cook Book
Milwaukee: The Settlement cook book Co.,1944
The Settlement House of Milwaukee, Wisconsin was founded to provide resources and assistance, including childcare, healthcare, and English lessons, to recent immigrants, particularly Jewish and Italian families. The Settlement Cook Book was first printed in 1901, using recipes taken from cooking classes presented by the Settlement House. The first run of copies sold out in less than a year, as did the second edition a year later. The proceeds from the cookbook supported the Settlement House, and over 43 editions of the cookbook grew from a regional fundraising tool to a wildly popular cookbook printed and sold nationwide by Simon & Schuster. The majority of the dishes featured in Settlement are from Eastern Europe, with a core of the recipes being Jewish cuisine (Kander was Jewish, as were the majority of Settlement House families) though the book included non-kosher food as well. Over two million copies of Settlement were sold, and James Beard named it one of his favorite cookbooks.
Marcus TX715.K14 1944
Simone Beck (1904-1991)
Louisette Berholle (1905-1999)
Julia Child (1912-2004)
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
New York: Knopf, 1961-70
A two-volume tome that was recognized as a classic of the genre when published, Mastering fundamentally changed food culture in America, shaping how gourmet food was approached by the public. Mastering also launched the career of Child, whose show The French Chef became one the first cooking shows on television.
TX719.B388 1961
Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967)
The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book
New York: Harper, 1954
The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, published by Gertrude Stein’s life partner, is part autobiography, part cookbook, as the recipes are matched by personal anecdotes and recollections. The cookbooks lasting fame comes from the inclusion of ‘Hashish Fudge,’ made of nuts, fruit, spices, and cannabis, as published in the UK edition of the book, but omitted from this copy, printed by Harper’s in the United States.
TX719.T6 1954
Jacques Pepin (b. 1935)
La Technique
New York: Quadrangle/New York Times Book Co., c1976
Jacques Pepin is a chef and television personality, a former personal chef to Charles de Gaulle, and noted culinary instructor. His 1976 cookbook focused on teaching nearly two hundred core skills chefs and home cooks should hone, via step-by-step instructions and illustrations. La Technique has been called a game-changer, in that it isn’t truly a cookbook, but rather it taught those without formal culinary instruction how to perfect the fundamentals, like knife skills, or approach instructions like “carve a chicken.”
Folio TX651.P4 1976
Edna Lewis (1916-2006)
The Taste of Country Cooking
New York: Knopf, 2006
Edna Lewis was a renowned chef known as the Grande Dame of Southern cooking. Born in a settlement called Freetown on a farm that had been granted to her grandparents, who were both formerly enslaved. She was raised in a large family that centered around family meals cooked from ingredients farmed locally. In her early 30s she moved to New York, where she started a career as a successful seamstress, before being hired as a chef in 1949. She left the restaurant to farm with her husband, only embarking on a cookbook writing career when she was recovering from an injury in the 1970s. That book, The Taste of Country Cooking, earned a glowing review in the New York Times, both for the quality of the recipes, as well as her wit and lively voice. Lewis was celebrated for her revival of Southern classics, and her dedication to using fresh, seasonal, and local ingredients—the method she first learned as a child on her family farm. She founded the Society of the Revival and Preservation of Southern Food, and was the first chef honored with the James Beard Living Legend Award.
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