A Homemade Life

By Molly Wizenberg, B792 at Kinokuniya
The author moved to Paris for graduate studies but fell in love with the food. She started a blog, Orangette, which ended up on the Times Online’s 50 World’s Best Food Blogs list, and met a reader who became her husband. Who wouldn’t want to read about this charmed life, especially if you’re at all a fan of her blog and its gorgeous, soft-lit photos. The book combines personal stories with comfort food recipes for stuff as diverse as chana masala, carmelized cauliflower with salsa verde and chocolate cupcakes with bittersweet glaze. Molly is self-taught, so instead of making you feel incompetent, she imparts a sense of possibility.

The Songs of Sapa

By Luke Nguyen, B1,195 at Asia Books
Chef at the Red Lantern in Sydney, Luke Nguyen already has a celebrated cookbook, Secrets From the Red Lantern, under his belt. In The Songs of Sapa, a very personal followup, Luke travels to his ancestral homeland, Vietnam, meets long lost family, makes new friends and learns to make all sorts of delicious regional specialties. From Sapa to Hue to Hoi An to Saigon to elsewhere, Luke travels north to south, each section of the journey begins with a brief personal essay, followed by recipes of springs rolls, simple stir fries, intense soups and more. You won’t find some of the more specialized ingredients in this memoir-travel log-cookbook, but you can put those on a shopping list for your next trip to Hanoi.

Reinventing Food

By Colman Andrews, B986 at Kinokuniya
The cathedral of modern gastronomy, El Bulli, finally closed its doors in Spain recently, so this is perhaps a nice, reflective time to pick up a biography of its owner and chef, Ferran Adria, the man who allegedly changed the way we eat. This biography by Colman Andrews covers Adria’s childhood during the Franco years in Spain and humble beginnings as a resort dishwasher, complete with charming baby photos and bad-hair youth photos before arriving at the techniques that are the basis of his style of cooking: spherification, foaming and deconstruction. We like the expert combination of personal story and culinary context by Andrews, a founder of Saveur magazine.

Eat, Memory

Ed. Amanda Hesser, B483 at Kinokuniya
If you don’t cook, but love eating and talking about it, Amanda Hesser has gathered 26 food essays that have previously appeared in the New York Times. There are no recipes to follow, and these essays are not all by chefs, though there is a nice piece in there by Gabrielle Hamilton of the New York restaurant Prune, about a blind line cook in her kitchen. Most of the writers are actually, well, writers—novelists, poets and essayists—sharing personal stories involving food. And they’re not all straight-up celebrations either. They’re about bad meals, forgotten meals, canned meals and more, showing such a range of experiences with food that the book is far from corny and predictable.

My Father’s Daughter

By Gwyneth Paltrow, B947 at Kinokuniya
Unless you’re miserable cynics like us, you’ll be delighted by Gwyneth Paltrow’s collection of recipes and stories about growing up and cooking with her father, the late actor Bruce Paltrow, and about cooking for a young family. Her lyricism is a little tiresome at times (seriously, Gwyn, does your heart really skip a beat when you pass by a flowering plant?), but we like the collection of warm family photographs and simple recipes for burgers, sandwiches, pastas and baked treats that are very doable. She’s also a stickler for health so you’ll find recipes like vegetarian chilli and healthy blueberry muffins. Amateur cooks will appreciate that she’s not an overbearing expert, just an advanced home cook.

As Always, Julia

Ed. Joan Reardon, B803 at Kinokuniya
Let’s face it, you probably didn’t know or care about Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child’s magnum opus, until you saw the film and were smitten with the sassy lady’s adorable straight-talking style. So even if you’ll never attempt a complicated classic French recipe by her, you can still enjoy pages of her indomitable personality in this collection of correspondence between her and her friend and publishing confidante Avis de Voto. They write with elan and joy, discussing recipes to death and over hundreds of pages, planning Mastering. Basically, if you loved Julie and Julia and want more of it, get this book.

NOMA

By Rene Redzepi, B1,850 at Asia Books
There’s something here for everyone: the design fiend, the food pornographer, the would-be chef, the naturalist. Chef of allegedly the best restaurant in the world, NOMA (just outside Copenhagen), Rene Redzepi is a fierce localist and a forager: he walks around the fields and woods, collecting weeds and herbs and mushrooms and whatever else to add to his cooking. This in-depth look behind his art is comprised of three parts: journal entries by Rene about his culinary journeys, a bulky middle section with 200 full-page food shots and thoughtful captions about the ingredients and finally, recipes using machines and produce unavailable to us mere mortals. Still, the book is a peek into the food of a gorgeous parallel universe.

Cookbook

By Rirkrit Tiravanija, B1,195 at Kinokuniya
Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija is famous for his live cooking art performances, notably at the MOMA in New York and the Serpentine Gallery in London. Cookbook collects simple recipes ranging from pak boong fai daeng to meatballs, an essay on the artist’s work as well as a long interview. A nice balance of intellectualism and fun, easy cookery.

Essentials

Asia Books Try the one at Emporium, 3/F, Sukhumvit Rd., 02-664-8545
Kinokuniya Try the one at Siam Paragon, 3/F, Rama 1 Rd., 02-610-9500