Best Cookbooks of 2021 | Becky Krystal - Staff Writer for Voraciously at Washington Post Food
Best Cookbooks of 2021
with Becky Krystal Staff Writer for Voraciously at Washington Post Food
Photo credit- The Washington Post
Intro: Welcome to the number one cookbook podcast, Cookery by the Book with Suzy Chase. She's just a home cook in New York City, sitting at her dining room table, talking to cookbook authors.
Becky Krystal: I'm Becky Krystal. I'm a staff writer for Voraciously at Washington Post Food. And I'm here to talk about our top cookbook picks of 2021.
Suzy Chase: I'd like to thank my new sponsor, Bloomist. Bloomist creates and curates simple, sustainable products that inspire you to design a calm, natural refuge at home. I'm excited to announce they've just introduced a new tabletop and kitchen collection that's truly stunning. Visit bloomist.com and use the code cookery20 to get 20% off your first purchase, or click the link in the show notes. Now on with the show.
Suzy Chase: It's that time of the year again when Becky and I get together and talk the best cookbooks of the past year. So each of the 11 cookbooks on the 2021 list was handpicked by a staff member on The Washington Post Voraciously team. And I think the one thing that ties all these cookbooks together this year is they're all very personal, not just a collection of recipes. So let's kick things off with Life Is What You Bake It, Vallery Lomas. And I would love to hear which staff member chose this and each cookbook on the list. So Vallery is unique because she shares recipes from her family time spent in Paris, The Great American Baking Show which she won, and sweets and breads inspired by New York City. Now, who chose this one?
Becky Krystal: This was picked by one of my fellow staff writers, Aaron Hutcherson. "A lawyer with a love for baking, Lomas chose to follow her dream when she decided to try out for the Great American Baking Show, the stateside version of the British favorite. Though she ended up winning the season, on only two of episodes made it to the airwaves after allegations against one of the shows judges came to light and with that, her dream of a big break started to deflate. While some might be defeated by such a turn of events, Lomas continued along her new career path despite the setback."
Suzy Chase: That was crazy though, how The Great American Baking Show didn't go on, but she won.
Becky Krystal: Yeah. She has this in analogy that she makes in the book where she compares herself almost to rising bread dough, right? You get punched down and then it comes back up again. And that's how she describes her journey after the show didn't air, and she had to try to pull all this together herself.
Suzy Chase: So the next up is Cannelle Et Vanille by Aran Goyoaga. She's a food stylist and photographer who comes from a long line of pastry chefs. This cookbook focuses on gluten-free recipes. Now, who chose this one?
Becky Krystal: Yeah, this was picked by Olga Massov who's one of our editors here and who's also a published cookbook author herself. "I've long suspected that done properly, gluten-free baking can be just as delicious and exalted as its glutenous counterpart, but there's a dearth of books that give you the tools to learn the art of it properly."
Suzy Chase: Next up is Treasures of the Mexican Table, Pati Jinich. As usual with Pati, this is a great cookbook for exploring the wide variety of foods that Mexico has to offer without getting into overly complicated recipes. I just adore her. So who chose this?
Becky Krystal: Yeah, this was picked by Tim Carman, another staff writer here who pretty much said what you just said, about being able to explore Mexico in a cookbook.
Suzy Chase: I think New Native Kitchen by Freddie Bitsoie and James O. Fraioli in my opinion is probably the most important cookbook on this list. It celebrates indigenous cuisine.
Becky Krystal: Yeah. This was picked by Daniela Galarza, another staff writer who does all our Eat Voraciously daily newsletter. And she notes, "That this is an important new entry in the mainstream publication of native cuisines written by chefs that have been doing this for decades. And it's full of recipes that represent ways to incorporate native ingredients and cultures without requiring trips to a specialty store."
Suzy Chase: Next up is Cook Real Hawai'i by Top Chef finalist, Sheldon Simeon. So who picked this one?
Becky Krystal: Well, this book was picked by Jim Webster, who is also a cookbook author in his own right, and he is our multi-platform editor and helps proofread and fix all of our recipes. "I'm unlikely to get on a plane to Hawaii anytime soon. But one thing I've always been able to do even before getting grounded almost two years ago, was find a way to travel on the plate. I would rather eat the food of another region or culture at its point of origin, but making it myself is often a good alternative, especially when it's the only alternative. So when I got my hands on Sheldon Simeon's Cook Real Hawai'i, it was like getting a plane ticket."
Suzy Chase: The next one is a really interesting choice because it's both a cookbook and a training manual. Rise and Run by Shalane Flanagan and Elyse Kopecky. So who chose this one?
Becky Krystal: This was picked by Matt Brooks, who is the Voraciously editor, and he is a very passionate runner and of course also a passionate home cook. And here's what he has to say. "Like their debut Run Fast, Eat Slow, this book is filled with recipes packed with whole grains, healthy fats, vegetables, and fruit. And luckily for me, many are of the grab and go variety that come in handy before or after a run and will be ideal when I'm rushing out the door as we head back to the office next month."
Suzy Chase: To Asia With Love by Hetty McKinnon. Hetty wrote in the cookbook, "The recipes are Asian and origin, but modern in spirit. They are inspired by tradition and global interpretation." Hetty and this cookbook taught me how to make the perfect jammy egg. And I'm thinking this is your choice.
Becky Krystal: Actually it was one of my choices. I had a few where I couldn't decide. So I gave this one to Joe Yonan, the food and dining editor. But we share our love for this book, because we've both written about it actually.
Suzy Chase: That's awesome. So what did Joe say about this?
Becky Krystal: "Hetty McKinnon's love letter to Asian cooking is so personal that when you make one of her recipes, you imagine her standing next to you in the kitchen, laughing and joking as you chop and stir together, then sitting across the table from you as you Slurp noodles or bite into mochi."
Suzy Chase: Mother Grains by Roxana Jullapat, where she spotlights eight hole grains that are grown and sold across the U.S. Now, drum roll please. Who picked this?
Becky Krystal: This was my pick.
Suzy Chase: Yay.
Becky Krystal: Yay. So yeah. Let me tell you a little bit about what I thought about this. This enlightening, creative and of the moment volume pulled me in from the start. Roxana Friends & Family Bakery in Los Angeles focuses on eight grains, barley, buckwheat, corn, oats, rice, rye, sorghum and wheat, more whole and heirloom varieties, that she makes a compelling case or better for your diet and the environment, not to mention your cooking.
Suzy Chase: Black Foods by Bryant Terry. This is his tribute to black culinary ingenuity. Who chose this?
Becky Krystal: This was picked by Emily Heil, who is another staff writer for the team. And here's what she has to say, "To me, the best cookbooks are more than instructions for making dishes. I love reading them like I would novels, taking in the author's prose. Or like art books, admiring sumptuous photos and styling. Bryant Terry's category defined black food takes this concept to the extreme, bending our ideas about what such a tome can be. Terry, the author of Vegetable Kingdom and Afro-Vegan, assembled the compendium of essays, poetry, art, and recipes exploring the African diaspora through the lens of food."
Suzy Chase: And now moving on to Rodney Scott's World of BBQ by Rodney Scott. This is the first cookbook from a black pitmaster.
Becky Krystal: This was picked by Tim Carman, who is a staff writer and an accomplished barbecue man himself. He knows what he's talking about when he's evaluating this books. And here's what he has to say, "Scott is not the first author to tell you how to build a smoker, but he may be the first black pitmaster to do so for a major publishing house, which gives you a clue about the role that black men and women have historically played in American regional barbecue. They've been the pioneers and the specialists whom whites often entrusted to prepare smoked meets for parties. But their contributions, arguably their very invention of America barbecue have been largely delegated to the margins of the cookbook industry."
Suzy Chase: So I thought this was interesting. The last cookbook on the list is Food52's Big Little Recipes by Emma Laperruque. And who chose this?
Becky Krystal: This recipe was chosen by Ann Maloney, who is our recipe editor and deputy food editor, and she has a weekly Dinner and Minutes column where she focuses on quick recipes. So this book immediately jumped out to her. And here's a little bit of what Ann had to say. "Laperruque's column features clearly written tight recipes with pertinent mini how-tos. So does her first cookbook with fresh takes on some of my favorites. I love sesame chicken for her six ingredient sesame chicken with artichokes and arugula. The seeds are grand to near powder and used to thinly coat chicken cutlets, which are then lightly pan fried to golden crisp. But every recipe isn't ready in 20 or 30 minutes like that one, but many of them are well suited for weeknight cooking."
Suzy Chase: Okay. Now moving on to my Cookery by the Book top five of 2021, and I would love to hear your thoughts. Simply Julia by Julia Turshen. She's flawless, and I think her recipes are flawless.
Becky Krystal: Yeah, she's great. I believe we ran a few recipes from there and we've worked with Julia before. And her recipes always have this cozy, homey kind of feeling, and they're very accessible and very flexible. I find that really appealing.
Suzy Chase: The next one is Cooking in Marfa by Virginia Lebermann and Rocky Barnette. It is a wonderful tribute to their gorgeous restaurant, The Capri in Marfa, Texas. Did you see this book?
Becky Krystal: I didn't. I've heard so much about Marfa. And I think when I was in the travel section, we wrote a story about it. So who knows? Might have even been in there.
Suzy Chase: Cook, Eat, Repeat by Nigella Lawson. I adore her essays in this cookbook, along with the recipes. And you cannot go wrong with the queen Nigella.
Becky Krystal: You can't. I mean, that's a fact. She probably helped make this whole industry and all these books and all these people possible, having been that kind of marque personality. So I think probably a lot of the people on this list would look up to Nigella as a role model, I would guess.
Suzy Chase: Next is one of your favorite too, To Asia With Love by Hetty McKinnon. And I said on my episode with her, "There's something that sets your cookbooks apart from the rest. You have this lovely way of connecting beautiful, doable recipes with the photography and a feeling of comfort and hominess."
Becky Krystal: Like I said, this was one of the books I was jockeying for. And the real test of a cookbook is that I cooked out of it on my own time when I wasn't doing it for work, for dinner and stuff like that. And it's great. It's really accessible. I always hear from people who were complaining about specialty ingredients and cuisines and I mean, there's none of that in this book. It's very flexible. She does a lot of vegan alternatives. I think it's great.
Suzy Chase: And my favorite Cookery by the Book cookbook of 2021 is Bayrut by Hisham Assaad. And he's archiving Lebanese recipes that have been forgotten or are on the verge of extinction due to the economic crisis in Beirut. And I think this is a beautiful celebration of Beirut food and culture. And I learned so much from this cookbook.
Becky Krystal: Yeah. I think one of the things we're starting to see somewhat in cookbook, probably more than we have in the past, are these volumes that do just that. Looking at recipes and people that maybe would not be published themselves as cookbooks, but trying to document their histories and traditions. And I mean, that's the way most people cook everywhere. Right? So I think that's really important work that people like him are doing.
Suzy Chase: What cookbook are you looking forward to in 2022?
Becky Krystal: Can I mention more than one?
Suzy Chase: Yes.
Becky Krystal: Well, I was really excited about Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cookie Book, which was supposed to come out this year, but it was delayed like actually a bunch of other books. I'm really excited about that. Jessie Sheehan has a cookbook coming out. Kathryn Pauline, who contributed to our cookie issue a few years ago has her first book coming out called A Dish for All Seasons. I'm really excited to see that. Also, Cathy Barrow has an entirely bagel focused book coming out. And I love bagels and I love making bagels. So I can't wait to see what she does with that. That's just a few, scraping the surface.
Suzy Chase: I'm looking forward to, I'm not much of a baker, so I'm looking forward to Leanne Brown's new cookbook, Good Enough: Embracing the Joys of Imperfection and Practicing Self-Care in the Kitchen. And I had her on with Good and Cheap: Eat Well on $4/Day. And she's just so relatable and such an uplifting cookbook author.
Becky Krystal: Yeah. I'm excited about this one. I actually have seen a digital of it, and I started looking through and I started mentally cataloging the things I want to try. I'm really looking forward to spending a little more time with that one and making stuff out of it.
Suzy Chase: Where can we read the Washington Post Voraciously Best Cookbooks of 2021 article?
Becky Krystal: On voraciously.com.
Suzy Chase: And where can we find you on social media and Voraciously?
Becky Krystal: So again, I'm on voraciously.com, and on Instagram, I am Becky.Krystal and on Twitter, I am @BeckyKrystal.
Suzy Chase: Well, this has been so much fun. Thank you so much, Becky. It's always fun talking cookbooks with you, and happy holidays to you and your family. And thank you for coming on Cookery by the Book podcast.
Becky Krystal: Thanks, Suzy. Always a good time.
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