For those of you with a cooking/food writing/food science collection, what’s indispensable? What do you currently find yourself returning to again and again?
For me, Nikki Segnit’s “Flavor Thesaurus: A Compendium’ and Flavor Thesaurus: More Flavors are both in there, along with The Noma Guide to Fermentation, Koji Alchemy, and *Burma: Rivers of Flavor.” Oh, and Sercarz’s *Spice Companion."
For food writing, I’m always happy to dip into some M.F.K. Fisher.
These lean more toward food science & food politics, but here are some of my favorites:
Catching Fire - Richard Wrangham
The Dorito Effect - Mark Schatzker
The Omnivore’s Dilemma - Michael Pollan
In Defense of Food - Michael Pollan
Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser
Food Politics - Marion Nestle
All great stuff. I’m a fan of Pollan’s work, as well.
I too enjoy Pollan’s work. All below are by Gary Taubes.
All the above dive into studies about metabolism, how your body processes food, and analysis of ‘diet’ books’ claims. I like this thoroughness and appreciation of the biological aspect of metabolizing food. Instead of trying to be popular or show a fad, he looks at science.