Cookbook

Root vegetables are the offal of the produce world. When most cooks think of them, which they rarely do, it's with a slightly curled lip - parsnips, rutabagas and turnips are anything but glamorous ingredients. They have the reputation of being things you cook because you have to, not because you want to. Leave it to Diane Morgan to find their sensuous side in her new book “ Roots .” It's a gorgeous work, loaded with dramatic color photos, that puts root vegetables in a whole new light.

When it comes to authorities on meat, you probably can't get any better than Bruce Aidells. The name that birthed a sausage empire is also behind close to a dozen cookbooks, including 2001's "Complete Meat Cookbook," a classic all-encompassing tome on all things meaty. But in the decade or so since the publication of "Complete Meat Cookbook," the world of meat has evolved in a big way. The rise of small farmers and artisan butchers, and availability of once lesser-known meats and cuts has dramatically changed the landscape, which is now peppered with terms like "heritage," "certified organic," "pasture-raised" and "sustainable.

For at least the last decade, one of the most-talked-about cookbooks has been one that hadn't yet been published. “When is Maricel's book coming out?” was a constant topic at gatherings of food writers. It seemed an unbeatable idea: a cookbook that covered the breadth of Latin American cooking, by an author, Maricel Presilla , who is not only an award-winning chef, but also knows how to do serious research (she has a doctorate in history). Finally, “Gran Cocina Latina” has arrived and it looks to be worth the wait.

One definition of geekdom is being fascinated by things that other people don't give a second thought to. To my mind that's a great virtue, not a shortcoming. And a new book by local author Jon Krampner is nothing but virtuous. “Creamy and Crunchy” is an in-depth look at peanut butter. How could you possibly find enough to write about peanut butter, you might well ask. It turns out, the only surprising thing is that no one has done it before (well, food historian Andrew Smith did do a book on peanuts, and is amply credited)

Holiday traffic, gift shopping, partying…. It's a relief to slow down with a good cookbook that reflects an idyllic life on a farm in northern  Japan , where the cooking revolves around food that's grown at home and prepared simply. “ Japanese Farm Food ” by Nancy Singleton Hachishu, who moved from California to Japan and ended up marrying a farmer and living in his ancestral home two hours from Tokyo, is a transporting respite. The book opens with a description of her Japanese farmhouse kitchen, a place of wood posts and beams, filled with her collection of 100-year-old baskets and bowls.

Any cook with an interest in Asian food will love this book from the Slanted Door 's Charles Phan. I've had my copy of "Vietnamese Home Cooking" only a few weeks, but it's already well-thumbed. I've been on a real binge, making his green papaya salad with rau ram , peanuts and crispy shallots numerous times. That goes for pork and shrimp spring rolls with velvety peanut sauce (the secret is a little glutinous rice and red miso) too. For the Hollywood Bowl, we made bánh mi filled with lemongrass pork roast, which Phan describes as a "cheater's version of porchetta.

Where do recipes come from, and who has the right to claim them? As a professional writer of recipes for almost 30 years, that's something I think about a lot. And I was thinking about it again this weekend after a couple of readers took issue with one of the winners in our third annual Los Angeles Times Holiday Cookie Bake-Off . The recipe in question was for the rosemary apricot bars submitted by Kelli Abrahamian, and it provides a...

My old friend Michael Ruhlman has come up with a terrific holiday gift not only for cookbook readers but for cookbook writers. Always out in front of the technological curve, Ruhlman and his photographer wife, Donna Turner Ruhlman, have just released a mini-cookbook for the iPad called “The Book of Schmaltz: A Love Song to a Forgotten Fat” (perfect timing, no? There are still four days of Hanukkah left). It's gorgeous. If for some reason you never thought frying chicken fat could be made beautiful, you really need to check this out. Especially on the iPad, the colors just glow.

It's that time of year when ardent bakers have their stand mixers perpetually at the ready. Cookies, cakes, pies? No problem. But candy? The sight of a candy thermometer can make even the most experienced among us hesitate, if not run screaming.  Enter " The Liddabit Sweets Candy Cookbook ," written by the founders of the eponymous Brooklyn candy shop known for its fat, handmade candy bars, caramels in flavors such as fig-ricotta, and...

It takes a lot of chutzpah to name a cookbook “Mastering the Art of ….” After all, Julia Child pretty much has the rights to that phrase in perpetuity. But my old friend Nathalie Dupree has never been the shy type. And why should she be? Having done  all of those 11 cookbooks and 300 TV cooking shows teaching the pleasures of biscuits, fried chicken and coconut cakes, if she hasn't earned the right to call her new book (written with Cynthia Graubart) “Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking,” who ever will?