Homage to International Cookbook Giants

Homage is a show or demonstration of respect to someone or something. my Hungry Traveler owes the existence of this site to an exceptional group of cookbook authors who, starting in the 1970s, ventured into the kitchens and streets to fully understand the dishes underlying a country’s cuisine. These pioneers lived in the countries they researched, and learned from the local home cooks by cooking special dishes together in their kitchens. They also memorialized these incredible dishes in meticulous recipes that were previously handed down orally from generation to generation.

This effort allowed these authors to share many of the authentic dishes that defined both a culture and a cuisine with cooks from around the globe. They also opened the doors for the non-stop stream of incredible cookbooks focusing on capturing the world’s regional cuisines. Their cookbooks will help anyone who wants to go deeper into learning a specific cuisine. These culinary giants introduced the world and more specifically, my Hungry Traveler, to the tools needed to understand and recreate the world’s greatest dishes. The list of cookbooks below honors those legends and their defining works:

Caribbean Cuisine

Jessica B. Harris, “Sky Juice and Flying Fish: Traditional Caribbean Cooking”

French Cuisine

Julia Child “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” with Simone Beck, Paula Wolfert “The Cooking of Southwest France”, Jacques Pepin “La Technique” 

Italian Cuisine

Marcella Hazan “The Classic Italian Cookbook”, Lynne Rossetto Kasper “The Splendid Table”

German Cuisine

Mimi Sheraton “The German Cookbook”

Spanish Cuisine

Penelope Casas “The Food and Wine of Spain” and “Tapas: The Little Dishes of Spain: A Cookbook”

Portuguese Cuisine

Jean Anderson “The Food of Portugal”

Mexican Cuisine

Diana Kennedy “The Cuisines of Mexico”, “The Art of Mexican Cooking” and “Recipes from the Regional Cooks of Mexico”, Scott Bayless “Authentic Mexican”, Zarela Martinez “The Food and Life of Oaxaca”

Middle Eastern Cuisine

Claudia Roden, “The New Book of Middle Eastern Food: The Classic Cookbook, Expanded and Updated, with New Recipes and Contemporary Variations on Old Themes”

North American Cuisine

Edna Lewis “The Taste of Country Cooking”, Sheila Ludkins (and Julee Rosso) “The Silver Palate Cookbook”, and Leon Soniat “La Bouche Creole”, Chris Schlesinger “The Thrill of the Grill”,
Marion Cunningham, “The Fannie Farmer Cookbook: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of America’s Great Classic Cookbook”

Mediterranean Cuisine

Paula Wolfert “The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean”

African Cuisine

Paula Wolfert “The Food of Morocco” and “Couscous and Other Good Food of Morocco”, Jessica B. Harris “The Africa Cookbook”

Chinese Cuisine

Robert Delfs “The Good Food of Szechuan”, Kenneth Lo “The Encyclopedia of Regional Chinese Cooking”

Indian Cuisine

Julie Sahni “Classic Indian Cooking”

Southeast and East Asian Cuisines

Ruth Law “Southeast Asia Cookbook”, Jennifer Brennan “One-Dish Meals of Asia”, Madhur Jaffrey “Far Eastern Cookery”, Bach Ngo & Gloria Zimmerman “The Classic Cuisine of Vietnam”

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