A Trip to the Bookstore

Everyone has some sort of addiction. I have at least two: sunglasses and books. I should not be allowed anywhere near a sunglass store, I can’t pass by without trying on most of what is on display.
Books. Now that’s another story. I love to read, I’ll read anything, I’ve been know to buy books strictly by weight. Friends have been e-mailing me book suggestions, and even dropping by with loaner books.  I’ve been very good lately, using my NY Public Library card instead of my American Express card. But, leaving for Italy, there were some books that I had to bring over with me, so I made a trip to New York’s food book Mecca: Kitchen Arts and Letters on the upper east side.  This is THE place to go when you are looking for that certain cookbook. I went looking for some inspirational food photography and I wasn’t disappointed. The shop is small, sort of like a small one bedroom, but it’s crammed from floor to ceiling with books.  I would love to have days to just examine every single book, on every single shelf. There is so much knowledge, adventure, information, and opinion; all resting on those shelves, it’s such a tease!

I came home with two books, with two very different styles and points of view: Au Pied de Cochon and Olivier Roellinger’s Contemporary French Cuisine.  Au Pied de Cochon is a Canadian restaurant, and the photography was all done by the staff. It blends humor, drama, and drawings along with the photos.  The Contemporary French Cuisine has lush, textural images, the kind that you have to look at two or three times before a mystery is revealed. It also uses super intensified colors that create fantasy like food. These should keep me occupied for a while!
Oh, and just because everyone loves a bad boy, I bought a copy of Marco Pierre White’s new autobiography, The Devil in the Kitchen, and it’s even a signed copy. Lucky me.