Tastes good on paper

The Complete Robuchon (Knopf, $35; November) You may not have eaten at one of Joel Robuchon’s restaurants in Paris, or Tokyo, or Vegas, or New York. But if you’ve eaten a fine-dining meal anywhere, chances are the food was in some way inspired by him. Robuchon is to chefs what Dylan is to musicians: a master whose influence runs so deep it can barely be detected. If Robuchon has his way, his influence will now reach to home cooks. They’re a tougher lot to inspire, sure, but with over 800 recipes in this thing, there’s bound to be at least one that will click.

Come to the Table: The Slow Food Way of Living, edited by Katrina Heron (Rodale, $29.95) Slow Food Nation’s meditation on the farming life is filled with photos that are as nourishing to the eye as the book’s recipes are to the body. Cows munch happily on grass in the sun; sheep gallop in lush, green pasture; farmers smile for the camera under the shade of a tree. The 12 profiles of California farms that make up the bulk of the book paint the farming life as just as idyllic, and the recipes in the back (most of them contributed by the farmers themselves) will have you eating as if you live it.

A16 Food + Wine by Nate Appleman, Shelley Lindgren and Kate Leahy (Ten Speed Press, $35) A16 has been a darling of San Francisco—not to mention the food media—since it opened in 2004, and the attention has always been aimed just as much toward its wine program as its food. So it makes sense that this thick cookbook starts with a 60-page primer on Southern Italian wine before it gets to a single recipe. If a wine course isn’t what you’re looking for, just skip to the second part of the book for sophisticated (yet approachable) takes on Neapolitan pizzas, tuna conserva and all kinds of meatballs.

Taste: A Life in Wine by Anthony Terlato (Surrey, $26; December) Terlato is often referred to as the man responsible for pinot grigio—not making it, but making it so popular in the United States. His 50 years in the wine business have culminated in Terlato Wines International, one of the biggest wine companies in the country. Yawning yet? Well, don’t—this story is just as much about Terlato’s personal history as it is the company’s, and both stories correspond with the story of wine culture in America.

The Edible Series (Reaktion Books, $15.95) Pancake, Hamburger and Pizza—the first three books in what will be a series of at least 16—are just as straightforward as their titles suggest: The roughly 150-page tomes dive into their respective subjects with an obsessive and unironic voice, trying to put each food in its historical and cultural context. And while you may not think you’re interested in, say, the place pancakes have in the history of working-class food, there’s a certain addictiveness to reading through these books. In fact, the breezy writing and endless bits of trivia make them as easy to consume as the subjects they cover.

Alinea by Grant Achatz (Ten Speed Press, $50, out this week) People say eating at Alinea is an incomparable experience, a night that cannot possibly be put into words. But just as chef Grant Achatz does what’s seemingly impossible with food, he’s managed to put the Alinea experience in book form. How the restaurant looks is conveyed by gorgeous, cinematic photographs; how it feels is deftly conveyed by Vogue food writer Jeffrey Steingarten (his signature curmudgeonliness in full effect). So, in a strange way, the recipes are not the point. Instead, the point is that a meal at Alinea costs at least $125, this book costs $50, and what you get for the money is surprisingly similar.

The Big Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal (Bloomsbury, $250; November) The chances that you’ll bring this book into the kitchen are incredibly slim, a fact that seems to be recognized by the publisher—seriously, what practical cookbook costs $250 and comes in a slipcover? The chances that this book will be read in its entirety are fairly slim, too. Instead, this is porn for the molecular gastronomy set, a visual guide to Heston Blumenthal’s mind. And because this is the mind that enrobes salmon in pitch-black licorice gel and makes sorbet out of sardines, it’s a delirious and fascinating place.