The 5 Best Cookbooks of 2019
This year, after all, featured a top-to-bottom run-through of The Joy of Cooking, at least one edition of which every household must own. Certain earnest cooks lament that though they have good palates and, yes, refined taste, they just don’t have the instincts that would lead to casually saying, “One of my favorite ways to serve an herb salad is piled on top of rounds of broiled or grilled eggplant seasoned with toasted cumin seeds and ground sumac, the lemony, sweet-tart, deep crimson spice.” It’s the kind of thing Sam Sifton calls a no-recipe recipe, and it’s not the kind of thing I casually come up with. The eggplant suggestion comes from Molly Stevens, an infallible teacher and writer.
