Other People's Bookshelves. Q&A with Julie McCoy.
Discover her favourite cookbooks and authors she would like to meet.
Q - Hello Julie. Can you please tell us about yourself and your substack publication?
A - I have been writing short stories, plays, and essays for over 40 years. I have published two books, Get in the Car: A Food and Travel Memoir, as well as a collection of short stories, The Camp People. Both are available on Amazon. Currently, I write “Something Tasty” food-focused short stories on Substack. I’ve also finished a new novel, Randy & Rini, and am looking for a literary agent to run like hell with it to a publisher!
Q - Please tell us about your bookshelves and cookbook collection, what does it consist of and how many do you have?
A - I have about 50 cookbooks as well as food/gardening/wine-related books. I also have many books written by chefs or those in the food/restaurant industry. I also love reading food-related memoirs or novels that feature food or cooking prominently. Most of my books are in what we call the “library,” a room that connects the living room to the dining room. I’m a writer and a big reader so I have a lot of books. Most of the books on this bookcase (which is really deep) are double or triple stacked. Unfortunately, when we moved to our current house, I had to throw a lot of books away because I knew we wouldn’t have room for them.
Q - Which cookbooks do you love and use the most and why? Do any of them have a sentimental value?
A - Since I primarily only use cookbooks when I’m baking, I love The Silver Palate cookbooks by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. I’m particularly partial to the Silver Palate series because when I first moved to New York City in the early 1980’s, there was a Silver Palate store on the Upper West Side. I was intimidated to go into the store because it seemed small and pricey, so in lieu of that, I purchased their cookbooks instead. Looking back on this now, it was silly to be scared because having lived in Europe (Munich and briefly, London) I could spend days in many of the great food halls just “oohing and aahing” over all the carefully prepared food you could buy to go.
I also love Sarah Leah Chase’s cookbooks because they are easy to read and feature a lot of recipes with ingredients that you probably already have on hand. These include Open House Cookbook, Cold Weather Cooking (particularly appropriate where I live now), and the New England Open House Cookbook.
Q - Are there any rare or special editions in your collection?
I don’t have any rare cookbooks in my collection that I know of, but I’m always on the lookout for cookbooks that people are giving away if they are moving or having an estate sale.
As far as special editions go, I have a collection of Food & Wine best recipe types of cookbooks that they would send you if you subscribed to their magazine. They stopped doing that years ago, but I like the idea of having a “best of” in one bound book, rather than having to hold onto piles of magazines if you wanted to save a recipe or a photograph of a dish.
I still subscribe to the magazine, so they must be doing something right!
Q - Can you remember your first cookbook? What was it and do you still have it with you?
A - The first cookbook I remember having was definitely The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. I have a copy that was printed in 1986 and use it so much that it’s now held together by duct tape! 1986 is the year I got married, so that’s probably also my most sentimental cookbook.
Luckily, Fannie Farmer is not only an easy read but has tons of easy recipes to follow. I guess if this cookbook had been difficult to follow from Day 1, I wouldn’t be where I am today – cooking and writing about food!
Q - What system do you use to organise or file your books?
A - The books I use the most (and true cookbooks in my opinion) get the “special spot.” Also known as the cabinet above the stove. Since my husband, Lynn and I installed our kitchen cabinets ourselves, I made sure that if I needed to refer to a recipe, I didn’t have to run around the house looking for it.
There’s no rhyme or reason to how the books are organized, they’re just “there,” and that works for me.
Q - What is your oldest Cookbook and when was it published?
A - My oldest cookbook is Ada Boni’s Italian Regional Cooking, and it was published in 1969. My husband uses it much more than I do (he loves to make ravioli), but I love anything Italian so looking at the photographs of the food works for me too. Also, like the Fanny Farmer cookbook, it’s held together by duct tape. I guess that means it’s used quite a bit.
My second oldest cookbook is Craig Claiborne’s The New York Times Cookbook and it was published in 1981. It was given to me on my 21st birthday (note the inscription) so I got it only a year after it was published. What I love about the inscription (which shows Mom and Dad having a sense of humor) is that growing up, my parents insisted on putting anchovies on pizza whenever they made a pie. Even if I tried to scrape off the anchovies as a young kid, the fishy anchovy smell and taste would just totally ruin the pizza for me. Fun fact: I love any kind of tinned fish now (especially marinated white anchovies), but still can’t really tolerate anchovies on pizza.
Q - Which cookbooks would you recommend and why?
A - Again, I have to recommend any of The Silver Palate cookbooks and Sarah Leah Chase’s cookbooks. But there are a couple of others.
I’m always looking for recipes that are really simple. I’m actually quite lazy in the kitchen and since I complain about baking A LOT, if I have to bake, it better be an easy recipe. Food for Friends by Fran Warde fits into that category. As does a regional cookbook I have, Finger Lakes Feast.
Q - Do you prefer cookbooks by famous chefs, regional cuisine, or specific themes?
A - I’m a big fan of the “sale” table at Barnes & Noble. They always seem to have a plethora of what I call “picture-heavy” cookbooks on sale, especially after the holidays. Often, I buy cookbooks solely because I like looking at the pictures inside. Often just looking at some of these photographs will give me a dinner idea when I have none.
Since I love traveling in France and Italy, I have quite a few cookbooks that focus on these cuisines. However, I do buy “famous” chef cookbooks just because I like to see how a dish I may have eaten at one of their restaurants is actually prepared.
Q - Which cookbook authors have you met or would you like to meet? Tell us about them.
I saw Anthony Bourdain working in the kitchen at Les Halles in NYC many years ago and would have loved to meet him personally.
I have had Jean-Georges Vongerichten hold the door open for me (kid you not) at his restaurant Nougatine when I was still living close to Manhattan. I also love his cookbook, Jean-Georges Cooking at Home with a Four-Star Chef and bought it specifically to learn how to make the warm, soft chocolate cake recipe (aka molten lava cake) that every chef has since put on their menu as well. I mean before the “lava” cake was invented, what did we eat? (You can also see from the photograph the abuse this page got in the book since I used to make it a lot when my kids were little.)
Cookbook authors I would like to meet include Patricia Wells. I love her book, At Home In Provence. And I would love to meet Ruth Reichl and have read most of her books, too.
Thank you so much
for telling us about your bookshelves and cookbook collection.Julie has also been featured in ‘Other People’s Kitchens’.
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Thank you Lynn Hill for pulling this all together. Simply amazing.
What a lovely collection!