by Allan Taylor

Created on: May 26, 2010

I don’t know that I actually  collect cookbooks but I certainly have vast numbers of them.   They seem to accumulate spontaneously somehow.  They are my friends.   

My apartment has innumerable bookshelves loaded with old books, together with paintings,  knickknacks,  pot plants and travel mementos.    There is no more room for additional bookshelves so I have also isolated stacks of books on the floor.  More than half of them are cookbooks.

Where do they come from?   Very rarely do I buy myself a new cookbook.   Sometimes I  get a new cookbook as a birthday present or Christmas gift,  which is most welcome.  When traveling overseas I may purchase new a cookbook as a memento of the country visited,  which often becomes  a favorite.  

For example,  once when visiting the most southern city in the world, namely Ushuaia, in the Argentine section of Tierra del Fuego,  I bought  “Cocinando Desde Ushuaia en el Fin del Mundo”  by Pablo Alzogaray,  which gives  all the traditional recipes used by the Spanish and English settlers of the island.  Besides having many intriguing pioneer recipes written in Spanish, each is  followed by the English translation.  This is very useful for inspiring the cook,  with  language studies thrown in at the same time.  Carnes de cordero,  vacuna,  cerdo  vie with cazuelas,  pescados,  mariscos,  pasteles  conservas, ensaladas y sopas  y  muchas más.

My most valued Spanish language cookbook is the beautifully illustrated in color  “Gran Libro de la Cocina Colombiana” by  Gloria Valencia de Castaña.   This gives the traditional dishes of eight  regions,   including Costa Pacifica,  Llanos de Amazonia,  Valle Cauca Nariño,  Costa Atlántica,  and so on.   No, I didn’t buy it in South America.   I found it at a  church fair in Adelaide, South Australia

Similarly my first venture into what is now Zimbabwe is remembered from the cookbook  “A Bird in the Hand”  by Ruth Gebbie, described as  “a collection of poultry, game and fish recipes for Rhodesians & others”,  published and bought 1971 in Salisbury.

Collecting books is much like going fishing. 

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