Foodies are obsessed with the culinary world. When they aren't watching a cooking show, talking about the last restaurant they visited or trying a new recipe in their own kitchen, they're reading about cooking too. These five coffee table books are more than just cook books with lists of ingredients and recipes to follow. They are filled with beautiful photos and graphics, interesting facts and stories and they make for a lovely addition to any foodie's book collection.
Author Maegan Brown (aka The BakerMama) goes beyond the traditional meat and cheese boards in her book Beautiful Boards. Learn how to artfully arrange food—from fruit, cheese, meat and crackers to pancakes, taco fixings and salad ingredients—with step-by-step instructions and photos so life-like you could almost graze from the boards right off the page!
Wine Folly is a personal favorite that sits on my coffee table. The magnum edition features stunning infographics and a fancy black and gold hardcover that doubles as living room decor. Whether you're a casual wine drinker or studying to be a sommelier, this book is indeed the master guide to wine, complete with information about different grapes, regions, tasting notes, glassware and food pairings. This is the perfect gift for any oenophile.
The Story of Food is "an illustrated history of everything we eat" with fascinating background information about where our food comes from—nuts and grains, fruits and vegetables, meats and fish, herbs and spices and more. This book uses visual storytelling that reveals interesting and sometimes even surprising facts about our food.
Eat Joy contains intimate essays from 31 celebrated writers who describe how food has played a role in their lives.
"If you've ever felt a deep, emotional connection to a recipe or been comforted by food during a dark time, you'll fall in love with these stories."―Martha Stewart Living
"Great cooking goes beyond following a recipe—it's knowing how to season ingredients to coax the greatest possible flavor from them." The Flavor Bible includes thousands of ingredient entries, unique flavor combinations, tips for experimenting with temperature and texture and more.