My FAV selection so far from this year would have to be Jacques Pepin's "Chez Jacques".

This is a beefy, handsome volume chock full of recipes that make you want to get your apron on!

It's a huge, weighty book that's perfect not only in the kitchen, but also in the easy chair at the front room window, or on the pillow at bedtime.

It contains Jacque's memories, recipes, & menus but also lavish food styling & photography- including many lovely watercolors created at Jacques very own easel! Who knew he was not only chef but also painter?

This cookbook is inspiring and will bring out the creator in anyone- no matter what your preferred medium!

Hey thanks for the tip, I absolutley adore watercolor, and am a self-taught watercolorist myself! I will be "for sure - without a doubt" getting this one you have just recommended! Thank you so much for sharing!

By the way Kevin if you like watercolor and cookbooks, check this out:
Amazon.com: Basket Of Berries, A: Val Archer: Books

I even put in my 2 cents worth and did a customer review on it, I have not only her "Basket of Berries", but also another book she did called "Basket of Apples" unfortunatley it is no longer in print and is unavailable for purchase, I just really lucked out and got both.

Plus I forget TO MENTION my favorite new cookbook is...........
"Flavors of Morocco delicious recipes from North Africa" by: Ghillie Basan. Oh my goodness I am in LLLoooovvvveeee with Moroccan food how I went 51 yrs without ever having it I do not know but Thank God I finally discovered it, with the help of my forum buddies (KYH most notably talked alot about it) and I NEVER KNEW WHAT I WAS MISSING!!!

Over all it is now at this moment my favorite! I am sure that it will reamin a favorite, but I will probably fall in love with more to come!

Any other time that would be a hard one. But this time around it's a no-brainer: Where Flavor Was Born, by Andreas Viestad.

I don't remember if I've talked it up much over here. I know I did at the other site, before we all left. Technically published in 2007, it didn't come out until December. Far as I'm concerned that makes it one of this year's books.

It's part travelogue, part culinary history, part introduction to the cuisines of the Indian Ocean, part a primer on spices and their role in world events. All written by a chef and cookbook writer who brings the style and panache of a novelist to his passion for the region and its food.

Here, for instance, in one of my favorite passages, he's describing Stone Town, in Zanzibar:

"And it is all about secrets and semi-secrets, about what is hidden and what lies in the open, about lies that serve noble causes and truths that can hurt. There are rumors and gossip, more so than other places, one should think.... In the space between truths and lies, between what is public and what is secret, everything happens."

That quality writing is not unusual in the book. And the recipes are something else again. I've tried more than half a dozen of them, so far, and haven't had a bad one yet.

You just remined me KYH, I have just got to get that one too, it sounds fabulous!!!
Thanks for the little memory jog!

Plus I am just curious how long has it been since you discovered Moroccan cooking? I must have been WAY out of the loop for years, or is this a new and sudden phenomenon?

Cathy