star of Bon Appétit’s Test Kitchen, is an introductory cook-
book with essential tips and basic recipes that emphasizes
improvisation as well as accessibility:
the book includes QR codes that link
to videos about technique. “I feel
grateful I can be of service at this
time,” Baz says, “when people around
the world are cooking at home.”
Other titles prioritize frugality and
readily available ingredients. The
Olive Oil and Salt Companion by Suzy
Scherr (Countryman, July) details the
culinary and medicinal uses of the
titular pantry staples. The book
includes recipes for flavored salts,
salted meats, and savory desserts, as
well as instructions for making easy
and economical beauty products and
household supplies.
Fermented Foods by Caroline
Gilmartin (Crowood, May) explains
the age-old global practice of food
fermentation and stresses sustain-
able techniques. Gilmartin, a
fermentation specialist with a
background in microbial genetics,
describes the processes and mech-
anisms of fermentation, provides
safety measures, and delivers
foundational recipes for popular
fermented products, such as kefir,
yogurt, and kombucha.
And in Canned, a June release
from Ryland Peters & Small, Theo
A. Michaels reimagines tinned
goods. “From a foodways point of view, tinned goods are small
portions and create little waste,” says editorial director Julia
Charles. The book emphasizes convenience and budget-
friendliness; nearly all the recipes can be made using canned
food plus pantry staples, such as a gumbo with canned okra or
a Moroccan-style tagine with canned chicken. “The three things
that have come out of the pandemic are comfort food, thrift,
and preparedness,” Charles adds.Secret (and secretly useful) garden
Comfort, thrift, and preparedness have also driven a renewed
interest in foraging and gardening, and here, too, cookbook
authors are ready to meet demand.
In The Forager’s Pantry, which Gibbs Smith will release in
March, Ellen Zachos, founder of backyardforager.com, pro-
vides an introduction to common spices, herbs, flowers, fruit,
seeds, roots, and mushrooms. She pairs foraged finds with
familiar staples, such as eggs or frozen puff pastry, and stressesaccessibility and sustainability.
“People are returning to the land
and exploring new ways of eating,”
says Sadie Lowry, associate editor at
Gibbs Smith. “The idea of finding
new treasures in your environment
to bring life to your cooking really
resonates.”
The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora by
Alan Bergo (Chelsea Green, June)
offers a more upmarket take on the
same subject. Bergo, a Minnesota
restaurateur, culinary mushroom
expert, and foraging influencer—his
Instagram account, @foragerchef, has
more than 16,000 followers—offers
root-to-flower inspiration from his
own kitchen, with recipes including
ramp vichyssoise and spruce tip
panna cotta.
Turning to the home garden,
blogger Valerie Rice’s cookbook
debut, Lush Life (Prospect Park,
May), provides recipes divided by
season (summer brings grilled
salmon in fig leaves with nectarine
relish, fall offers roasted heritage
turkey with thyme and black
pepper gravy) and instructs
readers on how and when to plant
and harvest the required flora. PW
called Lush Life “an excellent
guide to living in tune with nature
and the seasons.”
Yvonne Tremblay’s Culinary Herbs (Whitecap, Mar.) also
helps readers to make the most of their home gardens, spot-
lighting savory and aromatic plants. The book includes
instructions on planting and harvesting, and lays out familiar
as well as inventive uses for herbs, such as basil pesto or minted
mango mousse.
Further botanical recipes come in Wild Sweetness (Harper
Design, Mar.) by Thalia Ho, which PW described as a “tasteful
guide to off-the-beaten-path confections.” Like Ho’s blog,
Butter and Brioche, the book stresses oneness with wilderness and
the earth. Its recipes feature such ingredients as flower petals
and dried berries and offer verdant spins on classics, as in a
white chocolate ice cream that includes rosemary and juniper.
“We’ve inherited this dreadful disharmony in the world with
ourselves, with each other,” Ho says. Amid the pandemic, she
adds, “a lot of people are seeking a return to nature. Now is a
good time for sweetness.” ■20 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ MARCH 8, 2021
Pooja Makhijani is a writer and editor in New Jersey.Cookbooks