I've always been a great collector and lover of cookbooks.
One of the things that often frustrates me with cookbooks is that there are one or two recipes that are really good and the rest of them are not so great.
If you want to be a home cook, just have fun with it. Pick up a couple cookbooks. You're gonna make some mistakes; just go in and try it.
I myself love getting cookbooks and novels that some congenial person has already tried and liked.
When I wake up, I'm like, 'I gotta go to Whole Foods.' I'm constantly reading cookbooks; I bring hardcover cookbooks with me on the plane and tag pages. I just have this crazy food obsession.
I love cookbooks. I certainly have my fair share at home, but I'm a really funny cookbook person: I don't really ever cook out of cookbooks. I like cookbooks for the commentary or the pictures or the history.
I'm a fan of the hand-me-down recipes - friends, family, bake sales, community cookbooks - those are the recipes that have withstood the test of time and fed many hungry fans.
Lemon curd is one of the first things I remember cooking when I was old enough to use the stove without supervision. I looked up a recipe in my one of my mom's Martha Stewart cookbooks and went to work, stirring anxiously and monitoring closely for signs that the mixture was thickening so as not to curdle the eggs.
I've read hundreds of cookbooks. For my money, they are the bird.
I've read hundreds of cookbooks. Most of those cookbooks don't even tell you how to get a steak ready, how to bake biscuits or an apple pie.
