Great cook book selection?

Hey, everybody! Remember, back in the day, when you'd walk, bus or drive from bookstore to bookstore searching for a specific volume, or at least spend hours on the phone looking for a book? Back before Al Gore invented the internets?

Me neither.

I find myself wanting to buy an American-themed cookbook for a friend who is returning to Ukraine. I have a specific book in mind ["American Century Cookbook" by Jean Anderson, because it's more history of modern American food than recipes, but it's both] which is out of print. I'm partly soliciting ideas for a book that's historical/cultural/practical and would make a good American keepsake, but all of this is a preamble to my question:

Who has a really, really good selection of cookbooks in stock in the Chicago area?

57th St. books is a good go-to for pretty much everything. Barbara's in Oak Park or on Wells? I'm not noticing any specifically cook-book oriented stores in Chicago any more. Or am I missing something?

I have a LARGE on-line book purchasing habit, but sometimes ya just want to browse or buy a last minute gift.

I imagine I'm not the only one in the LTH world who'd find this question interesting, so I thought I'd post the question.

Giovanna

You can look at the website of the Midwest Bookhunters, which lists a number of midwestern booksellers: http://www.midwestbookhunters.org/

Click on "directory" and then select "cooking" under dealer specialty.

You will find several listed, some of whom have open shops.

By the way, to feed your on-line book buying habit the two best sources are:

http://www.addall.com/

http://www.bookfinder.com/

Both are megasites which search through postings by thousands of on-line booksellers. They are much more comprehensive than just going to Amazon.

Addall also covers new books. For Used books on this site click on "used books" at the lower center of the home page.

Sur La Table and Williams-Sonoma (in that order) have cookbook sections, but I'm not sure they're any bigger/better than a Barnes & Noble's (W-S's definitely is not).

Powell's has kind of an interestingly eclectic selection of used/remaindered cookbooks, though what it will mainly demonstrate is how many terrible ideas there were for cookbooks in the 70s and 80s. And 90s and 2000s....

In short... no, I don't have a great recommendation. I don't know of a surviving cookbook specialty store or a place with an especially strong selection.

I know your question is about book stores, but for your criteria I'd heartily recommend Betty Fussell's book I Hear America Cooking, which is a wonderful collection of regional recipes, with each section introduced with a thorough and informative discussion of the region's culinary history (each recipe, too, has its history explained). The book includes recipes for everything from Navajo Fry Bread to Okra Fritters to a Door Country Fish Boil through Election Cake with Maple Cream. The recipes are quite good and the history is very authoratative. It's unfortunately out of print, but easily available through Amazon. For book stores, in an effort to encourage traffic in the area's independent sellers, I think The Bookstall in Winnetka has a pretty choice selection of cookbooks, though it's not huge.

George R wrote:By the way, to feed your on-line book buying habit the two best sources are:

http://www.addall.com/

http://www.bookfinder.com/

Both are megasites which search through postings by thousands of on-line booksellers. They are much more comprehensive than just going to Amazon.

I entirely agree with you that Amazon is not the be-all-end-all of on-line book-monging. I'll happily add your recommendations to my list and offer these in return:

http://www.abebooks.com and
http://www.powells.com .

Time to get the floors reinforced.....

Giovanna

ABE Books and Powell's are both excellent sites, which are searched by Bookfinder and by Addall.

What I like about the megasites is that one search covers a lot more ground than going to individual sites.

The only downside is that you will find duplicate entries because some booksellers will list a book on more than one site. A small price to pay.

By the way, Addall and Bookfinder results are structured differently. When I'm not sure exactly what the title is I prefer Bookfinder as results are segmented by the exact title which the bookseller has posted. On the other hand Addall lets you sort by author, price, seller, etc.

Use whichever you're most comfortable with, both are pretty good.

Unfortunately, Seasoned To Taste, Barry Bluestein and Kevin Morrisey's Chicago cookbook store, was short lived. For new books, the megabookstores have the best cookbook selections, though you can get good prices on bestsellers at Costco.

I agree that 57th Street is the best all around used bookstore for cookbooks. Here are a few other local options.

Ochsner
http://www.ochsnerusa.com/cook.html
246 E. Marquardt, Wheeling
847-465-4200
Bicycle company that sells used cookbooks.

Frugal Muse
Chestnut Court Shopping Center
7511 Lemont Road, Darien
630-427-1140
Used bookstore with a big cookbook selection.

Little Treasures
7502 Madison Street, Forest Park
708-366-9198
Antiques store with a big cookbook selection.

This Bookstore Is Stuffed With Just One Thing: Cookbooks

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/22/book ... tters.html