5 Essential Back-to-School Food Titles

JGarbee

Food Books for Thought

Summer tomatoes are at their prime, the first fall apples have arrived. Where else but L.A. can you continue to cook your way through the best summer cookbooks by day while starting on those fall reading lists at night?

These are the sort of nightcap-worthy books to pull out when you don't quite feel like a full-on, Wednesday night hunter-gatherer academic analysis in The History of Taste, but are still looking for a meaty read. Or sure, as with that roasted raccoon recipe tale (after the jump), maybe you just need a little old-fashioned entertainment.

And by all means, add these books to your Goodreads list. Those summer cookbooks, too. Just to remind your East Coast friends of the glorious months of California sunshine still ahead.

Knopf

Cover and Photo of Julia Child from Dearie

5. Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child :
There is a fine art to capturing the life of someone whose story we have all heard too many times to count. And yet wherever you've settled in to read Dearie (the kitchen, we hope), Bob Spitz manages to convey the vigor, curiosity, confidence and booming voice of a truly remarkable woman as if she is sitting at the kitchen table with you.

Phaidon

Cover and a drawing from The Art of the Restaurateur

4. The Art of the Restaurateur:
Want to open a restaurant? Financial Times restaurant critic Nicholas Lander takes a look at the real back-of-the-house driving force: The restaurant owner. In The Art of the Restauranteur, Lander profiles "those professionals I most respect and admire" in an often overlooked role that was once more revered than that of chef. (The word "restaurateur" is from the French verb "restaurer," meaning to restore weary travelers). Joe Bastianich, Danny Meyer, Gilbert Pilgram (Zuni Café), Juli Soler (El Bulli) and Enrico Bernardo (Il Vino in Paris) are among the 20 global restaurateurs who open their doors to Lander to talk about their experiences in the business.

UC Press

American Tuna and author-historian Andrew F. Smith

3. American Tuna: The Rise and Fall of an Improbable Food :
In American Tuna, historian Andrew F. Smith chronicles the stateside life of the iconic fish, from its earliest fertilizer days to the most commonly consumed seafood in the country (until recently, when it was displaced by shrimp). It's a very American tale of rags to mega-riches and, well, back to mediocrity.

Though there are a handful of small, family-run, canned tuna companies (including one in San Diego coincidentally called American Tuna), the three major canned tuna brands that still exist in the United States are foreign-owned. Los Angeles plays a central role in the rise of higher-priced tuna stateside with sushi and Japanese restaurants -- just before the second half of the book: "The Fall."