Over the last five years at HGS Home Chef we’ve built quite a nice reputation for having the best selection of cookbooks in the region. These books are more than simply well-chosen, they are diverse, beautifully written and actually helpful.
Some of them speak to those who like to cook simply, others are geared to more adventurous or advanced cooks, but all share a perspective focused on cooking quality food made with really good, often seasonal, ingredients.
We shy away from most celebrity chefs’ books, but lean in when we see a cookbook hatched from real knowledge, experience and passion. Good writing and beautiful photos don’t hurt either!
We may be in a tiny country town, but many brilliant authors have taught in our kitchens, making our connection to the source of these cookbooks all the more meaningful. Madhur Jaffrey, Martha Rose Shulman, Sarah Owens, Amy Chaplin, Lukas Volger, Ruth Reichl, David Leite, Alexandra Stafford, Marisa McClellan, Justin Chapple and Naomi Duguid are just a handful of the notable authors who have brightened our kitchen with their considerable talent.
Like you, we are eager for the world to safely open up again, and when it does our kitchens will once more be a place to rub elbows with and learn from the talented chefs, food writers, editors and cookbook authors we love. Meanwhile, we have their books, and that’s been an inspiration and a comfort to us, and our food-obsessed family, here in the Hudson Valley and the Berkshires.