thank you!
 
2007-04-19: thank you!

When I asked questions about your cookbook collections I had never thought I would receive so many responses. I have been enjoying reading all of them (so very many of them!) over the past week or so. I have found out so much about you, dear readers...and I really wanted to share it all with you, so bear with me while I go into "stats mode".

The top ten cookbooks/cookbook authors were the following:

Nigella Lawson (most votes were for "The Domestic Goddess", but a few votes for "Feasts" and "How to Eat")
Jamie Oliver (anything by him - he is so appealing, I wonder why??)
Ina Garten
Giada de Laurentiis
The Joy of Cooking
Martha Stewart
Donna Hay
Julia Child
Larousse Gastronomique/The Professional Chef/Cooking Encyclopedias
Essentials of Baking/Essentials of Cooking - by various authors (Williams-Sonoma's books rated high on this list)

And I have to add an honorable mention here - many of you have a huge binder, folder or drawer stuffed with recipes that you have printed out from blogs, torn out of magazines or inherited on scraps of paper. I love that binder, drawer and folder (I have all three, by the way) with all my heart and I use them regularly, fill them frequently and pour over the recipes on a regular basis.

I found that most of you want books that are full of good, simple, well-written recipes made with easily attainable ingredients. Your favourite cookbooks are filled with recipes that are prepared with not too much muss or fuss. Most of you reach for old stand-by books full of recipe "essentials" and family food that you are familiar with before those with new recipes that you've never tried before.

You will buy a cookbook that is full of pictures more often than one that is not and writing is just as important as the recipes in cookbooks for most of you. Price factors in somewhat - but if you love the book or the author you don't hesitate to add it to your collection. You buy books based on magazine reviews and word of mouth, but most often on blogger recommendations, which I think is amazing.

Believe it or not, most of you own more than 25 cookbooks (some of you beat me with more than 100 - and one lucky person has 300 in her collection!), and most of you consider 25 cookbooks to be too small of a collection and are itching to buy more.

Among the cookbooks I kept in my kitchen (there are 35 in there and about 40 now banished to the study) were all of your favourite cooks and writers - Nigella (of course), Jamie, Giada, Julia, Martha, Donna and Ina. And as well there are a few "essentials" books - Williams Sonoma "Baking", the GoodHousekeeping Illustrated Cookbook, Better homes and Gardens "New Cookbook" (from the 1950's) and The Essentials of Mediteranean Cooking, which is a great reference for when your in-laws are Middle Eastern and you are not. Then there are the "I feel like a chef today and will produce gorgeous food in the kitchen" books like The French Laundry Cookbook and Pierre Hermes Chocolate Desserts.

I don't know how to narrow it down to one favourite to be honest because I, like many of you, think of them as a collection, not as individual books. The ones relegated to the study are older books, usually lacking in photos and more collectors items than anything else, inherited from my mother (without her knowing!) or given to me as gifts long ago.

I did manage however to narrow it down to one "winner" - I took everyone's names and wrote them on pieces of paper, folded them up and put them into a mixing bowl. I plucked one out and on it I had written "Meredith Dale Hill". So, Meredith, if you contact me we'll figure out which of my favourite cookbooks you don't already have and I will get it to you as soon as possible.

Thank you all so much for this - I really appreciate the work and thought you put into your answers to my questions. Now of course I have about 30 cookbooks that I want to buy - on all of your recommendations!