In accordance with the holiday spirit and such, I am composing a list of eleven must-have books for 2007. They may not have all been published in 2007; rather, they have been essential and influential reads for me this past year. And why, with everyone else composing lists of ten for the holidays, have I chosen eleven? I am inspired by the movie This Is Spinal Tap. It is an old favorite, and I was lucky enough to have my memory refreshed as I read the following dialogue, excerpted from the movie, over at An Obsession With Food.
Nigel Tufnel: The numbers all go to eleven. Look, right across the board, eleven, eleven, eleven, and…
Marty DiBergi: Oh, I see. And most amps go up to ten?
Nigel Tufnel: Exactly.
Marty DiBergi: Does that mean it’s louder? Is it any louder?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, it’s one louder, isn’t it? It’s not ten. You see, most blokes, you know, will be playing at ten. You’re on ten here, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up, you’re on ten on your guitar. Where can you go from there? Where?
Marty DiBergi: I don’t know.
Nigel Tufnel: Nowhere. Exactly. What we do is, if we need that extra push over the cliff, you know what we do?
Marty DiBergi: Put it up to eleven.
Nigel Tufnel: Eleven. Exactly. One louder.
Marty DiBergi: Why don’t you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?
Nigel Tufnel: [pause] These go to eleven.
My List of Eleven:
1. Pierre Gagnaire: Reinventing French Cuisine
2. Peace, Love, and Barbecue
3. The Handbook of Hydrocolloids
4. The Zen of Creativity: Cultivating Your Artistic Life
5. Chocolates and Confections: Formula, Theory, and Technique for the Artisan Confectioner
6. Brother Juniper’s Bread Book
7. The French Laundry Cookbook
8. The Notebooks of Michel Bras: Desserts
9. The Cuisine of Fredy Girardet
10. White Heat
11. Ideas in Food: The Photographs—Book One
About the Author
