Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and these are the 2014 top-selling cookbooks at Powell's. Our number one bestseller: Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi. Not only does Ottolenghi have THE bestselling cookbook at Powells — he has three cookbooks in the top 10. My favorite, Jerusalem: A Cookbook, has been a bestseller since its release in 2012.
Local regional cookbooks (Portlandia, Pok Pok, Toro Bravo, The Bar Book) represented! The Portlandia Cookbook was just as humorous as I expected it to be, but surprised me by having good recipes as well. I mean, no offense to authors Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, but you guys are known for good music and for being funny, not for your delicious Wild Mushroom and Artichoke Tartines.
DIY cookbooks (Preserving by the Pint, One-Hour Cheese) also held sway in the top 10, which is unsurprising as DIY is as Portland as the aforementioned Portlandia. Additional bonus Portland points awarded to Preserving by the Pint author Marisa McClellan for being Portland-raised, and to One-Hour Cheese author Claudia Lucero for being a current Portlander.
Rounding out our top 10 is what could be the most anticipated cookbook of 2014: Thug Kitchen. Fellow employees and fans of the Thug Kitchen blog were asking me about the cookbook at least two years before it was released. It was a long wait, and Thug Kitchen: Eat Like You Give a F*ck finally arrived amidst a flurry of controversy as the previously anonymous bloggers revealed their real identities. All controversy aside, the recipes are as good as we knew they would be.
1. Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi
2. The Portlandia Cookbook by Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein
3. Pok Pok by Andy Ricker and JJ Goode
4. Thug Kitchen by Thug Kitchen
5. Preserving by the Pint by Marisa McClellan
6. Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
7. Toro Bravo by John Gorham and Liz Crain
8. The Bar Book by Jeffrey Morgenthaler and Martha Holmberg
9. Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
10. One-Hour Cheese by Claudia Lucero
Top 10 lists are great, but sometimes more is better. Here are the next 6 bestselling cookbooks for Powell's in 2014.
11. Good Food, Great Medicine by Mea Hassell and Miles Hassell
12. Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation by Michael Pollan
13. Death & Co by David Kaplan, Nick Fauchald, and Alex Day
14 Tequila Mockingbird by Tim Federle
15. Nom Nom Paleo by Michelle Tam and Henry Fong
16. The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz