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John Lanchester's THE DEBT TO PLEASURE - part cookbook, part novel, part eccentric philosophical treatise, reminiscent of perhaps the greatest of all books on food, Jean-Anthelme Brillat Savarin's The Physiology of Taste. (Thanks Amazon)

As I posted above, my top books are Reichl's Garlic and Sapphires, Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, and Ruhlman's The Making of a Chef.

I forgot to explain why.....

I like Garlic and Sapphires because it is every food-junkies fantasy to be a restaurant reviewer. What could possibly be better? Reichl provides great insight and access into a world most of us only dream of.

I like Kitchen Confidential because of Bourdain's unique "voice." He uncovers the behind-the-scene stuff as well as his personal demons. It is one of the first non-cookbook food books I read.

Ruhlman paints a nice picture of what it is like to attend the CIA. I found the book very engaging and would read it for hours at a time.

I've read Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking and More Home Cooking approximately 154,453 times apiece. Some of the recipes are pretty good, but it's the wit, depth, and immediacy of her writing that get me every time. I've enjoyed most of the books mentioned here, especially Tender at the Bone and Mr. Latte. Colette Rossant's three memoirs of growing up in Paris and Egypt were quite engaging.

"Serious Pig" by John Thorne and Matt Lewis Thorne. It has much intelligent, literary writing and recipes and if for no other reason is worth having for the essay on the (possible) history of chili.

I don't see them mentioned (but at this late hour and with this much pasta rolling in my belly I might have missed them) but homespun, church-lady cookbooks are fantastic.

Sure, there's always lots of casseroles and 'quick'-mix foods, but if you delve deep enough you're almost guaranteed to run up on a gem or two - the one thing that someone's Aunt or Grandmother used to cook and could become your next big dish!

I have a collection of these cookbooks - some are strictly recipe based and some are more narrative - and I find them at garage sales, flea markets, relatives.

"Green Eggs and Ham" by Dr. Seuss

Babette's Feast is my choice. If you don't have time to read the book, watch the movie, it is terrific in a European way. Babette's Feast was written by Isak Dinesen the pen name of Karen Blixen who also wrote Out of Africa.

I'm still making my way through a lot of the classics, so to pick a favorite would be silly... But I have to say I think about the French Laundry meal/chapter in Bourdain's "A Cook Tour" more than anything else I've ever read. The reverence he had for that meal made me more excited to go eat at a particular place than anything else I've ever read.

I'd have to say "Julie & Julia". Not that it's the best book I've ever read but it made me realize that even I can make some really great food in my itty bitty apartment, with no training. It gave me some courage to try out some recipes and techniqes I would never have tried otherwise.

Well, I'm another huge fan of MFK Fisher. For me the one single book that started my love affair with food was Fisher's 1970 "Among Friends." This story of Fisher growing up in a Quaker community as a non-Quaker coupled with the amazing descriptions of her experiences eating with her family is just the perfect book.

Reading "Beach Music" by Pat Conroy always makes me hungry. There is so much good food in that book. But, it's not a food book. I loved "Kitchen Confidential" & "Julie & Julia." I will have to read all Ruth Reichl's books soon. They have been on my list forever. I am sure you want to know my favorite wine book: "The Accidental Connoisseur" by Lawrence Osborne.

"Like Water For Chocolate" by Laura Esquivel
If you have not read this novel, you must, it's stunning.

My not-to-be-surpassed-in-any-way favorite book for many years was MFK Fisher's "The Art of Eating". I've read or scanned all of the books above, and though each one is a marvel of its own sort, none could match how I felt about this collection of MFKF's.

I'm not sure whether it had to do with reading her bio, or whether it had to do with just changing, myself, somehow - but on my last (recent) reading of "The Art of Eating" I could not find the same feelings I'd had previously.

It was like falling out of love.

Really, a terrible thing.

And as I look at my shelves of books and think and think, I still can't find a "favorite book of all time" that would come close to the feeling I had about this book.

So, the opening for "favorite food book of all time", for me, is open and seeking applicants. :)

Hard to top MFKF, though. Really really difficult, to my mind. Magic resided there.