Allison Robicelli author of Robicelli's: A Love Story, with Cupcakes…with 50 Decidedly Grown-up Recipes with her Matt Robicelli (Viking Studio shares her three essential cookbooks.
Good Housekeeping 1980 Edition: Other kids read Sweet Valley High, I read this book. Table setting! Napkin folding! So many types of canapes!
My Sweet Mexico by Fany Gerson: This book is perfection. I remember reading the entire thing in one night – there is so much knowledge, so much detail, so much passion in every page. The best part about growing up in New York City was being exposed to every culture in the world, and using food as an introduction to each other. This book is an incredible example of the power food has to give us a greater understanding of our neighbors.
Eat This: It’ll Make You Feel Better! by Dom DeLuise: Sure, the recipes aren’t high caliber, but that’s not what made me love it. I remember reading this over and over as a child for the stories in between that told about his childhood growing up in Brooklyn – the same part that I was then growing up in. If a guy could come from a crazy Italian family, in a borough that was at the time more of a punchline than a trend-setting destination, and make it big in Hollywood of all places? Well, then maybe there was hope for me after all.
