These awards honor works that have significantly altered the way we think about food and contributed to the field of culinary literature. Any IACP member may nominate a culinary-related work for the Culinary Classics Book Awards. Nominated books must have been published at least five years ago, but no earlier than 1945. Additionally, they must have both (1) significantly altered the way we think about food and (2) contributed in a meaningful way to the field of culinary literature. Books that are dedicated to any food-related subject; document or interpret a cuisine, culinary tradition, or history; or convey an important culinary sensibility or vision are eligible. No entry fee is required. Each year one to five books may win this hall-of-fame award.
QUICK LINKS
2023 Culinary Classics Award Winners
Family of the Spirit Cookbook Family of the Spirit Cookbook: Recipes and Remembrances from African-American Kitchens
John Pinderhughes
Simon & Schuster
1990
Hot Sour Salty Sweet: A Culinary Journey Through Southeast Asia
Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
Artisan
2000
Tassajara Bread Book
Edward Espe Brown
Shambhala Publications
1974
Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen
Laurie Colwin
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
1988
Boston Cooking School Cookbook
Fannie Merritt Farmer
Little, Brown & Company
1896
The Way to Cook
Julia Child
Alfred A. Knopf
1989
2021 Culinary Classics Award Winners
Cleora’s Kitchens: The Memoir of a Cook and Eight Decades of Great American Food
Cleora Butler
Council Oak Books
1986
Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons: Africa’s Gifts to New World Cooking
Jessica Harris
Simon & Schuster
1999
The Settlement Cook Book
Mrs. Simon Kander, (Lizzie Black Kander), editor
The Settlement Cook Book Co.
1901 (and thirty-nine subsequent editions)
2020 Culinary Classics Award Winners
The Supper of the Lamb
Robert Farrar Capon Doubleday
1969
Time-Life Good Cook: Foods of the World Series
Time-Life Books
1978
River Road Recipes: The Textbook of Louisiana Cuisine Baton Rouge Junior League
The Cookbook Marketplace
1959
Classic Indian Cooking Julie Sahni
William Morrow Publishers
1980
Creole Feast: Fifteen Master Chefs of New Orleans Reveal Their Secrets
Rudy Lombard and Nathaniel Burton
Random House
1978
2019 Culinary Classics Award Winners
Oxford Companion to Food
Alan Davidson
1999
The I Hate to Cook Book
Peg Bracken
1960
Honey From a Weed
Patience Gray
1986
The Breath of a Wok
Grace Young & Alan Richardson
2004
Vibration Cooking: or The Travel Notes of a Geechee Girl
Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor
1970
2018 Culinary Classics Award Winners
Bistro Cooking
Patricia Wells
Workman Publishing Company
1988
The Dooky Chase Cookbook
Leah Chase
Workman Publishing Company
1990
The Auberge of the Flowering Hearth
Roy Andries DeGroot
Bobbs-Merrill
1973
The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food
Lynne RosseDo Kasper
William Morrow Cookbooks
1992
The Key to Chinese Cooking
Irene Kuo
Knopf
1977
ADDITIONAL PAST WINNERS
- Bayless, Rick: Authentic Mexican
- Beard, James: American Cookery
- Beranbaum, Rose Levy: The Cake Bible
- Betty Crocker’s Cookbook 1950
- Child, Julia, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle: Mastering the Art of French Cooking 2 vols.
- Claiborne, Craig: The New York Times Cookbook
- Corriher, Shirley: CookWise
- Darden, Carole and Norma Jean: Spoonbread & Strawberry Wine
- David, Elizabeth: A Book of Mediterranean Food
- DeKnight, Freda: The Ebony Cookbook
- Egerton, John: Southern Food
- Field, Carol: The Italian Baker
- Fisher, M.F.K.: The Art of Eating
- Fussell, Betty: The Story of Corn
- Greene, Bert: Greene on Greens
- Grigson, Jane: Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery
- Hazan, Marcella: The Classic Italian Cook Book
- Heatter, Maida: Book of Great Cookies
- Jaffrey, Madhur: Invitation to Indian Cookery
- Kamman, Madeleine: The Making of a Cook
- Katzen, Mollie: The Moosewood Cookbook
- Kennedy, Diana: The Art of Mexican Cooking
- Lewis, Edna: Taste of Country Cooking
- Madison, Deborah: Greens Cookbook
- McGee, Harold: On Food & Cooking
- Nathan, Joan: Jewish Cooking in America
- Olney, Richard: Simple French Food
- Paddleford, Clementine: How America Eats
- Pepin, Jacques: La Technique
- Prudhomme, Paul: Paul Prudhomme’s Louisiana Kitchen
- Roden, Claudia: A Book of Middle Eastern Food
- Rombauer, Irma and Marion: Joy of Cooking 1975 ed.
- Rosso, Julie and Sheila Lukins: The Silver Palate Cookbook
- Time-Life Editors: Foods of the World Series
- Wolfert, Paula: Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco