Chances are you can’t take your staff to a winery or a farm, but you still want them to be familiar with where food and beverages come from and how they are processed. Chefs often have a secret passion for cookbooks, that makes them an ideal thank-you gift. Illustrated books can be useful as chunky visual aids for training, and are very inexpensive if you look for them second hand.
Where to find pre-owned Wine & Food Books
Abebooks is the best source for finding exactly what you want – they will probably come from a bookseller in rural England or Missouri, but the postage is minimal. Here are a few finds that could liven up your food and wine training sessions:
World Atlas of Wine (several editions) – useful for the maps and pictures, and descriptions of varietals. From $5.57, including postage!
1900 Ingredients: Encyclopedia of World Foods – for when you don’t have real life examples of daikon or celeriac or mastic or honeycomb. Most of these are richly illustrated. Only $7.38 including postage.
Larousse Gastronomique – the classic French cooking text, 95% of which is never out of date. Also a good gift for an apprentice (plus a voucher for your local bookshop). From $6.69 including postage.
The Culinaria series of books on the food of Italy, Spain, France, China etc – from $7.38 including postage.
There are great educational maps posters available from Wine Folly.
Use books for training, gifts, decoration for the bar or front of the restaurant – excellent value…
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