#46 Anne Willan From My Chateau Kitchen

#46 Anne Willan From My Chateau Kitchen

When I came up with the idea to do my A Cookbook A Day Blog, I looked over my collection and figured IF I didn't get bored, I had enough cookbooks to last maybe two years. Notice that's a big if, I can get bored. Well anyway, good old Anne here in her fancy chateau has enough cookbooks to last over 11 years, if she posted just one a day! That's over 4000 cookbooks in case you don't have an abacus handy.

Over 4000 cookbooks, even allowing for the fact she's probably MUCH older than me and she's probably been collecting a lot longer, it still leaves me in the dust. She states, "I'm ashamed to say that I possessed only a dozen cookbooks when I first started to cook". She's sure got nothing to be ashamed about now. Just think, 4000 and look at them, they're bound in Moroccan leather with gold embossed spines. They're beautiful and I'm sure none of them came from Goodwill!

One of the reasons she bought the chateau was because they needed a library to hold them all, yards and yards and yards of them. Many are "manuscript" cookbooks dating from the 1600s. Her most precious book, Opera by Bartolomeo Scappi, dates from 1570. It has "jet-black italic print and vivid woodcut illustrations of kitchen scenes, pots, knives, and serving dishes, it is a work of art in itself." I'm sure it is and I'm sure I'd be much more jealous if I could read French, Italian and Latin. Also who wants a 400 year old cookbook laying open on the kitchen counter as you crack eggs and puree soup. What a mess, a few drips and splatters just adds to the history of my books, it would be a disaster on hers.

So I'll be happy with my Wonder Bread Cookbook, see last post, and I'll keep adding books and Ikea book shelves as I run out of room. Who knows, maybe someday I'll have to turn to Hubby and say, "dear, I desperately need a library to house our 4000-plus collection, we must go chateau hunting!" I just noticed this, is it only me or does it look like she's got them on an Ikea bookshelf, I feel better already. So cookbook #46 is Anne Willan From My Chateau Kitchen.