Libraries of Leaders: Celebrity Chefs & Their Appetite for Books

If you thought food whizzes Nigella Lawson and Anthony Bourdain only had a taste for food, you’re mistaken.

Celebrity chef Nigella Lawson has interesting favourites on her book list. (Photo Courtesy: Facebook/Nigella Lawson)

When you imagine a reading list detailing the following three’s favourite books, you would think a healthy dollop of epicurean influence would prevail. Think Nigella Lawson, Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern; celebrity chefs, writers, food critics, and popular television personalities. But if you were expecting a bunch of cookbooks you would be wrong.

BloombergQuint takes a look at the reading lists of these culinary geniuses.

Nigella Lawson

Celebrity chef and food writer Nigella Lawson. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Nigella Lawson)

Internationally recognised for her cooking shows Nigella Bites and Tastes, Nigella has also been a journalist and worked for publications such as The Sunday Times, British Vogue, and The New York Times. Nigella shared a few of the books that touched her life in an interview with leading Canadian women’s lifestyle magazine CHATELAINE.

1. The Code of The Woosters by PG Wodehouse

Featuring Bertie Wooster and his large brained butler with a miracle cure for hangovers, Nigella told CHATELAINE that the book has made her laugh out aloud more than any other, no matter how many times she has read it.

2. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

The iconic novel was first published in 1850, and offers insights into the vicissitudes of Victorian life, through the eyes of a young commoner boy as he achieves adulthood.

I can think of no truer account of what it is to become a person, which in some sense all novels are – or should be – about.

<b>Nigella Lawson to <i>CHATELAINE</i> magazine</b>

3. Tonio Kröger by Thomas Mann

This novella written by the German Nobel Prize winning author had, by Nigella’s own admission, made her take to her bed for days. Such was her emotional involvement with it.

Andrew Zimmern

Andrew Zimmern at the Minnesota State Fair. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Andrew Zimmern)

Host of the popular television series Bizarre Foods, in which he trots the globe in search of gastronomic adventures ranging from sago worms in Borneo to potentially poisonous puffer fish in Japan, Zimmern has also authored Andrew Zimmern’s Field Guide To Exceptionally Weird, Wild and Wonderful Foods and The Bizarre Truth By Andrew Zimmern. Are you thinking extreme library? Gemfeed.com lists some of his favourite books and I’ve picked a few from that list.

1. Winnie the Pooh created by AA Milne

Who doesn’t love a yellow anthropomorphic, cuddly, yellow, honey loving teddy, with a penchant for getting himself into a pickle? Throw in a tiger, a donkey, a young boy called Christopher Robin, plenty of friendship, beautiful illustrations, a hundred acre wood, and you have a winner. This is reportedly one of Zimmern’s favourite books.

2. The Godfather by Mario Puzo

An international best seller chronicling the life of a fictional mafia first family. Also an iconic series of films.

3. The World According to Garp by John Irving

Another bestseller, this book captures the life and time of an early feminist and her bastard son, in a comic and compassionate manner.

Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain with an Ethiopian family during the filming of his show Parts Unknown. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Anthony Bourdain)

Anthony Bourdain first shot to fame after his book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly hit stands in the year 2000. Celebrity chef, bestselling author and then Emmy winning television personality, Bourdain has also hosted two television documentary series No Reservations and Parts Unknown, where he travels the world in search of little known food and food cultures. He recently discussed some of his favourite books with online portal Business Insider. Here are some of his favourites.

1. The White Album: Essays by Joan Didion

This compilation of essays from the 1960s addresses a number of social issues that impacted America in that decade, ranging from militancy to consumerism. It has been described as a “classic American autobiography”.

I wish I could write like Joan Didion.

<b>Anthony Bourdain to <i>Business Insider </i></b>

2.The Quiet American by Graham Greene

Greene wrote this anti war novel set in the 1950s, during which he was a war correspondent for The Times and Le Figaro. The book raised a lot of controversy for its depiction of Americans in Vietnam as being ignorant and violent, but Bourdain appreciates the romance, drama and tragedy in the work.

3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson.

A cult classic, detailing a drug fuelled road trip to Las Vegas, which was adapted into a film starring Johnny Depp, is one of Bourdain’s favourites. He said that it was the one book that influenced him more than any other.

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