What with the new season of "Top Chef" starting this week, and the recent release of "Julie & Julia," I've worked up an appetite for books about cooking. Notice I didn't say "cookbooks." That would involve me actually buying food and preparing it so it would be fit for human consumption. But like most people who love to watch other people cook, I also like reading about those culinary professionals. So, if you share my taste in reading material, you might savor these titles.

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg
Cooked: From the Streets to the Stove, From Cocaine to Foie Gras by Jeff Henderson
Garlic and Sapphires: the Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise by Ruth Reichl
I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti: A Memoir by Giulia Melucci
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain
The Man Who Ate Everything: and Other Gastronomic Feats, Disputes, and Other Pleasurable Pursuits by Jeffrey Steingarten
My Last Supper: 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals: Portraits, Interviews, and Recipes by Melanie Dunea
My Life in France by Julia Child
The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter and Tears at the World's Most Famous Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn
Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home by Kim Sunee
Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip: Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by Steve Dublanica

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