I just finished watching a presentation by Chad Robertson (Tartine in San Francisco) and one of the things he talked about was how his first cookbook was the story of how he got to where he was at that point in his life and when it was finished, he didn't have more story to tell - so he needed to go out and learn/experience more if he wanted to continue to grow and teach. I thought that was fascinating.

It got me thinking about a lot of the cookbooks I have that are favourites. About half of them are just recipes and that's pretty groovy on its own. The other half, though, are these tomes that are about how a particular chef or writer came to learn what they're now sharing. By the time you get to the recipes themselves, they're almost a footnote in the work. I don't refer to those so much when actually looking for recipes, but I think those are my favourites to just sit down and read like any other autobiography.