Cookbooks

Needless to say, cookbooks get a lot of use and abuse over time, and some cooks even feed them sauce, dough and cooking oil.

We all know what a favorite cookbook looks like after a couple months of use. Compound that wear by years and you're talking about a well-fed book jammed with recipe clippings, its pages and covers coated in chips, drips and dabs of sauces, spattered with grease, splayed open for long cooking sprees.

Broken or missing spines are not uncommon. Cookbooks held together with rubber bands are not uncommon.

This copy of Escoffier's cookbook was brought back to a functioning life for a cook who could have bought a good used copy on the Internet for about a third of what it cost to have this one repaired. By having her copy repaired and reinforced, she was able to maintain her notes, unique memories and preferences in the book, and pass the cookbook down to a child.

We enjoy giving new life to old favorites.