Table For 2

A Cookbook Collector Most Avid

Penelope Bingham Has More Than 2,000 Cookbooks

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CHICAGO (CBS) ― Lots of people say you can't judge a book by its cover, and in this edition of Table for 2, we're going to introduce you to a Chicago cookbook collector who agrees.

Penelope Bingham tells CBS 2's Vince Gerasole you have to read between the lines to get the real taste.

The walls of Bingham's small apartment speak volumes of her love of cooking. She even has an entire room devoted to cookbooks.

"They're all over the place," Bingham said.

Her collection began stacking up in the 1960s.

"One after another, the usual way," Bingham said. She would pick up new cookbooks simply by noticing: "Oh, that one looks interesting. It's got a recipe for bread I've never seen before."

Resting on her shelves now, and spelling out Cooking A to Z or explaining why Everyone Eats Well in Belgium, are more than 2,000 cookbooks.

Whether it's a passion or an obsession, Bingham says, is "your call."

Over the years, Bingham has organized her collection into vegetarian sections, or lumped all the Italian hardcovers together as she has learned each one is more than a Basic Cookbook, which, as it happens, is the title of a well-known 1949 volume.

"As I thought about it and looked at my own cookbooks, I realized they have a story to tell about how we've changed since the beginning, and you can tell it with cookbooks," Bingham said.

The cookbooks remind us, according to Bingham, that food was once The Way to a Man's Heart, and that suggesting what you can do with Jell-O took on a different meaning as America's culinary tastes grew more sophisticated.

"I love my cookbooks from the '50s," Bingham said. "This is the era that gave us the TV dinner."

Reviewing her favorite, Irma S. Rombauer and Mary Rombauer Becker's classic The Joy of Cooking, Bingham noted how a recipe for brownies published in the 1930s has remained constant. It is just the portion size that has changed.

"The interesting thing is in 1931, that recipe made 48 brownies, and in 1997 it made 16," Bingham said.

Bingham's volumes include reprints from the 19th century, and some rare originals.

"It's very well worn, very well worn," Bingham said. "That's what happens to cookbooks."

Among them are The Table, which lists the French-inspired menus from New York's famous Del Monico's restaurant – even though the chef was Italian – and the All-American Buckeye Cookbook, published in Ohio in 1877.

"It's the dedication I love, to the plucky housewives of 1876 who master their work instead of allowing it to master them," Bingham said.

And to the plucky master of the growing collection, we say thanks for sharing.

Incidentally, even as we were visiting with Penelope, more cookbooks arrived in the mail.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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