Foods of the World was a popular series of 27 cookbook

Cookbook

A cookbook is a kitchen reference that typically contains a collection of recipes. Modern versions may also include colorful illustrations and advice on purchasing quality ingredients or making substitutions...

s published by Time-Life

Time-Life

Time–Life is a creator and direct marketer of books, music, video/DVD, and multimedia products. Its products are sold throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia through television, print, retail, the Internet, telemarketing, and direct sales....

, beginning in 1968 and extending through the early 1970s, that provided a broad survey of many of the world's major cuisine

Cuisine

Cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, often associated with a specific culture. Cuisines are often named after the geographic areas or regions that they originate from...

s. The individual volumes were written by well-known experts on the various cuisines and included significant contemporary food writers, including Craig Claiborne

Craig Claiborne

Craig Claiborne was an American restaurant critic, food writer and former food editor of the New York Times. He was the author of numerous cookbooks and an autobiography...

, Pierre Franey

Pierre Franey

Pierre Franey was a French chef, best known for his televised cooking shows and his "60 Minute Gourmet" column in The New York Times.Franey grew up in northern Burgundy, France...

, James Beard

James Beard

James Andrew Beard was an American chef and food writer. The central figure in the story of the establishment of a gourmet American food identity, Beard was an eccentric personality who brought French cooking to the American middle and upper classes in the 1950s...

, Julia Child

Julia Child

Julia Child was an American chef, author, and television personality. She is recognized for introducing French cuisine to the American public with her debut cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her subsequent television programs, the most notable of which was The French Chef, which...

, and M.F.K. Fisher, and was overseen by food writer Michael Field who died before the series was complete. The series combined recipes with food-themed travelogue

Travel journal

A travel journal, also called road journal or travelogue, is a record made by a voyager. Generally in diary form, a travel journal contains descriptions of the traveler's experiences, is normally written during the course of the journey, intended on updating friends or family on the journey...

s in an attempt to show the cultural context

Culture

Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...

 from which each recipe

Recipe

A recipe is a set of instructions that describe how to prepare or make something, especially a culinary dish.-Components:Modern culinary recipes normally consist of several components*The name of the dish...

 sprang.

Each volume came in two parts -- the main book was a large-format, photograph-heavy hardcover book, while extra recipes were presented in a spiralbound booklet with cover artwork to complement the main book. The individual volumes remain collector's items

Collecting

The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...

and are widely available on the secondhand market.

The 27 volumes (in alphabetical, not chronological order) include:

• African Cooking
• American Cooking
• American Cooking : Creole and Acadian
• American Cooking : The Eastern Heartland
• American Cooking : The Great West
• American Cooking : The Melting Pot
• American Cooking : New England
• American Cooking : The Northwest
• American Cooking : Southern Style
• Classic French Cooking
• Cooking of the British Isles
• Cooking of the Caribbean Islands
• Cooking of China
• Cooking of Germany
• Cooking of India
• Cooking of Italy
• Cooking of Japan
• Cooking of Provincial France
• Cooking of Scandinavia
• Cooking of Spain and Portugal
• Cooking of Vienna's Empire
• Latin American Cooking
• Middle Eastern Cooking
• Pacific-Southeast Asian Cooking
• Quintet of Cuisines
• Russian Cooking
• Wines and Spirits

The Supplements included:

• Menu Guide & Recipe Index
• Supplement Number One
• Supplement Number Two
• Kitchen Guide