Welcome to a two-part review of the year’s best cookbooks. In part one, I’ll list five new books that inspired me in the kitchen in 2007…part 2 will include five rediscoveries that you might want to add to your shelf. Chocolate & Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen by Clotilde Dusoulier A cookbook by a blogger! (with another book in press!) Inspired by a two-year stay in San Francisco, Dusoulier developed the blog......

Although I know my way around the kitchen, for years I considered bread baking a specialized talent that took patience and a certain cast to character that I did not have. This didn't bother me; in fact, I confess that I looked down a bit on my breadbaking friends, raving about yeast and living dough and all manner of crunchiness. Until this fall, when the New York Times' Mark Bittman offered a bread recipe,......