The cookbook shelf of a former vegetarian. Photo: emdot, Flickr.

Whether you're a full-fledged veg or a pro-greens protein fiend, vegetarian cookbooks are the door to a world where beans, greens and grains are celebrated. These books will introduce you to a whole new pantry of ingredients. Just as a meat eater might strive to make use of the entire animal, vegetarian cooks grab inspiration from far and wide and turn every bit of edible, natural earth into a grand culinary experience.

What follows after the jump are five vegetarian cookbooks that any veggie lover must have, covering the staples of meatless cookery -- secret recipes from restaurants, classic culinary bibles, respected names and haute vegetarian food. Which do you think will reign supreme?

Cold spring rolls. Photo: YumSugar.

Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week:

Cold spring rolls might seem fancy, but they're actually a quick and easy treat.

Cat Cora's baked beans mixes chickpeas, kidney beans and pinto beans.

Coffee is good for a whole lot more than drinking -- java can perk up many a dish.

A look at Paula Deen's uncomfortable visit to "The View" and Barbara Walters' loaded health question.

Figs in a Blanket is a "killer appetizer."

Do you prefer the grocery store or farmers' market?

Food Network Iron chef Cat Cora is going to chat on Zagat.com live at 2pm today. You can submit questions here (and as of right now there aren't many questions so there's a good chance yours will be answered, so head on over).

Cora is the Iron Chef I don't know much about. The only place I've seen her is Iron Chef America, and I didn't know her background or that she was mentored by Julia Child (!), so I'll be checking in on the chat today.

Yes, I know. It's been a week since the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books took over the UCLA campus and spewed all kinds of bookishness to the masses, but I have to say that it probably took me that long to recover from the crowds, controlled chaos, and crazy heat of the event.

I wasn't there for anything but the chef demonstrations on the Cooking Stage, and to be perfectly honest, I was really only there to see LA son Govind Armstrong (Table 8 restaurant) and my favorite Queer Guy, Ted Allen. However, I have to say that I was somewhat surprised by how much I enjoyed Cat Cora. Granted, I am always a sucker for a lady chef, especially one who can hold her own in Kitchen Stadium, but I didn't think I would be so taken with how cute she is, her charming accent, and the fact that she has personality without bubbling over into an annoying mess like some Food Network stars we know.

Not to leave any possible stone unturned, it seems that the Food Network has plans to expand their reality television horizons this fall as they conduct a search for The Next Iron Chef. Though details are very limited at this point, the show will apparently be hosted by Iron Chef's own Alton Brown, and the contestants will be culinary professionals hoping to become one of the shows celebrity Iron Chefs alongside the current roster of Bobby Flay, Mario Batali, Masaharu Morimoto, and Cat Cora.

Though a number of old shows have been weeded out, The Food Network has enjoyed increased viewership over the past few years and are working on introducing even more new content to their regular line-up, including "America's Best Recipe" - where everyday cooks compete for best recipe in various categories, as well as "Food Dudes", which will follow two young "scruffy" chefs from Hollywood as they run their catering business.

It seems as though the days of one (highly trained) chef standing behind a counter preparing meals are definitely numbered.

I don't normally get my food news from men's mags, but it's not that often that they include chefs amidst the models, either.

Cat Cora is one of the Food Network's Iron Chefs, a latecomer to that show after its first season started to add a bit of gender equality. A talented chef from the South, the 39-year-old specializes in Greek and Mediterranean foods, though she's not above throwing some old fashioned soul food into the mix. She's also not above doing a little grocery shopping at the convenience store, where she picked up some ingredients for FHM's Mini Mart Iron Chef article

With only a few ingredients, she whipped up Jerky Tartar, Ham and Cheese Roulade and Napoleon Krispy Kremes. As much fun as it would be to see Krispy Kremes as the secret ingredient on Iron Chef, none of these recipes would have gotten her a win, so don't expect to be too inspired by the food in the piece and just check it out if you want to check out Cat.

[via The Food Section]

If you happen to be in the Los Angeles area this coming weekend and are looking for something to do besides the usual beach, pool, and shopping, the inaugural Los Angeles Wine and Food Festival will be taking place at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

On the food front, Iron Chef Cat Cora and celebrity chef David Lawrence will be serving up food demonstrations and their favorite cooking tips. Gourmet food vendors will also showcase a diverse sampling of their goods. For the oenophiles, there will be wine tastings from over 100 wineries, including Vinissimo, Stacked Stone Cellars, Cambria Estate Winery, Saint Helena Road Winery, Bridelwood Estate Winery & E'cluse Wines, as well as discussions on the latest wine trends like the recent popularity of Australian wines, the rise of rosé, and boxed wines and screwcap bottles versus traditional corking.

Tickets cost $65 per person, or $120 for a couple, and are available for purchase online.

NBC's Celebrity Cooking Showdown premiered last night after weeks of less-than-optimistic reviews. The show, in case you missed it, is Dancing with the Stars meets Iron Chef America. A celebrity, of whom the most famous is Tom Arnold, is paired with a real chef, either Cat Cora, Wolfgang Puck or  Govind Armstrong. The chef must attempt to train the celebrity to cook in a mini "boot camp", after which the celebrity and chef will face off Iron Chef-style against another team. Confused?

Last night's premier episode featured the following teams: Cindy Margolis and Wolfgang Puck, Tony Gonzalez and Cat Cora, Alison Sweeney and Govind Armstrong. When the show began, the celebs came out. Cindy was almost not wearing a shirt, Tony was twice as tall as Cat and Cat's hair was styled professionally, like it never is on Iron Chef America. Alison was wearing a short dress, but seemed to have more culinary prowess than the others based on her cooking-lesson clip.

{spoilers ahead}

If you are anything like me, in addition to being a fan of Iron Chef America, you've wondered what it's like to actually be inside kitchen stadium during a culinary battle. Not as one of the chefs, of course, but simply as a spectator. Unfortunately, due to the confidentiality agreement that studio audiences must sign, it seems unlikely that many first hand accounts of what the live show is like are going to come our way. Fortunately, though, the Amateur Gourmet is a risk taker (who read the confidentially agreement carefully) and decided to reveal as much as he could about the taping without facing a $1,000,000 fine.

I had heard a rumor that Kitchen Stadium was on the West Coast, but it turns out that it is filmed in New York in the same studio where Emeril Live! and 30 Minute Meals are taped. Despite the fact that Adam couldn't say who participated in the battle he saw, we can safely assume that it was an episode scheduled for next season. He also seemed to share my suspicion that the secret ingredients are not very secret to the Iron Chefs, since not one of them looked surprised to hear what it was. But even with some of the magic missing, the Amateur Gourmet couldn't praise Alton Brown's performance as commentator highly enough and really enjoyed watching the top class iron chefs cook.