L.A. Times Cookbook Hotlist

1. ‘The Cake Mix Doctor” by Anne Byrn (Workman, $14.95). How to turn a box cake into something special.

Last week: 1

Weeks on list: 51

2. ‘Fast Food Nation” by Eric Schlosser (Houghton Mifflin, $25). A condemnation of the national pastime.

Last week: 3

Weeks on list: 2

3. ‘Sugar Busters!” by H. Leighton Stewart, Morrison C. Bethea, Sam S. Andrews and Luis A. Balart (Ballantine Books, $23.95). Lose weight the New Orleans way.

Last week: 2

Weeks on list: 6

4. ‘Kitchen Confidential” by Anthony Bourdain (Bloomsbury Publishing, $24.95). Life in the culinary trenches.

Last week: 4

Weeks on list: 38

5. ‘Eat More, Weigh Less” by Dean Ornish (Harper Paperback, $6.99). Low-fat cooking advice from the well-known author.

Last week: 5

Weeks on list: 6

6. ‘Intercourses” by Martha Hopkins, Randall Lockridge and Ben Fink (Terrace Publishing, $24.95). A new twist on food photography.

Last week: -

Weeks on list: 1

7. ‘Mexico One Plate at a Time” by Rick Bayless (Scribner, $35). The companion piece to the master instructor’s PBS series.

Last week: 10

Weeks on list: 17

8. ‘The New Joy of Cooking” by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker and Ethan Becker (Scribner, $35). The updated version of the cooking classic.

Last week: 9

Weeks on list: 48

9. ‘Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook” (Hungry Minds, $16.95). More than 500 recipes for the famous diet plan.

Last week: 7

Weeks on list: 2

10. ‘La Maison du Chocolat” by Robert Linxe (Rizzolir, $50). A great candy maker’s confections lovingly photographed.

Last week: -

Weeks on list: 2

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Rankings are based on a Times poll of national and independent cookbook sellers.