Maker: Knopf
Original Price: $2-$5*
Worth Today:$2,000 and up*

Published in 1961, Mastering the Art of French Cooking was one of Julia Childs’ most successful cookbooks, and it was the success of Vol. 1, the original Art, that got her the TV show, The French Chef. The French Chef was one of the first cooking shows on American TV.

As you can imagine, original, first editions from 1961 of The Art of French Cooking are a piece of culinary history, and a mint condition copy could net $2,000, if not more. Published by Knopf, one historian said that Art did more to “reshape gourmet dining” than “any other event” in the past fifty years.