How can something she has eaten readily in China seem grotesque in England? The question lingers over this "autobiographical food-and-travel classic" (Publishers Weekly).

    This time, Alton Brown and his motorcycle-mounted crew are off on a thousand-mile, south-to-north journey that follows America’s first “superhighway”—the Mississippi. Starting at the great river’s delta on the Gulf of Mexico and ending up near its headwaters in Minnesota, Alton and buddies travel the heartland’s byways to scout out the very best of roadside food—and to get to know the people who spend their lives preparing and serving it.A companion to the six-part Food Network series airing in fall 2007, Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run is a travel diary, photo journal, and, of course, cookbook. Alton’s itinerary includes big-city eateries and small-town chat ’n’ chews, as well as markets, inns, ice cream parlors, museums, barbecue joints—and even an alligator farm.Louisiana-style Grilled Alligator Tail (served simply, with lemon and butter) is one of the book’s forty original road-food recipes. Others include Pecan-Coconut Pie from an Arkansan roadside restaurant; BBQ Pork Ribs in Mississippi that Brown eats over pancakes; Vegetable Borscht from St. Paul’s Russian Tea House; and Fried Catfish from a riverside burg in Illinois. When it comes to America’s foodways and folkways, there’s no better tour guide than Alton Brown.

    In this beautiful book, we hear the full story of the meteoric rise of Heston Blumenthal and The Fat Duck, birthplace of snail porridge and bacon-and-egg ice cream, and encounter the passion, perfection and weird science behind the man and the restaurant.

    Here, in 56 delicious recipes, 200 gorgeous photos, and Goldman's erudite, charming prose, is the cream of the crop.From glorious heirloom beefsteaks - that delicious tomato you had as a kid but can't seem to find anymore - to exotica like the ground tomato (a tiny green fruit that tastes like pineapple and grows in a tomatillo-like husk), Homegrown Tomatoes is filled with gorgeous shots of tomatoes so luscious they verge on the erotic.Along with the recipes and photos are profiles of the tomatoes, filled with surprisingly fascinating facts on their history and provenance, and a master gardener's guide to growing your own. More than just a loving look at one of the world's great edibles, this is a philosophy of eating and conservation between covers - an irresistible book for anyone who loves to cook or to garden.

    How does a 4-star restaurant stay on top for more than two decades? In On the Line, chef Eric Ripert takes readers behind the scenes at Le Bernardin, one of just three New York City restaurants to earn three Michelin stars. Any fan of gourmet dining who ever stole a peek behind a restaurant kitchen's swinging doors will love this unique insider's account, with its interviews, inventory checklists, and fly-on-the-wall dialogue that bring the business of haute cuisine to life. From the sudden death of Le Bernardin's founding chef, Gilbert Le Coze, to Ripert's stressful but triumphant takeover of the kitchen at age 29, the story has plenty of drama. But as Chef Ripert and writer Christine Muhlke reveal, every day is an adventure in a perfectionistic restaurant kitchen. Foodies will love reading about the inner workings of a top restaurant, from how a kitchen is organized to the real cost of the food and the fierce discipline and organization it takes to achieve culinary perfection on the plate almost 150,000 times a year. Meanwhile, Le Bernardin's modern French cuisine, with its emphasis on seafood, comes to life in sophisticated recipes, including Striped Bass with Sweet Corn Puree, Grilled Shishito Peppers, Shaved Smoked Bonito, and Mole Sauce, and Pan-Roasted Cod with Chorizo, Snow Peas, Piquillo Peppers, and Soy-Lime Butter Sauce.

    For Wisconsin native Sara Roahen, a Sazerac is also a fine accompaniment to raw oysters, a looking glass into the cocktail culture of her own family and one more way to gain a foothold in her beloved adopted city. Roahen's stories of personal discovery introduce readers to New Orleans' well-known signatures: gumbo, po-boys, red beans and rice, and its lesser-known gems: the pho of its Vietnamese immigrants, the braciolone of its Sicilians, and the ya-ka-mein of its street culture. By eating and cooking her way through a place as unique and unexpected as its infamous turducken, Roahen finds a home. And then Katrina. With humor, poignancy, and hope, she conjures up a city that reveled in its food traditions before the storm – and in many ways has been saved by them since.

    Firstly, she's reformulated over 140 of the best recipes found in the Kosher by Design series. Secondly, in consultation with kosher catering celebrity Moshe David, she introduces over 20 exquisite new custom Passover recipes. The book also features creative entertaining and decorating ideas to make Passover picture perfect.

    Beginning with the origins of cuisine combinations, such as Mt. Olympus bagels and Puerto Rican lasagna, the book describes the nature of food and drink before the arrival of Europeans in 1624 and offers a history of early farming practices. Essays trace the function of place and memory in Asian cuisine, the rise of Jewish food icons, the evolution of food enterprises in Harlem, the relationship between restaurant dining and identity, and the role of peddlers and markets in guiding the ingredients of our meals. They share spice-scented recollections of Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, and colorful vignettes of the avant-garde chefs, entrepreneurs, and patrons who continue to influence the way New Yorkers eat.Touching on everything from religion, nutrition, and agriculture to economics, politics, and psychology, Gastropolis tells a story of immigration, amalgamation, and assimilation. This rich interplay between tradition and change, individual and society, and identity and community could happen only in New York.

    All recipes have fascinating introductions which place them in their regional and cultural settings and are easy to follow.

    The elegant Manoir de Raynaudes haunts every recipe and every word on the pages. This is quite simply a joy of a book." --THE BOOKSELLER What happens when you make the choice to live out your dream...? When Orlando Murrin made the momentous decision to leave his life in London and open a boutique guest-house with his partner in a little-known part of rural southwest France, he had some idea of how much he was taking on, but very little idea what a huge success it would turn out to be.Le Manoir de Raynaudes, a modest but dignified old manor house amid a landscape of gorges and fortified villages, has been painstakingly transformed into a gastronomic destination. And in transforming himself from keen amateur cook to passionate professional, Orlando has created a table that is widely considered one of the finest in the Midi-Pyrenées.A Table in the Tarn is a remarkable and intimate cookbook which describes in detail how to make more than 80 of the Manoir's acclaimed dishes. The origin of every recipe is given, along with the secrets that make the dish special and the learned-the-hard-way tips for achieving perfect results. The book also tells the fascinating story of the challenge of finding and renovating the Manoir, the creation of magnificent vegetable, fruit and herb gardens to supply the kitchen with produce, and the extraordinary people, from the neighboring hamlet and from further afield, who play their part.Food writer and journalist Orlando Murrin (left) was editor of BBC Good Food magazine for six years, launch editor of BBC Olive and author of three previous cookbooks, including No Cook Cookbook, which was a bestseller in the UK, before he moved to southwest France. There he renovated Le Manoir de Raynaudes with partner Peter Stegall (right) and opened it as a gastronomic maison d'hôtes in 2004. The Manoir is now a top destination for food-lovers from all over the world.

    Editors Dale Volberg Reed and John Shelton Reed have combed magazines, newspapers, books, and journals to bring us a "best of" gathering that is certain to satisfy everyone from omnivorous chowhounds to the most discerning student of regional foodways.After an opening celebration of the joys of spring in her natal Virginia by the redoubtable Edna Lewis, the Reeds organize their collection under eight sections exploring Louisiana and the Gulf Coast before and after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the food and farming of the Carolina Lowcountry, "Sweet Things," southern snacks and fast foods, "Downhome Food," "Downhome Places," and a comparison of southern foods with those of other cultures.In his "This Isn't the Last Dance," Rick Bragg recounts his experience, many years ago, of a New Orleans jazz funeral and finds hope therein that the unique spirit of New Orleanians will allow them to survive: "I have seen these people dance, laughing, to the edge of a grave. I believe that, now, they will dance back from it." "My passport may be stamped Yankee," writes Jessica B. Harris in her "Living North/Eating South," "but there's no denying that my stomach and culinary soul and those of many others like me are pure Dixie." In her "Tough Enough: The Muscadine Grape," Simone Wilson explains that the lowly southern fruit has double the heart-healthy resveratrol of French grapes, thus offering the hope of a "southern paradox." The title of Candice Dyer's brief history says it all: "Scattered, Smothered, Covered, and Chunked: Fifty Years of the Waffle House." In a photo essay, documentarian Amy Evans shows us the world of oystering along northwest Florida's Apalachicola Bay, and for the first time in the series, recipes are given-for a roux, braised collard greens, doberge cake, and other dishes.Published in association with the Southern Foodways Alliance at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. A Friends Fund Publication.

    A bold, beautiful and unique book for Christmas by the author of the Guild of Food Writers' Cookery Book of the Year 2008

    This collection of poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and art invites you to sit at the collective table that we share as a human community.