Best of
Food-Writing

2011

An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace


Tamar Adler - 2011
    F. K. Fisher’s How to Cook a Wolf— written in 1942 during wartime shortages—An Everlasting Meal shows that cooking is the path to better eating. Through the insightful essays in An Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler issues a rallying cry to home cooks. In chapters about boiling water, cooking eggs and beans, and summoning respectable meals from empty cupboards, Tamar weaves philosophy and instruction into approachable lessons on instinctive cooking. Tamar shows how to make the most of everything you buy, demonstrating what the world’s great chefs know: that great meals rely on the bones and peels and ends of meals before them. She explains how to smarten up simple food and gives advice for fixing dishes gone awry. She recommends turning to neglected onions, celery, and potatoes for inexpensive meals that taste full of fresh vegetables, and cooking meat and fish resourcefully. By wresting cooking from doctrine and doldrums, Tamar encourages readers to begin from wherever they are, with whatever they have. An Everlasting Meal is elegant testimony to the value of cooking and an empowering, indispensable tool for eaters today.

Life, on the Line: A Chef's Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat


Grant Achatz - 2011
     In 2007, chef Grant Achatz seemingly had it made. He had been named one of the best new chefs in America by Food & Wine in 2002, received the James Beard Foundation Rising Star Chef of the Year Award in 2003, and in 2005 he and Nick Kokonas opened the conceptually radical restaurant Alinea, which was named Best Restaurant in America by Gourmet magazine. Then, positioned firmly in the world's culinary spotlight, Achatz was diagnosed with stage IV squamous cell carcinoma-tongue cancer. The prognosis was grim, and doctors agreed the only course of action was to remove the cancerous tissue, which included his entire tongue. Desperate to preserve his quality of life, Grant undertook an alternative treatment of aggressive chemotherapy and radiation. But the choice came at a cost. Skin peeled from the inside of Grant's mouth and throat, he rapidly lost weight, and most alarmingly, he lost his sense of taste. Tapping into the discipline, passion, and focus of being a chef, Grant rarely missed a day of work. He trained his chefs to mimic his palate and learned how to cook with his other senses. As Kokonas was able to attest: The food was never better. Five months later, Grant was declared cancer-free, and just a few months following, he received the James Beard Foundation Outstanding Chef in America Award. Life, on the Line tells the story of a culinary trailblazer's love affair with cooking, but it is also a book about survival, about nurturing creativity, and about profound friendship. Already much- anticipated by followers of progressive cuisine, Grant and Nick's gripping narrative is filled with stories from the world's most renowned kitchens-The French Laundry, Charlie Trotter's, el Bulli- and sure to expand the audience that made Alinea the number-one selling restaurant cookbook in America last year.

Lucky Peach: Issue 1


Chris Ying - 2011
    It is a creation of David Chang, the James Beard Award–winning chef behind the Momofuku restaurants in New York, Momofuku cookbook cowriter Peter Meehan, and Zero Point Zero Productions—producers of the Travel Channel’s Emmy Award–winning Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.The result of this collaboration is a mélange of travelogue, essays, art, photography, and rants in a full-color, meticulously designed format. Recipes will defy the tired ingredients-and-numbered-steps formula. They’ll be laid out sensibly, inspired by the thought process that went into developing them.Each issue will focus on a theme (Issue One’s theme is “Ramen”), with contributions from Harold McGee, Ruth Reichl, John T. Edge, Todd Kliman and a cavalcade of other writers and artists. The reader will meander through arguments about the superiority of yellow alkaline noodles over Italian egg pasta; a taxonomy of ramen-package characters; an eating tour of Japan helmed by an over-stuffed and nauseated, but nevertheless intrepid, David Chang; and a booze-fueled rant on mediocrity in American cuisine with chefs Chang, Bourdain, and Wylie Dufresne set in the Spanish Basque country.The aim of Lucky Peach is to give a platform to a brand of food writing that began with unorthodox authors like Bourdain, resulting in a publication that appeals to diehard foodies as well as fans of good writing and art in general.

Bi-Rite Market's Eat Good Food: A Grocer's Guide to Shopping, Cooking & Creating Community Through Food


Sam Mogannam - 2011
    In Eat Good Food, former chef Sam Mogannam, owner of San Francisco’s popular Bi-Rite Market, guides you through the grocery store one department at a time, and explains how to identify incredible ingredients, decipher labels and terms, build a great pantry, and reconnect with the people and places that feed us.  Eat Good Food gives you a new way to look at food, not only the ingredients you buy but also how to prepare them. Featuring ninety recipes for the dishes that have made Bi-Rite Market’s in-house kitchen a destination for food lovers, combined with Sam’s favorite recipes, you’ll discover exactly how to get the best flavor from each ingredient. Dishes such as Summer Corn and Tomato Salad, Spicy String Beans with Sesame Seeds, Roasted Beet Salad with Pickled Onions and Feta, Ginger-Lemongrass Chicken Skewers with Spicy Peanut Dipping Sauce, Apricot-Ginger Scones, and Chocolate Pots de Crème will delight throughout the year.   No matter where you live or shop, Sam provides new insight on ingredients familiar as well unique, including:   • Why spinach from open bins is better than prepackaged greens • What the material used to wrap cheese can tell you about the quality of the cheese itself • How to tell where an olive oil is really from—and why it matters • What “never ever” programs are, and why you should look for them when buying meat   With primers on cooking techniques and anecdotes that entertain, enlighten, and inspire, Eat Good Food will revolutionize the way you shop and eat.

Lucky Peach Issue 2


David Chang - 2011
    It is a creation of David Chang, the James Beard Award–winning chef behind the Momofuku restaurants in New York, Momofuku cookbook cowriter Peter Meehan, and Zero Point Zero Production—producers of the Travel Channel’s Emmy Award–winning Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.The result of this collaboration is a mélange of travelogue, essays, art, photography, and rants in a full-color, meticulously designed format. Recipes will defy the tired ingredients-and-numbered-steps formula. They’ll be laid out sensibly, inspired by the thought process that went into developing them. The aim of Lucky Peach is to give a platform to a brand of food writing that began with unorthodox authors like Bourdain, resulting in a publication that appeals to diehard foodies as well as fans of good writing and art in general.Issue Two's theme is "The Sweet Spot," and will feature Rene Redzepi on vintage vegetables, Tajikistani apricots with Adam Gollner, a visit to Callaway Golf and Louisville Slugger, time-sensitive fermentation, banana pie with Momofuku Milk Bar chef Christina Tosi, and much, much more.

Lucky Peach Issue 3


David Chang - 2011
    We talk to cooks from Fort Bragg to Paris to the South Pole. There are recipes for barbecue-chicken pizza and pasta primavera, and Christina Tosi’s upside-down pineapple cake, just in time for Mother’s Day.Lucky Peach is a journal of food writing, published on a quarterly basis by McSweeney’s. It is a creation of David Chang, the James Beard Award–winning chef behind the Momofuku restaurants in New York, Momofuku cookbook cowriter Peter Meehan, and Zero Point Zero Production—producers of the Travel Channel’s Emmy Award–winning Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.

A History of English Food


Clarissa Dickson Wright - 2011
    She looks at the shifting influences on the national diet as new ideas and ingredients have arrived, and as immigrant communities have made their contribution to the life of the country. She evokes lost worlds of open fires and ice houses, of constant pickling and preserving, and of manchet loaves and curly-coated pigs. And she tells the stories of the chefs, cookery book writers, gourmets and gluttons who have shaped public taste, from the salad-loving Catherine or Aragon to the foodies of today. Above all, she gives a vivid sense of what it was like to sit down to the meals of previous ages, whether an eighteenth-century labourer's breakfast or a twelve-course Victorian banquet or a lunch out during the Second World War.Insightful and entertaining by turns, this is a magnificent tour of nearly a thousand years of English cuisine, peppered with surprises and seasoned with Clarissa Dickson Wright's characteristic wit.

Two Greedy Italians: Carluccio and Contaldo's Return to Italy


Antonio Carluccio - 2011
    It includes an intriguing combination of classic dishes and ingredients as well as others showcasing the changes in style and influences that have become a part of the Italy of today.Reflecting the insights of both men into Italy then and now, Carluccio and Contaldo's return captures the essence of its authors - their humour, their wisdom, their curiosity and, most significantly, their shared passion for good simple food.

My Indian Kitchen: Preparing Delicious Indian Meals without Fear or Fuss


Hari Nayak - 2011
    From a perfect Mint Chutney with Samosa to a melt-in-the-mouth Chicken Tikka Masala, to Pork Vindaloo, Tandoori Chicken and Sweet Mango Yogurt Lassi, traditional Indian meals without hours and hours of work can be achieved. Authentic Indian recipes include:Cucumber and Yogurt RaitaSpicy Paneer Cheese KebabsRed Kidney Bean CurryStreet-Style Grilled Corn on the CobFish TikkaChicken Tikka MasalaSpicy and Fragrant Lamb CurryBaked Garlic NaanCreamy Rice PuddingAnd many more…Having lived in the West for many years, Chef Hari understands the time for meal preparation is limited. To accommodate our busy lifestyle, the recipes in this book have been simplified, without sacrificing any of their authenticity. With Hari's guidance and time-saving tips, the ability to create Indian meals appealing to the individual tastes of the home cook can, finally, be achieved.

Indochine: Baguettes and Banh Mi: Finding France in Vietnam


Luke Nguyen - 2011
    Chef and author Luke Nguyen once again revisits his beloved Vietnam to delve deeper into the culinary legacy left by the French. Against a backdrop of grand colonial hotels, Luke talks to chefs, bakers, farmers and family members to explore the impact the French had on what the Vietnamese eat and cook today. More than 100 recipes showcase the fusion of French and Vietnamese ingredients and techniques, interwoven with the heart-warming and personal stories Luke uncovers on his journey.

Menus for Chez Panisse


Patricia Curtan - 2011
    For forty years, the restaurant and its founder, legendary chef Alice Waters, has had a profound influence on food, farming, cooking, and dining around the world. In the beginning, Waters saw the beauty and aesthetic of fine printing as a way to communicate at the outset of the diners' experience the care and attention given to the preparation of their dinner. Berkeley-based artist Patricia Curtan began hand printing menus for the restaurant during its early years, while employed as a cook in the Chez Panisse kitchen. Curtan's menus, works of art in their own right, capture the unique spirit of the famous restaurant with letterpress and linoleum-block prints on beautiful paper. In Menus for Chez Panisse, Curtan presents four decades of menus including dinners for special guests such as Julia Child, Hillary Clinton, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and James Beard with notes about the menus, the artwork, the occasions, and, of course, the food.

Menu Design in America: A Visual and Culinary History of Graphic Styles and Design, 1850–1985


Jim Heimann - 2011
     As restaurants proliferated, the menu became more than just a culinary listing. The design of the menu became an integral part of eating out and as such menus became a marketing tool and a favored keepsake.Menu Design is an omnibus showcasing the best examples of this graphic art. With nearly 800 examples, illustrated in vibrant color, this deluxe volume not only showcases this extraordinary collection of paper ephemera but serves as a history of restaurants and dining out in America. In addition to the menu covers, many menu interiors are featured providing a epicurean tour and insight to more than a hundred years of dining out. An introduction on the history of menu design by graphic design writer Steven Heller and extended captions by culinary historian John Mariani accompany the menus throughout the book. Various photographs of restaurants round out this compendium that will appeal to anyone who enjoys dining out and its graphic and gastronomic history.Nearly 800 stunning examples of menu design Covers more than a century of exquisite vintage design

Flavors First: An Indian Chef's Culinary Journey


Vikas Khanna - 2011
    verso.

Eat Me: Appetite for Design


Viction Workshop Ltd - 2011
    The passionate designers at the forefront of the field have poured their creativity into every aspect of food culture. Eat Me gathers an extraordinary collection of designed places, art products, brands, people, and commodities within the world of food. New trends and materials have led to unique opportunities for the designers of today - to enhance and elevate one's culinary experience by speaking to our minds as well as our stomachs. Eat Me features not only the best in food packaging but also side products like utensils, kitchenware, and menu design. Eating spaces are also included in a section of the book that gives a round-the-world tour of the latest and most innovative cafes, bars, and restaurants. The third section of the book is about the arts and showcases the latest events, exhibitions, installations, and art pieces made with or inspired by food. Explore the latest trends through numerous case studies.

Istanbul Eats: Exploring the Culinary Backstreets Since 2009


Ansel Mullins - 2011
    We’re talking about serious food for serious eaters, hold the frills.Beyond the kebab – and what you will find listed in most guidebooks – lies a wide range of unique Turkish regional cuisines and restaurants with hints of Balkan, Caucasian and Middle Eastern cooking. With Istanbul Eats as your trusty guide to Istanbul, the culinary Babel of the country, you will know what to eat and where to eat it.

A Cook's Year in a Welsh Farmhouse


Elisabeth Luard - 2011
    This book is her response to the changes she sees in her garden and the surrounding countryside throughout the seasons, with distinctive recipes at the end of each month's chapter. It is the story of a year spent planting and picking in the garden, roaming the countryside with her grandchildren and introducing them to the pleasures of rural living.Elisabeth's cooking is rooted in the culture of the Mediterranean where she once lived, as well as being inspired by traditional Welsh recipes and by her own garden. In winter she stirs up warming dishes like Spanish biscocho or Welsh winter cawl; in the spring she waits until the first mayflower comes to bloom before planting lettuces, mangetouts and broad beans in her garden. She relies on locally sourced meat for dishes like Partridges with baby onions and cinnamon in red wine, Rabbit with tagliatelle, cream and mustard or Ceps with potatoes and bacon, and rakes the countryside for ingredients like fruit for Hedgerow jelly, nettles for soup, elderflowers for cordial, cake or even fritters.With full colour photography by Clare Richardson that perfectly captures the sense of life in the Welsh countryside, this is a unique and beautiful book.

How to Cook Indian: More Than 500 Classic Recipes for the Modern Kitchen


Sanjeev Kapoor - 2011
    More than a decade later, he is a global sensation with an international media empire that is rooted in this philosophy. In How to Cook Indian, Kapoor introduces American audiences to this simple cooking approach with a definitive book that is the only Indian cookbook you will ever need. His collection covers the depth and diversity of Indian recipes, including such favorites as butter chicken, palak paneer, and samosas, along with less-familiar dishes that are sure to become new favorites, including soups and shorbas; kebabs, snacks, and starters; main dishes; pickles and chutneys; breads; and more. The ingredients are easy to find, and suggested substitutions make these simple recipes even easier.Praise for How to Cook Indian:"Those interested in expanding upon their collection of (brilliant, essential, important) books from Madhur Jaffrey, or in adding a reference work to accompany Suvir Saran's terrific Indian Home Cooking, may do well to make Kapoor's acquaintance." -The New York Times "He may not be an icon here yet, but Sanjeev Kapoor is certainly one in India, where he has been called 'the Rachael Ray of India' (but by Ray's own admission, he has a bigger audience, has published more books, and been on TV longer). Kapoor makes his U.S. debut with How to Cook Indian." --Publishers Weekly "It's time for Americans to finally learn about India's first and biggest celebrity chef, Sanjeev Kapoor. With a daily television show that has 500 million viewers in 120 countries, as well as more than 140 cookbooks and over 20 restaurants to his name-plus his own TV station in the making-Kapoor has a huge following of housewives, their mothers-in-law, and even their husbands." -Food & Wine "Cool as a grated cucumber and mellow as a mango lassi, Sanjeev Kapoor is poised to conquer those few corners of the world where he and his food are not yet well known." -Washington Post

Food Policy for Developing Countries: The Role of Government in Global, National and Local Food Systems


Per Pinstrup-Andersen - 2011
    This imbalance highlights the need not only to focus on food production but also to implement successful food policies.In this new textbook intended to be used with the three volumes of Case Studies in Food Policy for Developing Countries (also from Cornell), the 2001 World Food Prize laureate Per Pinstrup-Andersen and his colleague Derrill D. Watson II analyze international food policies and discuss how such policies can and must address the many complex challenges that lie ahead in view of continued poverty, globalization, climate change, food price volatility, natural resource degradation, demographic and dietary transitions, and increasing interests in local and organic food production.Food Policy for Developing Countries offers a social entrepreneurship approach to food policy analysis. Calling on a wide variety of disciplines including economics, nutrition, sociology, anthropology, environmental science, medicine, and geography, the authors show how all elements in the food system function together.

Appetites and Aspirations in Vietnam: Food and Drink in the Long Nineteenth Century


Erica J. Peters - 2011
    What people ate reflected not just who they were, but also who they wanted to be. Appetites and Aspirations in Vietnam starts with the spread of Vietnamese imperial control from south to north, marking the earliest efforts to create a common Vietnamese culture, as well as resistance to that cultural and culinary imperialism. Once the French conquered the country, new opportunities for culinary experimentation became possible, although such experiences were embraced more by the colonized than the colonizers. This book discusses how colonialism changed the taste of Vietnamese fish sauce and rice liquor and shows that state intervention made those products into tangible icons of a unified Vietnamese cuisine, under attack by the French. Vietnamese villagers began to see the power they could bring to bear on the state by mobilizing around such controversies in everyday life. The rising new urban classes at the turn of the twentieth century also discovered new perspectives on food and drink, delighting in unfamiliar snacks or giving elaborate multicultural banquets as a form of conspicuous consumption. New tastes prompted people to reconsider their preferences and their position in the changing modern world. For students of Vietnamese history, food here provides a lens into how people of different class and ethnic backgrounds struggled to adapt first to Vietnamese and then French imperialism. Food historians will find a provocative case study arguing that food does not simply reveal identity but can also help scholars analyze people's changing ambitions.

A Spoonful of Promises: Stories & Recipes from a Well-Tempered Table


T. Susan Chang - 2011
    A mouthwatering collection of intimate stories connecting food, family, and friends.

The Happy Table of Eugene Walter: Southern Spirits in Food and Drink


Don Goodman - 2011
    The Happy Table of Eugene Walter, which introduces a new generation of readers to Walter's culinary legacy, is a revelation to anyone interested in today's booming scene in vintage and artisanal drinks--from bourbon and juleps to champagne and punch--and a southern twist on America's culinary heritage.Assembled and edited by Walter's literary executor, Donald Goodman, and food writer Thomas Head, this charming cookbook includes more than 300 recipes featuring the use of spirits in the food and drink of the South, as well as numerous asides, lovely short essays, and countless witticisms that make for great reading as well as good cooking. A wellspring of southern eating and drinking traditions lovingly collected by Walter over the years, the volume is also a celebration of Walter himself and his incomparable appetite and talent for life and its surprising pleasures. The Happy Table showcases Walter's remarkably contemporary gustatory sensibilities and the humorous and quirky yet incisive voice for which he has long been embraced.