Provence, 1970: M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste


Luke Barr - 2013
    In the winter of that year, more or less coincidentally, the iconic culinary figures James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones found themselves together in the South of France. They cooked and ate, talked and argued, about the future of food in America, the meaning of taste, and the limits of snobbery. Without quite realizing it, they were shaping today’s tastes and culture, the way we eat now. The conversations among this group were chronicled by M.F.K. Fisher in journals and letters—some of which were later discovered by Luke Barr, her great-nephew. In Provence, 1970, he captures this seminal season, set against a stunning backdrop in cinematic scope—complete with gossip, drama, and contemporary relevance.

The $64 Tomato: How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden


William Alexander - 2006
    Not to mention the vacations that had to be planned around the harvest, the near electrocution of the tree man, the limitations of his own middle-aged body, and the pity of his wife and kids. When Alexander runs (just for fun!) a costbenefit analysis, adding up everything from the live animal trap to the Velcro tomato wraps and then amortizing it over the life of his garden, it comes as quite a shock to learn that it cost him a staggering $64 to grow each one of his beloved Brandywine tomatoes. But as any gardener will tell you, you can't put a price on the unparalleled pleasures of providing fresh food for your family.

New World Sourdough: Artisan Techniques for Creative Homemade Fermented Breads; With Recipes for Birote, Bagels, Pan de Coco, Beignets, and More


Bryan Ford - 2020
    Learn how to make a sourdough starter, basic breads, as well as other innovative baked goods from start to finish with Instagram star Bryan Ford's (@artisanbryan) inviting, nontraditional approach to home baking. With less emphasis on perfecting crumb structure or obsessive temperature monitoring, Ford focuses on the tips and techniques he's developed in his own practice, inspired by his Honduran roots and New Orleans upbringing, to ensure your success and a good return on your time and effort. Ford's recipes include step-by-step instructions and photographs of all of the mixing, shaping, and baking techniques you'll need to know, with special attention paid to developing flavor as well as your own instincts.New World Sourdough offers practical accessible techniques, and enticing, creative recipes you'll want to return to again and again, like:Pan de CocoPitaPizza doughChallah, Focaccia, and Pullman loavesStraightforward and unintimidating, New World Sourdough will get you started with your starter and then inspire you to keep experimenting and expanding your repertoire.

Hungry: Eating, Road-Tripping, and Risking It All with the Greatest Chef in the World


Jeff Gordinier - 2019
    Feeling stuck in his work and home life, writer Jeff Gordinier happened into a fateful meeting with Danish chef Ren� Redzepi, whose restaurant, Noma, has been called the best in the world. A restless perfectionist, Redzepi was at the top of his game but was looking to tear it all down, to shutter his restaurant and set out for new places, flavors, and recipes.This is the story of the subsequent four years of globe-trotting culinary adventure, with Gordinier joining Redzepi as his Sancho Panza. In the jungle of the Yucat�n peninsula, Redzepi and his comrades go off-road in search of the perfect taco. In Sydney, they forage for sea rocket and sandpaper figs in suburban parks and on surf-lashed beaches. On a boat in the Arctic Circle, a lone fisherman guides them to what may or may not be his secret cache of the world's finest sea urchins. And back in Copenhagen, the quiet canal-lined city where Redzepi started it all, he plans the resurrection of his restaurant on the unlikely site of a garbage-filled lot. Along the way, readers meet Redzepi's merry band of friends and collaborators, including acclaimed chefs such as Danny Bowien, Kylie Kwong, Rosio S�nchez, David Chang, and Enrique Olvera.

Raw Food: A Complete Guide for Every Meal of the Day


Erica Palmcrantz Aziz - 2010
    No one should have to sacrifice time, money, or flavor to enjoy the astounding health advantages of going raw. Learn how to soak and sprout vegetables and nuts to increase the nutritional value, what types of kitchen tools are best for preparing raw food, and which foods to have on-hand for use in raw recipes. Recipes include:Broccoli Saad with RaisinsIndian Cauliflower MashBeet Burgers on Romaine BunsI Can’t Believe It’s Not Salmon PatePapaya CarpaccioStuffed PeppersAnd much more!From creative salads to spicy burritos to chocolate mousse, every recipe will broaden your raw-food horizons. Complete with recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, desserts, and side dishes, Raw Food is an innovative approach to a wholesome way of eating.

Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days


James Salter - 2006
    Life Is Meals is rich with culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors' own memories of successes and catastrophes.For instance: The menu on the Titanic on the fatal night? Reflections on dining from Queen Victoria, JFK, Winnie-the-Pooh, Garrison Keillor, and many others? The seductiveness of a velvety Brie or the perfect martini? How to decide whom to invite to a dinner party?and whom not to? John Irving's family recipe for meatballs; Balzac's love of coffee? The greatest dinner ever given at the White House? Where in Paris Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter had French onion soup at 4:00 a.m.? How to cope with acts of God and man-made disasters in the kitchenSophisticated as well as practical, opinionated, and indispensable, Life Is Meals is a tribute to the glory of food and drink, and the joy of sharing them with others. "The meal is the emblem of civilization," the Salters observe. "What would one know of life as it should be lived, or nights as they should be spent, apart from meals?"

Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste


Bianca Bosker - 2017
    Until she stumbled on an alternate universe where taste reigned supreme, a world in which people could, after a single sip of wine, identify the grape it was made from, in what year, and where it was produced down to the exact location, within acres. Where she tasted wine, these people detected not only complex flavor profiles, but entire histories and geographies. Astounded by their fanatical dedication and seemingly superhuman sensory powers, Bosker abandoned her screen-centric life and set out to discover what drove their obsession, and whether she, too, could become a cork dork.Thus begins a year and a half long adventure that takes the reader inside elite tasting groups, exclusive New York City restaurants, a California winery that manipulates the flavor of its bottles with ingredients like Mega Purple, and even a neuroscientist's fMRI machine as Bosker attempts to answer the most nagging question of all: what's the big deal about wine? Funny, counter intuitive, and compulsively readable, Cork Dork illuminates not only the complex web of wine production and consumption, but how tasting better can change our brains and help us live better.

Beard on Food: The Best Recipes and Kitchen Wisdom from the Dean of American Cooking


James Beard - 2007
    The result is not just a compendium of fabulous recipes and delicious bites of writing. It's a philosophy of food-unfussy, wide-ranging, erudite, and propelled by Beard's exuberance and sense of fun. In a series of short, charming essays, with recipes printed in a contrasting color (as they were in the beloved original edition), Beard follows his many enthusiasms, demonstrating how to make everyday foods into delicious meals. Covering meats, vegetables, fish, herbs, and kitchen tools, Beard on Food is both an invaluable reference for cooks and a delightful read for armchair enthusiasts. (For more information, visit the James Beard Foundation at www.jamesbeard.org.) Praise for James Beard:"In matters of the palate James Beard is absolutely to be trusted...He is always on target."-Chicago Tribune"James Beard has done more than anybody else to popularize good food in America."-New York Times"Beard was an innovator, an experimenter, a missionary in bringing the gospel of good cooking to the home table."-Craig Claiborne"Too much of James Beard can never be enough for me."-Gael Greene

French Women for All Seasons: A Year of Secrets, Recipes, and Pleasure


Mireille Guiliano - 2006
    Mireille's answer? This buoyant book brimming with fresh advice and seasonal stories--on food "bien sur" (more than 100 delicious new recipes) but also on many other aspects of living that should bring us pleasure, such as picking a wine, dressing well, even arranging flowers. French women not only stay slim while relishing life to the fullest, they also have the longest life expectancy in the Western world. And now Mireille shows us how they attune themselves to the rhythms of the year. Together with a bounty of new dining ideas and menus, she offers us a treasury of tips on style, grooming, and entertaining, all designed to focus the mind on sensory pleasure for maximum enjoyment. Here are four seasons' worth of strategies for shopping, cooking, and exercising, as well as some pointers for looking effortlessly chic. Whether your aim is finding two scoopfuls of pleasure in one of "creme brulee" or entertaining beautifully when time is short and expectations are high, the inspiration you need is here. Taking us from her childhood in Alsace-Lorraine to her summers in Provence and her busy life in New York and Paris, this book of scrumptious Gallic wisdom and wit shows how anyone anywhere can develop a healthy, holistic lifestyle. In the voice that entranced more than a million honorary French women, Mireille demonstrates that there is indeed an art to joyful living, and that equilibrium--being "bien dans sa peau" and true to one's individual nature--is the key to a long and healthy life. Full of sage, irresistible advice on everything from decanting to detoxing, from yogurt to yoga, "French Women for All Seasons" is an essential guide to savoring all life's moments--in moderation, in season, and, above all, with pleasure.

Real Food/Fake Food: Why You Don’t Know What You’re Eating and What You Can Do About It


Larry Olmsted - 2016
    Lobster rolls containing no lobster at all. Extra-virgin olive oil that isn’t. Fake foods are in our supermarkets, our restaurants, and our kitchen cabinets. Award-winning food journalist and travel writer Larry Olmsted exposes this pervasive and dangerous fraud perpetrated on unsuspecting Americans.     Real Food/Fake Food brings readers into the unregulated food industry, revealing that this shocking deception extends from high-end foods like olive oil, wine, and Kobe beef to everyday staples such as coffee, honey, juice, and cheese. It’s a massive bait and switch where counterfeiting is rampant and where the consumer ultimately pays the price. But Olmsted does more than show us what foods to avoid. A bona fide gourmand, he travels to the sources of the real stuff, to help us recognize what to look for, eat, and savor: genuine Parmigiano-Reggiano from Italy, fresh-caught grouper from Florida, authentic port from Portugal. Real foods that are grown, raised, produced, and prepared with care by masters of their craft.   Part cautionary tale, part culinary crusade, Real Food/Fake Food is addictively readable, mouth-wateringly enjoyable, and utterly relevant. Larry Olmsted convinces us why real food matters.

It Takes a Tribe: Building the Tough Mudder Movement


Will Dean - 2017
    My gut feeling was--plenty of people. Will Dean, founder of extreme obstacle course Tough Mudder, shares the thrilling inside story of how a scrappy startup grew into a movement whose millions of members feel like co-owners. He shows how other companies can embrace the Tough Mudder playbook by nurturing tribes of passionate fans while constantly experimenting with new risks. After five years as a British counterterrorism officer and two years at Harvard Business School, Dean was determined not to follow his classmates to Wall Street or Silicon Valley. Instead, he pursued his unique vision for an extreme obstacle course--a ten- to twelve-mile gauntlet pushing participants to their limits and helping them surpass those limits together. Instead of cutthroat competition, Tough Mudder would be about continual self-improvement and collective energy.It would be about the power of a tribe.Dean and his small team launched the first Tough Mudder event in May 2010, hosting 5,000 pioneers at a deserted ski resort in Pennsylvania. Just seven years later, more than 3 million people on four continents have participated at least once, and hundreds of thousands have done so repeatedly. More than 20,000 are so committed that they sport a Tough Mudder tattoo. Mudders prove the power of fierce and unshakable loyalty to one another and the challenge itself. Proudly sport-ing orange headbands and team uniforms, they'll run through mud, climb steep walls, face elec-tric shocks, and slide down the side of a moun-tain. The tougher the experience, the greater the satisfaction.It Takes a Tribe shows you how to embody the Tough Mudder spirit and capture the same magic. As a Tough Mudder slogan says, "When was the last time you did something for the first time?"

The Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook: 200 Fast and Foolproof Recipes for Every Brand of Electric Pressure Cooker


Barbara Schieving - 2017
    The new electric pressure cookers are fast-cooking devices that make it possible to come home from work and have a home-cooked, healthy dinner on the table in 15 or 20 minutes. They are easy, safe, and packed with features that previous generations’ stovetop models did not have. They offer the shortest route from here to dinner! In The Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook, the world’s leading blogger on pressure cooking, Barbara Schieving (of the blog PressureCookingToday.com), has created over 200 new family-friendly recipes that are big on flavor, imaginative in their variety, and easy to make, featuring lots of fresh, natural, and nutritious ingredients. These recipes are written for any electric pressure cooker, whether the Instant Pot or the popular models from Cuisinart, Fagor, Power Pressure Cooker, T-fal, and other makers. The book includes: lots of tips and tricks that help you get the most from your pressure cooker, no matter what brand you own; two chapters, “Shortcut Dinners” and “30-Minute Meals,” for terrific weeknight meals on the fly, and another, “Sunday Suppers,” for special weekend gatherings; and recipes for every taste and diet, from robust meat and chicken dishes to vegetarian mains and sides, plus healthy breakfasts, tasty sandwiches and tacos, soothing soups and stews, and a big chapter full of quick and easy desserts.

Sous Vide for Everybody: The Easy, Foolproof Cooking Technique That's Sweeping the World


America's Test Kitchen - 2018
    That may sound intimidating, but the technique has trickled down from experimental fine-dining restaurant kitchens to the home kitchen precisely because it's an easy, convenient, and hands-off way to cook. Sous vide not only makes traditional cooking easier and more foolproof, it often can help to make food taste better, taking away all the guesswork and giving you back some free time. In this cookbook, you will find recipes that teach you how to cook sous vide, starting with basics like the perfect steak or soft-cooked egg. You will also find recipes that expand your knowledge and creativity in the kitchen using sous vide, from a holiday-worthy chuck roast that tastes like a prime rib at a fraction of the cost to eggs Benedict to fruit-on-the-bottom yogurt cups.

Half Baked Harvest Super Simple: More Than 125 Recipes for Instant, Overnight, Meal-Prepped, and Easy Comfort Foods: A Cookbook


Tieghan Gerard - 2019
    With Half Baked Harvest Super Simple, Tieghan Gerard has solved that problem.On her blog and in her debut cookbook, Tieghan is beloved for her freshly sourced, comfort-food-forward recipes that taste even better than they look. Half Baked Harvest Super Simple takes what fans loved most about Half Baked Harvest Cookbook and distills it into quicker, more manageable dishes, including options for one-pot meals, night-before meal prep, and even some Instant Pot(R) or slow cooker recipes. Using the most important cooking basics, you'll whip up everyday dishes like Cardamom Apple Fritters, Spinach and Artichoke Mac and Cheese, and Lobster Tacos to share with your family, or plan stress-free dinner parties with options like Slow Roasted Moroccan Salmon and Fresh Corn and Zucchini Summer Lasagna.Especially for home cooks who are pressed for time or just starting out, Half Baked Harvest Super Simple is your go-to for hassle-free meals that never sacrifice taste.

The Art of Eating in: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove


Cathy Erway - 2010
    An underpaid, twenty-something executive assistant in New York City, she was struggling to make ends meet when she decided to embark on a Walden- esque retreat from the high-priced eateries that drained her wallet. Though she was living in the nation's culinary capital, she decided to swear off all restaurant food. "The Art of Eating In" chronicles the delectable results of her twenty-four-month experiment, with thirty original recipes included. What began as a way to save money left Erway with a new appreciation for the simple pleasure of sharing a meal with friends at home, the subtleties of home-cooked flavors, and whether her ingredients were ethically grown. She also explored the anti-restaurant underground of supper clubs and cook-offs, and immersed herself in an array of alternative eating lifestyles from freeganism and dumpster-diving to picking tasty greens on a wild edible tour in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Culminating in a binge that leaves her with a foodie hangover, "The Art of Eating In" is a journey to savor. Watch a Video