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Biography & Memoir
 Menus for Chez Panisse
Patricia Curtan
Drawing upon 40 years of rich history and estoric guest diners, Patricia Curtan picks her favorite menus from her tenure at Chez Panisse as menu illustrator and brings them all together in a gorgeous scrapbook-style package. Accompanying records of each menu is a little blurb detailing the story behind the menu's conception as well as it's visual design. Hardcover, 174 pp. $45.00.
 Four Kitchens
Lauren Shockey
Lauren Shockey documents her time in kitchens after her graduation from the French Culinary Institute. Her adventures take her from New York to Vietnam, France and Tel Aviv in an inspiring story that truly exemplifies the cultural differences in kitchens all over the world. Hardcover, $27.99.
 Obsession
Nigel Haworth
Similar to Relais & Chateaux's 85 Inspirational Chefs, Obsession focuses on the recent surge of young culinary talent in Europe. Chefs are profiled with their culinary philosophy as well as a selection of recipes taken from their restaurant menus. As aesthetically pleasing as it is delicious, this book makes the seamless trip between coffee table and kitchen counter. Hardcover, 392 pp. $68.95.
 Beaten, Seared & Sauced
Jonathan Dixon
A must read for anyone contemplating enrollment in culinary school. Dixon attends the two year program at the Culinary Institute of America and documents every burn, triumph and humiliating defeat that comes with the culinary education experience. Intensity starts early in the industry and those thinking of entering should find out what they're singing up for by reading this book. Hardcover, 266 pp. $27.00.
 The Sorcerer's Apprentices: A Season in the Kitchen at Ferran Adria's elBulli
Lisa Abend
Perhaps it takes a NY Times Spanish correspondent doing a stagerie at elBulli in 2009 to give us a true glimpse into kitchen life at the famed Spanish restaurant and its star chef Ferran Adria. Equally compelling for an outside observer as to those whose life is spent in professional kitchens. Hardcover, 304pp, $29.99. Read the longer review.
 Blood, Bones & Butter
Gabrielle Hamilton
Despite being the chef of Prune, one of Manhattan's most popular restaurants, Gabrielle Hamilton has found the time to author a fantastic memoir. Documenting her life from her very beginnings as a kid in a tumultous family, leading through her times as a drug-addicted waitress and eventually to her role as chef, mother and wife, Hamilton weaves a terrific account of her ascent to becoming one of the best chefs in New York. Read
a longer review. Hardcover,
300 pp. $36.00.
 Orchards in the Oasis
Josceline Dimbleby
Think of a less school marmish Delia Smith, and you can immediately visualize veteran British food writer Josceline Dimbleby. This beautifully illustrated cookbook-cum-memoir veers from Devon to Rangoon, from the Middle East to South America detailing the circumstances of her life along with whom she met and what she ate. The recipes range from kidney kebabs to the very British chicken in the orchard pie. Hardcover, $45.00.
Beaten, Seared, and Sauced
Jonathan Dixon
(on sale May 3rd)
Michael Rhulman wrote Making of a Chef about life at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) 14 years ago and much has changed, which Dixon captures in all its burns, cuts and joys. If you are thinking of going to cooking school this is an eye opener, and for those who went to CIA you may want to catch up on the changes that have happened since you were there. Hardcover, 272 pp. $29.95.
 Life on the Line
Grant Achatz
Life, On The Line tells the story of Grant Achatz, Chef of Alinea, Next and Aviary. While many are aware of his battle with tongue cancer and his struggle to keep his Michelin 3-Star restaurant running despite losing his sense of taste (he has since regained it), Life, On The Line also addresses his early years growing up and his time under Thomas Keller at The French Laundry. An extremely well-written memoir, even those not big on the food business should consider this hopeful, inspiring story.
Read a longer review. Hardcover, 320 pp. $34.50.
 As Always, Julia
Joan Reardon
What began as a chance correspondence culminated in one of the most transformative publishing events of the 20th century: the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.. The letters which flew between Julia Child and her Cambridge, Massachusetts-based champion, Avis DeVoto, trace the evolution of a masterpiece while recording the emotional rollercoaster ride that accompanied the writing of the manuscription and the struggle to get it published. Beyond that these letters shine a light on the dichotomy that was America in the 1950s when both optimism and McCarthyism reigned simultaneously. Hardcover, 416 pp. $32.95.
 Ferran
Colman Andrews
For years Ferran Adria has stood alone at the forefront of avant-garde cuisine. Idolized, imitated and immortalized as the man who revolutionized cooking itself. One of the few chefs in history that can be referred to by only his first name, Ferran has achieved nearly every honor the culinary world can bestow. Colman Andrews sits down with the storied chef and gives you the chance to glance into the mind of the man who changed cooking forever. Hardcover, 301 pp. $35.00.
 Food Heroes
Georgia Pellegrini
Behind every great restaurant is a keen hunger to find fantastic products, whether they be wild mushrooms, figs or even traditionally cured meats. Georgia Pellgrini delves into the world of the artisans who bring these forgotten arts into the light. Join a wild mushroom forager on the wet forest floor as he picks golden chanterelles and earthy morels. Feel the salt spray as a fisherman pulls a line-caught fish out of the sea. Become introduced to the people who push the boundaries of food from something mass-produced to something that must be nurtured and cared for. Hardcover, 240 pp. $29.95.
 Medium Raw
Anthony Bourdain
A decade has passed since Anthony Bourdain revealed the secret life of professional kitchens everywhere in Kitchen Confidential ($19.95). Here he zigzags back and forth in time revisiting the places and people who starred in his first book. His unflinching look at his drug-fueled younger self contrasts sharply with the happily married middle-aged father he has become. In between glances at the past, he skewers--and sometimes praises--contemporary chefs, critics, and culinary practices. Perhaps the most important pronoucement in the whole book is his advice to eaters to put down the cameras and notebooks (bloggers, that means you), to stop overthink a meal while consuming it, to submit to the chef's artistry. Hardcover, 281 pp. $28.99.
 Twain's Feast
Andrew Beahrs
Twain's longing for American dishes resulted in him creating a menu of 80 dishes in his book A Tramp Abroad. In Twain's Feast, Beahrs focuses on eight dishes and the connection to Twain's cherished moments in his life. A wonderful read. Hardcover, 324 pp. $32.50.
 The Art of Eating In
Cathy Erway
When Cathy Erway decided to stop eating out in New York restaurants, and instead write a blog about home cooking, her endeavours were treated with scepticism and some disbelief by her friends. Why would anyone want to stop eating out in the greatest restaurant city in the world? She stuck to her guns though, and for two years only cooked at home. And far from being a social pariah and lonely every night, she found herself as busy and socially active as ever. A fun and interesting read, for both home cooks and take out addicts. Hardcover, 322 pp. $30.00.
 Heston Blumenthal
Chas Newkey-Burden
The first complete biography on this perfectionist mega-chef takes you behind the scenes of Blumenthal's inspirations, culinary journey and television celebrity. If you were ever interested in the story of the man behind snail-porridge, here is your chance! Hardcover, 249 pp. $27.95.
 Lunch in Paris
Elizabeth Bard
Elizabeth Bard went to Paris for a weekend visit, had lunch with a Frenchman, and never left the city. In Lunch in Paris she writes a of falling in love in the most romantic of cities; falling for a man, the food, and Paris itself. Interspersed with her memoirs are recipes; from comfort food like chocolate souffle cake, to a market day dinner of mackerel with onions and white wine. Hardcover, 324 pp. $28.99.
 The Spice Necklace
Ann Vanderhoof
Island hopping and skipping from aromatic market to steamy kitchen, the author of An Embarassment of Mangoes, leads her readers on a sensual tour of spice in the Caribbean kitchen. Fact and fantasy, larger-than-life personalities , and tongue tingling dishes suffuse this fascinating tale. Though there is a list of the recipes, a complete index would have been most helpful. Hardcover, 459 pp. $32.95.
 Rifling Through My Drawers
Clarissa Dickson Wright
Fans of Spilling the Beans are sure to love Clarissa Dickson Wright's new memoir, full of stories and adventures, all told with her own distinctive humour and style. Best known as one of Britain's 'Two Fat Ladies', Clarissa Dickson Wright has been an important member of the British food scene for many years, and her writing always makes for an entertaining read. Hardcover, 289 pp. $29.95.
 Cleaving
Julie Powell
After Julie Powell published the hugely successful Julie and Julia (that which inspired the movie of the same name and made Julia Child an icon for a new generation) she had something of a personal crisis, as detailed in this, her second memoir. Subtitled "A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession" the book tells of her extra marital affair, the implications of this on her marriage, and her escape into butchery as a means of therapy. Hardcover, 307 pp. $29.99.
 Stirred But Not Shaken
Keith Floyd
The autobiography from the late, great Keith Floyd, the British chef who made it cool for guys to get in the kitchen long before Jamie and Gordon graced our screens. Floyd was as well known for his drinking, financial troubles, and multiple marriages as his food, but his colourful personal life should not overshadow the trememdous contribution he made to British cooking and food culture. Here he details the many adventures of his long and interesting life in food and television. Hardcover, 349 pp. $36.99.
 Risotto with Nettles
Anna Del Conte
Anna Del Conte, one of the food world's most beloved writers on Italian food and cooking, opens up about her life and cooking. Growing up in pre-war Italy her early food memories are happy ones, but as the war broke out she found herself in many dangerous situations, including imprisonment. However, Del Conte's writing is also a product of her many years spent in England as, having married an englishman, she has lived for the past 50 years. Full of stories, anecdotes and recipes, this is a great read for any food lover. Hardcover, 326 pp. $32.95.
Corked
Kathryn Borel Jr.
Following the adventures of Kathryn Borel Jr. as she journeys across the French countryside with her larger-than-life father, Corked is the story of a woman's attempt to really get to know her parent as an adult, and of the blossoming of a father-daughter relationship as they connect over her father's great passion, wine. Hardcover, 237 pp. $29.95.
The Hungry Cyclist
Tom Kevill-Davies
Fueled by the success of a cycling/eating holiday in France, English adman Tom Kevill-Davies packs up his bicycle repair kit and hops on his bike with the goal of trying all the great American dishes from New York to Quito. The resulting chronicle has the reader chortling over his encounters with strangeness, both culinary and human. Colour photos.
Paper, 368 pp, $17.95.
 The Sweet Life of Paris
David Lebovitz
The switch from restaurant career to successful food writer, and award winning blogger, has been our gain. In this latest book his writing conveys a sense of place for the city of lights with much humour interspersed. Accompanied by 50 original recipes, what better way to celebrate early summer if one cannot be in Paris, than with a book about food in Paris. Hardcover, 288 pp. $28.95.
 What We Eat When We Eat Alone
Deborah Madison
Cause for celebration for some, for sorrow for others, eating alone is, of necessity, a very personal ritual. Cookbook author Deborah Madison (The Greens Cookbook, $45.00; Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, $50.00) and her husband, artist Patrick McFarlin canvassed people from all walks of life, some, like Betty Fussel and Laura Calder, well-known, some not, to learn the answer to one of the most intimate of questions. For many, eggs or tuna play a major role, for others, joy may be in the form of lumpy cream of wheat , cake batter, or unbaked cookie dough. However one eats alone, this book affirms that while you may be alone, there are hundreds if not thousands who are just like you! Those desiring variation will find recipes at the end of each chapter. Whimsical illustrations by McFarlin. Hardcover, 272 pp. $32.95.
 The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi (1570)
The Art and Craft of a Master Cook
translated with commentary by Terence Scully
Chef to cardinals and popes, author of the weightiest cookery book of his time, Bartolomeo Scappi left behind a record of his work that gives readers, five centuries on, a view of the culinary world of the Italian Renaissance. Descriptions of dinners featuring up to 100 dishes, kitchen equipment needed for traveling, and food for the sick offer compelling snapshots of life in the late 1500s. Scully's, (professor emeritus at Wilfred Laurier Univeristy in Waterloo), commentary puts the work in context and links the past to the present. Reproductions of the engravings which accompanied Scappi's treatise, show his kitchen and the equipment required to produce those massive meals. Hardcover, 787 pp, $95.00.
  Butter Cream
Denise Roig
Denise Roig is a fiction writer with experience in corporate writing, freelance magazine and newspaper journalism. In her memoir, Butter Cream: A Year in a Montreal Pastry School, she ditches it all to study pastry. With the pastry kitchen becoming a metaphor for life, Roig reflects on her own complicated relationship with all things sweet. Softcover, 251 pp. $18.95.
 Eat, Memory: Great Writers at the Table
Edited by Amanda Hesser
A collection of essays from the New York Times. As Hesser observes "Writers know that if you want to portray a person succinctly, tellingly, you describe the way he eats." And the essays don't disappoint! Hardcover, 204pp, $27.50.
 Amarcord: Marcella Remembers
Marcella Hazan
An icon to many cooks and chefs, Marcella transformed our Italian cooking skills. This memoir takes us back to her youth and all her influences known and unknown. Hardcover, 307 pp. $30.00.
Cooking: The Quintessential Art
Hervé This and Pierre Gagnaire
Pierre Gagnaire's engaging and highly personal commentaries provide the reader with rare insight into the thinking and creative inspiration of one of the world's foremost chefs. It is an enthralling sophisticated, freewheeling diner party of a book that also makes a powerful case for openness and change in the way we think about food. Hardcover, 355 pp. $27.95.
Breakfast at the Wolseley
A.A. Gill
This small but charming book may be just the impetus you need to get out of bed and into the kitchen first thing in the morning. From its perfect creamy scrambled eggs to pains au beurre and au chocolate and a very English prune and elder flower compote, these recipes remind us of how truly superb the first meal of the day can be. The icing on the cake of this celebration of the venerable London café is A.A. Gill’s commentary particularly on that American invention, cereal. Hardcover, 128 pp, $35.00.
 M. F. K. Fisher: Among the Pots and Pans, Celebrating her Kitchens
Joan Reardon
July 3rd this year marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher. This charming book captures the culinary legend's spirit through her many kitchens. Beautiful water colours, 27 recipes and of course her kitchens recreated through Reardon's loving celebration of Fisher's life. A wonderful gift or a treat for yourself. Hardcover, 170 pp, $27.95.
 We’ve
Always Had Paris…And Provence
Patricia and Walter Wells
Like Julia Child, Patricia Wells followed her man to France and found
a whole new self. In a memoir of three decades in France, the author of The
Food Lover’s Guide to Paris, The Food Lover’s
Guide to France, Bistro Cooking ($17.95), and
her husband, a former editor at the International Herald Tribune,
share reminiscences and a few recipes -- from a life that included culinary
and journalism figures such as Julia Child, Joel Robuchon, and Katherine
Graham as well as neighbourhood bakers and cheese mongers. While chronicling
the pleasures and pitfalls of living in a foreign country, the Wells leave
us with a sense of the evolution of cuisine over the past three decades
and with a portrait of a very successful marriage. The snapshots reproduced
throughout show us another evolution style from Annie Hall to football
player-worthy shoulder pads to ladies-who-lunch suits. Hardcover, 317 pp.
$28.95.
 Secret Ingredients The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink
Edited by David Remnick
With essays from A. J. Liebling, M.F.K. Fisher, Adam Gopnik, Calvin
Trillin, Ogden Nash, Mark Singer, Nora Ephron, Julian Barnes to name
but a few, need we say more? Yes, we can, don't forget the cartoons.
Hardcover, 583 pp. $35.95.
 Table Talk
A.A. Gill
Subtitled Sweet and Sour, Salt and Bitter, this collection of columns from the Sunday Times and Tatler reveals the peripatetic restaurant/television critic at his rapier-witted best. Whether whale or Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Gill can mine any dish for the greater truth about a culture. Hardcover, 271 pp. $34.95.
 The Tenth Muse - My Life in Food
Judith Jones
Legendary editor of ground breaking cooks such as Madhur Jaffrey, Claudia Roden, Edna Lewis, Joan Nathan and Marion Cunningham. But it is her early work work as editor of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking that created publishing and gastronomical history. This is a long overdue charming memoir from Jones, who has played a major role in the American food revolution. Hardcover, 290 pp. $29.95.
 Spilling the Beans
Clarissa Dickson Wright
The living half of the revered Two Fat Ladies, Clarissa Dickson Wright’s unflinching memoir is full of paradises gained, lost, and regained. The offspring of a gifted but alcoholic surgeon and an Australian heiress, she became, at age 21, the youngest woman ever called to the Bar. After her legal career drowned in a sea of alcohol following the sudden death of her mother, Dickson Wright found solace and then fame, though not always fortune, in cooking. Paper, 328pp, $29.95.
 White
Slave: The Autobiography
Marco Pierre White
Full credit should be given to White's collaborator James Steen as this is a
very well written book. White has generated more press not only for his sublime
cooking but also his legendary temper and rock star chef mystique. Training with
luminaries such Albert Roux, Nico Ladenis, Raymond Blanc, White went on to open
Harvey's which garnered him two Michelin stars in the late eighties. For those
who enjoyed Bill Buford's Heat this Spring and made note of
Batali's love/hate relationship with White, White here is almost warm and fuzzy
when discussing Mario! Hardcover, 306 pp, $39.95.
 The Fight for Fordhall Farm
Ben & Charlotte Hollins
The Fight for Fordhall Farm is the inspiring tale of how a young brother and sister saved their Shropshire farm, in the family for seven centuries - from the threat of land developers and the multinationals. With the help of more than 8000 investors they saved their home and livelihood by setting up the not-for-profit Fordhall Community Land Initiative. Supporters include Prince Charles, Sting, and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Colour photos. HC, 336 pp, $34.95.
 The
Year of Eating Dangerously
Tom Parker Bowles
With his food writer credibility firmly established, columns, features in Tatler,
the Mail on Sunday, and a book, E is for Eating($28.95),
Tom Parker Bowles packs up his “timid tummy” to travel thousands
of miles in an Anthony Bourdain-worthy search for culinary extremes. From near
internecine wars over American barbeque to malodorous dog stew in Korea, the
royal stepson’s wry humor brightens the oddest eating experiences. Hardcover,
372 pp, $45.00.
 Gordon Ramsay's Playing with Fire
Gordon Ramsay
Following in the wake of Humble Pie (aka Roasting in Hell’s Kitchen,
$32.95), the second installment of Gordon Ramsay’s autobiography,
Gordon Ramsay’s Playing with Fire, focuses more on the business
aspects of his life from how he went from sous-chef to chef-owner to
international television star with a Bentley in the drive and two kitchens
in his house. Coloured slices of Ramsay’s life. Hardcover, 296 pp.
$34.95.
 Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant
Edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler
Subtitled Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone, this collection, sometimes poignant, often exhilarating, confirms that eating alone and being lonely do not need to equate. M.F.K, Fisher, Ann Patchett, Laurie Colwin, Marcella Hazan, Mary Cantwell, and Nora Ephron are among the stellar writers who have realized the pleasures and myriad ways of feeding oneself. Hardcover, 272 pp. $28.50.
 Alice Waters and Chez Panisse
Tom McNamee
Even authorized biographies can make headlines The shock horror here is the revelation that some of Chez Panisses's early cash infusions came via freelance pharmaceutical sales, albeit the hippy variety rather than South American cartels. The transformation from wide-eyed student arriving in France with little knowledge of food to a restaurateur who changed the way Americans view food makes for fascinating reading. Now that we have Alice's version of the life and times of Chez Panisse as well as Jeremiah Tower's rather hissier take on the matter (California Dish, $20), we probably need a third view from a neutral party for the true picture. Black and white photos. Hardcover, 380 pp, $35.00.
 My
Life in France
Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme
It was exquisitely simple sole meuniere that changed both the life of one woman
and the course of North American cuisine. In her newly published memoir, Julia
Child traces her love affair with everything French, particularly the food, from
that day in November, 1948 through the labour of love that became Mastering
the Art of French Cooking to her final visit in June, 1992. Though written
with her great nephew, Alex Prud'homme, it is Julia herself whose words make
this memoir so vivid that one can hear her glorious, rumbling trill in every
paragraph. Read a review of My
Life in France by The Cookbook Store's Jennifer Grange.
 Chef’s Story
Edited by Dorothy Hamilton and Patric Kuh
In the companion to the French Culinary Institute’s Public Television series, 27 celebrated chefs, many of whom have worked with each other, tell the story of how they came to the food industry and made it their home. In a more narrative and, at once, in a both more and less specific way, Chef’s Story reiterates for the general public what Becoming a Chef (Dornenburg and Page, $35.99) imparts to those working, or wanting to work, in the industry. The moral of both is that being a chef is a labour of love with a high price attached, both in a business and personal sense. Black and white chef photos. Hardcover, 279 pp, $34.95.
 Roasting in Hell's Kitchen
Gordon Ramsay
Titled Humble Pie in the UK, Gordon Ramsay's autobiography is
an unflinching look back at a difficult home life, the football career that almost
was, and the wildly successful cooking career that is. Yes, he employs the "s" and "f" words
almost as frequently in writing as he does in speaking. Colour and black and
white photos trace his life from the angelic-looking four year old he was to
the furrow-browed businessman he has become. Softcover, 284 pp. $17.50.
 The 100-Mile Diet
Alisa Smith & J.B. MacKinnon
Imagine going a whole year without olive oil or citrus fruit. In fact , within living memory people who lived in northern areas did do just that. After learning that most ingredients for the North American diet travel 1500 miles from earth to table, Smith and MacKinnon decided to try a year of eating locally. Becoming "celebrities of the blogosphere" in the process, they ate only what was grown within a 100 mile radius of their Vancouver home. This book reveals the pleasures, pitfalls, and environmental implications of the "100- mile diet." Hardcover, 266 pp, $32.95.
 Alice Let's Eat
Calvin Trillin
One of the great humorists of his generation, Calvin Trillin is also one of the champion connoisseurs, particularly of Kansas City barbecue. Originally published in 1978, Alice, Let’s Eat is a side-splittingly funny account of Trillin’s cross cultural culinary adventures. More than that it is a love story, a tribute to his wife, Alice, who played the voice-of-reason George Burns part to Trillin’s madcap Gracie Allen. For anyone already familiar with the book, a re-reading is especially poignant in light of Alice’s death in 2001. Softcover, 182 pp. $16.00.
 Feeding A Yen
Calvin Trillin
A familiar voice at The New Yorker for 40 years, Trillin treats us to another
journey in gastronomy, particularly dishes of local specialty across the U.S.
Tantalizing. Hardcover, 197 pp. $34.95.
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Eat Pray Love
California Dish 
The Diary of an Honest Mum
Julie & Julia 
How
I Learned to Cook
Life,
Death & Bialys
Heat 
Nasty
Bits
Climbing
the Mango Trees 
Few
Eggs and No Oranges: The Diaries 
Around
the Table 
Don’t
Try This at Home 
Tough
Cookies 
At
Grandmother's Table 
E
is for Eating An Alphabet of Greed
Women
Who Eat
Comfort Me With
Apples
Best
Thing I Ever Tasted: The Secret of Food 
Becoming a Chef 
