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Biography & Memoir
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.
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.
Week In Week Out
Simon Hopkinson
Drawn from his columns in The Independent, the 52 seasonal “ stories” features a current event, ingredient, or iconic dish. As in his earlier books (including Roast Chicken and Other Stories,$29.95), Hopkinson celebrates enduring culinary pleasure over fleeting culinary fashion. In the wake of the declaration of Roast Chicken as most useful cookbook ever, this book is more glamorous than Hopkinson’s earlier books with quality paper and glossy colour photos yet content still trumps looks. Hardcover, 255 pp, $54.95.
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.
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. $44.95.
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.
Sotheby's Cafe Cookbook
With seasonal recipes from head chef Laura Greenfield and wine selections from wine department head, Serena Sutcliffe, this book features a double celebration: the 10th anniversary of the venerable auction house’s café, and of the intersection of food and art.
In support of the latter there are essays from such contributors as food historian, Sara Paston-Williams, artist Vik Muniz, and Mrs. Beeton’s biographer, Kathryn Hughes.The recipes themselves feature a blend of the traditional and contemporary - asparagus, smoked salmon, poached egg & maltaise sauce, Eton mess with hazelnut crunch. Colour photos of food , art and objects. Hardcover, 160 pp. $56.50.
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.
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.
The Last Chinese Chef
Nicole Mones
The author of Lost in Translation blends friendship, love, and food into a voyage of self-discovery. Drawn to China in a quest to unravel a paternity claim against her late husband combined with an assignment to write about a rising culinary star, heroine Maggie McElroy immersion in a different culture brings her a new understanding of self. Hardcover, 278 pp. $32.95.
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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