The Art of Eating announces its cookbook longlist for 2019

The Art of Eating magazine first appeared in 1986 in the form of an eight-page black-and-white newsletter written by Edward Behr. After three decades in print, it has transformed into a digital, advertising-free magazine with subscribers and contributors around the world. The magazine is about the best food and wine – what they are, how they are produced, where to find them (the farms, markets, shops, restaurants). For the past several years, The Art of Eating has offered a prize for the best food book of the year, and past winners include Bangkok by Leela Punyaratabandhu and The Aleppo Cookbook by Marlene Matar. The magazine has just announced its longlist of nominees for the 2019 award. 

Judges for this competition include an impressive list of food writers and chefs including Julia Bainbridge, Helen Rosner, and Frank Stitt amongst other culinary luminaries. Eight of the twelve eclectic selections are cookbooks, and the others deal with food culture, history, or the politics of food. EYB Members will be familiar with the cookbooks as many of them featured in our year-end “best of” lists. Nominees for the longlist include Member favorites Feast: Food of the Islamic World by Anissa Helou, The Noma Guide to Fermentation: Foundations of Flavor by René Redzepi and David Zilber (Artisan Books), and How to Eat a Peach: Menus, Stories and Places by Diana Henry.   

Much like the Golden Globes and SAG Awards provide insight into the Oscars, this longlist gives us a glimpse of what we might see in the nominees for the JBF and IACP Cookbook Awards. I expect The Noma Guide to Fermentation will pop up on many different award lists, for example. 

The winner of this award takes home more than just a trophy: The Art of Eating Prize winner will take home $10,000. The shortlist of candidates will be announced on February 12 and the winner will be unveiled on February 26 on The Art of Eating website. Good luck to all of the nominees, and let cookbook award season commence!