Should breakfast be a time for innovation?

The Guardian just asked an interesting question: "Breakfast: too early for culinary innovation?" Apparently in Britain an organization is running a contest asking for the best breakfast recipe, and one of the categories is for the most innovative breakfast. Of course, this leads to the first problem - defining innovation. Apparently it's being defined in the contest as "Something a… read more

The recipe for the Zuni Cafe Roast Chicken with Bread Salad

In my recent tribute to Judy Rodgers, I mentioned that I've dreamt of her roast chicken recipe. At the time, however, I didn't link to the recipe. Since then, Erica over at Northwest Edible Life has printed her own homage to Judy along with a home-easy version of the roast chicken and bread salad. So if any of you are looking… read more

Gordon Ramsey takes on the Muppet’s Swedish Chef

It's time to take a little break for whimsy, and this Muppet short video of a cook-off between Gordon Ramsey and the Muppet's Swedish Chef is just right. We won't spoil the surprise of who wins, but we will say that in the secondary contest - who delivers a better insult, Ramsey or Miss Piggy - Miss Piggy wins hands… read more

Sorting out Mandarin oranges – tangerines, clementines, satsumas, etc.

Just noticed that the satsumas have arrived in the store, which triggers an annual question - What is the difference among Tangerines, Clementines, Mandarins, Tangelos, Mineolas, Satsumas. etc.? So, if any of you are also curious, here's a brief primer: The master category that these fruits fall into is Mandarin oranges or "Mandarins." Compared to oranges in general, Mandarins tend to be… read more

Food movies to watch during the holidays

We're being inundated with lists this holiday season - some have information that is largely recycled, but some lists are really rather good and we'll be linking to those occasionally. Case in point is this list from Epicurious, The 15 Best Food Movies to Stream for the Holidays (the links go to a description of the movies and documentaries at imdb… read more

Two great non-cookbooks of 2013

For the last week, I have been consuming a steady diet of leftover turkey and 2013 cookbooks.  The turkey is great, and so are the books (you can see my top 10 picks on CookShelf, my cookbook-rating app). But for a change of pace, I wanted to showcase two really wonderful books published this year, neither of which has even… read more

A tribute to the late Judy Rodgers

  For those who may not have heard, Judy Rodgers, who was  the chef-owner of Zuni Cafe in San Francisco, died last night of a long-standing cancer. Zuni Cafe won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant in America in 2003. In 2005, Judy Rodgers was named Outstanding Chef in America, beating out Mario Batali, Tom Colicchio, Alfred Portale and Nobu… read more

The secret to Domino’s pizza success isn’t the pizza

Every now and then we like to look at the business behind food, and this article in the Motley Fool struck us as interesting. The article discusses the surprising continued growth experienced by Domino's pizza chain. The growth is not, as you would expect, from new stores - same stores sales have increased for 79 straight quarters. And it isn't… read more

A fun way to count down to the holidays

Happy December 1 everyone! Thanks to The Guardian, we've found a fun version of an advent calendar to start the count down to Christmas. They've collected both recipes and gift suggestions from a variety of top chefs, including Heston Blumenthal, Raymond Blanc, Anissa Helou, Fergus Henderson, Tom Kerridge, Thomasina Miers, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Simon Hopkinson, Cerys Matthews, Nathan Outlaw, Fiona Beckett, Simon… read more

Which one of the 8 beef grades should you choose?

With holiday parties revving up, we thought it might be a good time to help people choose their meat carefully by looking at what beef grades really mean (at least in the U.S.). The USDA uses eight grades of beef, which are rated by tenderness, juiciness, and flavor. With the help of an article from Fooducate, here's a quick run… read more

Safely treating your pets at Thanksgiving

As a food-oriented website, we can't ignore the fact that Thanksgiving is tomorrow, at least here in the U.S. But we wanted to do something a little different, so we thought we'd focus on what foods you can, and can not, share with your pets at dinner. After all, for those of us who are blessed with animals, we want… read more

What’s on your Thanksgiving menu?

This Thanksgiving is a special one for our household - the first time we've ever really hosted (and by "hosted," I mean "invited people who don't usually see the house in its usual pigsty state").  We've got 3 serious cooks to prepare the meal for 13 or 14 guests - a good ratio - and the menu has gotten to… read more

Taking the best possible food photos

With the holidays almost here, there will be a lot of food photos. So we thought we'd compile some basic food photography tips from 3 excellent sources: First up, from Digital Photography School, are 11 Quick Food Photography Tips to Make Mouth Watering Images - here are some of the tips we especially liked: Pick the freshest ingredients Lighting is everything (natural,… read more

Cookbook giveaway – Robicelli’s: A Love Story, with Cupcakes

We're very pleased to be able to offer two free copies of Robicelli's: A Love Story with Cupcakes.  Matt and Allison Robicelli are iconic cupcake bakers (their Chicken n'Waffles flavor is legendary). They've developed a passionate following for their 250 different flavors of sophisticated cupcakes -- classically made and adult oriented - not "cutesie" or  overly sweet. The recipes in… read more

Allison Robicelli rescues cupcakes from cutesy-wootsy bakeries & ignorant critics

For those of you who may not live in the New York City area, Matt and Allison Robicelli are iconic bakers, specializing in cupcakes, whoopie pies, and other items reputedly too addictive to resist - their Chicken n'Waffles flavor is legendary. Until recently, they were exclusively wholesale bakers, with fans signing onto their website to find out which flavors were… read more

November 2013 Cookbook Roundup

Every month Susie Chang reviews new cookbook releases and notes trends in the United States. And she may also occasionally throw in a review of a "not-quite cookbook."  And for our non-U.S. members, Jane and Fiona provide similar reviews for new U.K., Australia, and New Zealand releases. __________________________________________________________________________ United States: In October, publishers pushed forth a brash brigade of talkworthy… read more

Cookbook giveaway – Lantern Cookery Classics Box Set, Volume One

  Our newest cookbook giveaway is just for our Australian and New Zealand members. We're offering the Lantern Cookery Classics Box Set, Volume One, which includes individual books containing classic recipes  by six celebrated Australian chefs:   Stephanie Alexander, Matt Moran, Gary Mehigan,  Kylie Kwong,  George Calombaris,  and Maggie Beer.       To win one of the cookbook sets, just post a comment below answering the… read more

CookApp giveaway – CookShelf

For our latest cookbook giveaway, we're not exactly offering a cookbook. Rather we're offering 20 licenses for Susie Chang's cookbook app, CookShelf (the title has now changed to Cookbook Finder). We're sure you're familiar with Susie as she writes a weekly blog for EYB, but you may not know her as a highly regarded cookbook reviewer for NPR, The Boston… read more

Me and my cookbooks – November 2013

We're hearing from a lot of you that you're enjoying meeting some of our EYB members through our Me and my Cookbooks Monthly feature. We'd love to introduce as many as we can -  If you'd like to be featured, just email us at info@eatyourbooks.com. Our featured EYB member this month is one of EYB's own - Susie Chang. Susie… read more

The mystery of the skinny turkey

The blogosphere is full of stories about the fat turkey problem - or, more accurately, the lack of fat turkeys problem. Apparently, Butterball - the company that produces the largest number of turkeys for national sale - has announced that they've had problems getting turkeys to plump up for Thanksgiving. Therefore, the number of fresh, fat (over 16 pound) turkeys… read more

Ottolenghi & Tamimi on their most essential – and fun – ingredients

It's a pretty safe bet that every one of our members has heard of Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi - their cookbook Jerusalem is, as we described it previously, the Harry Potter of the cookbook world. So we wanted to share this NPR interview with Ottolenghi & Tamimi who, at the very least, deserve kudos for earning their fame the old-fashioned… read more

Cookbook store profile: Featuring Books for Cooks

Photo of Tim White at Books for Cooks by Lucy Miller -----------------------  Last month we began to offer a new EYB feature highlighting independent cookbook stores. Now you can discover (or get reacquainted with) a store near your home - or plan a new target destination when you travel. And to make this as strong a feature as we can,… read more

Cookbook giveaway – 2-book bundle: Canal House Cooks Every Day & Pronto!

                      For our latest cookbook giveaway, we're very pleased to be able to offer 5 free bundles of two cookbooks from the Canal House folks:  Canal House Cooks Every Day & Pronto. For those of you who may not be familiar with the Canal House collection, here's a brief history:… read more

The women of Canal House cook us lunch

In 2006  two women: Christopher Hirsheimer, the founding editor of Saveur, & Melissa Hamilton, the director of Saveur's test kitchen, began a new business: Canal House. Originally plannined as a photo and design studio for cookbooks and magazines, the two women soon turned their attention to cooking, developing an innovative plan. Rather than starting a new magazine, they inaugurated a… read more

The most expensive cookbook

Jane and I were chatting the other day and the question arose: Which is the most expensive cookbook? We weren't discussing used or historical books auctioned off or resold, but currently available books for sale on Amazon or in bookstores. The discussion was inspired by the announcement of a March publication date for Ferran Adrià's new book(s) - seven volumes… read more
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