The Fat Duck flies south

Restaurants open, close, and change locations every day. Usually it's only noteworthy to the people in the local area. However, when the restaurant in question is Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck, and when the move is not across town but across the globe, people pay attention. As reported in The Guardian, the restaurant, including its staff, will travel to Melbourne this December… read more

Amazing amari

Until fairly recently, only dedicated cocktail enthusiasts, or perhaps those who had traveled to Italy, knew much about amari, bittersweet herbal liqueurs often served as an aperitif. If you did know an amaro, it was probably the popular Campari, one of the keys to the Negroni cocktail. But lately, amari of all types have exploded onto the cocktail scene. And,… read more

When it looks too good to eat

Crack open any cookbook or visit any major cooking blog (and even many minor ones) and you will see page after page of gorgeous food photos. The pictures make you hungry at a glance: each arugula leaf is expertly arranged, each seed in a berry is exquisitely highlighted, and vegetables shimmer ethereally. But, like photos of supermodels, some food photos… read more

Featured Cookbooks & Recipes

We hope you're enjoying these weekly round-ups and finding some great new recipe ideas from our featured cookbooks, magazines, and blogs.  We want everyone to enjoy these recipes, so we will only ever include ones that have online links. Over 18,000 online recipes in the EYB library are from cookbooks (that's equivalent to 92 cookbooks!) You can add the ones you want to try to your personal… read more

Hummus is on a mission

Surprising news from a recent survey: a quarter of Americans have never heard of hummus, let alone eaten it. (We are left to assume that everyone else in the world knows about it.) But one company is on a mission to change that metric. Sabra, which corners 60% of the hummus market share in the U.S., recently launched an effort to get people to try… read more

Extreme Makeover: fruit edition

The kiwifruit is an iconic symbol of New Zealand as well as an important export for the country. But some people think the exotic fruit is held back from greater success by its furry brown wrapping. The most popular fruits in the world are very convenient to transport and consume: think bananas, apples, and grapes. So scientists in New Zealand, sponsored by taxpayer… read more

Cookbook Giveaway – Eggs on Top

The latest cookbook from Andrea Slonecker tackles a subject both humble and honored. Eggs on Top explores the variety of ways that eggs can elevate a dish. We're delighted to offer five copies of the book. Andrea talked with us about her cookbook, egg trends, and plans for two more cookbooks. To win a copy, just answer the following question: what… read more

Andrea Slonecker eggs us on with her latest cookbook

Eggs have experienced a resurgence recently, with the latest science promoting egg consumption as part of a healthy diet and a growing trend for urban dwellers to raise chickens. Andrea Slonecker's new cookbook, Eggs on Top, explores the countless ways that eggs can elevate a dish. We asked Andrea to discuss the book, egg trends, and her favorite way to make an egg.    You can… read more

March 2014 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. USA You know it's spring when the first grill books start turning up… read more

Gear Books

Whether your own microclimate has bought into it or not, spring is here, which means that in theory publishers will be taking their annual 8-week hiatus from publishing slow-cooker cookbooks so they can concentrate on grill books. I always wonder at the everlasting popularity of slow-cooker books.  I mean, slow cookers are so forgiving - you could be off by… read more

Don’t keep it bottled up

Russ Parsons of The L.A. Times recently reminded us of the importance of purging the spice drawer. His story is probably similar to that of many other cooks: you buy a spice to make a particular recipe, the bottle languishes in your cupboard for several months or even years until you pull it out to make another dish, only to… read more

Michele Scicolone wants you to eat your vegetables

Michele Scicolone is no stranger to Italian food. She's written prolifically on the subject, publishing several cookbooks that range from appetizers (The Antipasto Table) to desserts (La Dolce Vita) and everything in between. Her latest effort is The Italian Vegetable Cookbook: 200 Favorite Recipes for Antipasti, Soups, Pasta, Main Dishes and Desserts. You can win a copy of the book… read more

Cookbook giveaway – The Italian Vegetable Cookbook

Michele Scicolone has authored several cookbooks, most focusing on the foods of Italy and ranging from antipasti to desserts. The prolific author's latest effort is The Italian Vegetable Cookbook: 200 Favorite Recipes for Antipasti, Soups, Pasta, Main Dishes, and Desserts. We're delighted to offer five copies of the book. You can read about Michele's love of vegetables and how they inspired… read more

Cookbook store profile: Featuring Kitchen Arts & Letters

Recently we began to offer an 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, we're asking our members to help us. We already know of many great stores,… read more

Chocolate for breakfast

Eating chocolate for breakfast is both decadent and delicious. Better yet: it may even be good for you. Fine Cooking just tweeted the delicious chocolate-hazelnut waffles with a Frangelico-brown butter syrup pictured above. But that is far from the only breakfast food you can find that prominently features chocolate. Kevin Lynch of Closet Cooking adds beer to the equation with… read more

Featured Cookbooks & Recipes

We hope you're enjoying these weekly round-ups and finding some great new recipe ideas from our featured cookbooks, magazines, and blogs.  We want everyone to enjoy these recipes, so we will only ever include ones that have online links. Did you know over 18,000 cookbook recipes (equivalent to 92 cookbooks!) in the EYB library are also available online? These days most publishers give permission for sample recipes from their… read more

James Beard Foundation announces book award nominees

Awards season is now in full swing, as the James Beard Foundation Book Award nominees were announced on March 18 (you can view the complete 2014 list here.) If you compare the James Beard nominees to the IACP nominees, there is not a lot of overlap. Overall, the James Beard Foundation list is more traditional than the IACP list -… read more

Down the rabbit hole

When you first learn to cook, it's exciting to learn how to make from scratch things that you used to buy ready-made. It begins with simple items like chicken stock and hummus, and quickly progresses to pie crusts, cakes, and bread. You branch out to dairy, starting with yogurt and crème fraiche and graduating to cheese. Channeling your forebears, you learn… read more

What’s the Number One thing you look for in a cookbook?

Those of us who collect cookbooks are seekers.  We must be, because not one of us could argue that we need another cookbook -so we must be looking for something when we acquire another. When I think about the cookbooks I've been happiest to add to my collection, I see that they've appealed to me in many different ways.  Some, like Japanese… read more

Cookbook giveaway – A Lighter Way to Bake

A Lighter Way to Bake is the fourth cookbook from model turned baker Lorraine Pascale. We're delighted to offer three copies of the book. Lorraine sat down with us to discuss her latest cookbook as well as the renewed interest in baking. To win a copy, just answer the following question: what is your favorite lighter or healthier dessert? Additional… read more

Lighten up your baking

Lorraine Pascale's fourth cookbook, A Lighter Way to Bake, hits U.S. stores today (it was published in the UK last October). Eat Your Books sat down with Lorraine to discuss both her new book and baking's resurgence in popularity. To win one of three copies of this book, enter our contest.   EYB: Your new book A Lighter Way to Bake shows bakers how to… read more

Clarissa Dickson Wright dies at 66

Clarissa Dickson Wright was someone who enjoyed life to the fullest.  Her career spanned being a barrister at Grey's Inn, to working in two cookbook stores, to cooking in a club and most famously, travelling around the UK in a motorcycle and sidecar with Jennifer Paterson, as The Two Fat Ladies. The Two Fat Ladies were unlikely TV stars -… read more

If you can’t beat ’em, drink ’em?

Depending on your point of view, dandelions are either tasty and beautiful rugged perennials or noxious weeds to be eliminated from your landscape. Either way, they have been used as food and medicine across the globe for centuries. The jagged shape of the plant's leaves gave rise to the French name dent de lion (lion's tooth), which was Anglicized to dandelion. Dandelions… read more

IACP announces cookbook award winners

The IACP, at its annual conference held this year in Chicago, announced the winners of its 2014 cookbook awards. Stone Edge Farm Cookbook, a self-published cookbook from the vineyard/farm of the same name, took top honors as Book of the Year and also won the Julia Child Award for first cookbook. While The A.O.C. Cookbook may have been defeated in… read more

New science on the “five second rule”

Everybody does it. Well, at least 87 percent of people admit to doing it: eating food that has been dropped onto the floor. That is one of the findings in a new study on the transmission of bacteria to food conducted by students at Aston University in Birmingham, U.K. The study offers a bit of support to the longstanding "five… read more
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