Tom Douglas

For this month's author profile, we have a glimpse into the three favorite cookbooks of an author currently more in the news for his baked goods:  Tom Douglas, winner of the 2012 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur, and the chef/owner of thirteen of Seattle's most popular restaurants as well as the Dahlia Bakery, home to the much-loved Triple Coconut… read more

Two approaches to food writing: Memoirs and Cookbooks

We know that our members share our fondness for food writing - after all, many of us love to read cookbooks as much as cook from them. So we thought these two articles from Dianne Jacob's blog, Will Write for Food, would be fun to point out. In the first article, Dianne challenges her readers to "Go On a Quest:… read more

Holly Herrick

For this month's author profile, we have some lovely insights into the writing and cooking life of Holly Herrick, author most recently of Tart Love.  In her piece you'll find surprising answers to questions like "What's the hardest part of writing a cookbook?" and "How do you become a food writer?" as well as a charming personal anecdote about Julia Child. … read more

You can’t make me like tofu

On his blog, Michael Ruhlman has a fun article titled, "Cooking with Tofu (Are You Serious?!). In it, he describes how a cookbook by Andrea Nguyen, Asian Tofu, converted him from an eater who disliked tofu due to its lack of flavor and curdy texture, to someone who learned to appreciate tofu. As he writes after making a Spicy Tofu… read more

Jeanne Kelley

Jeanne Kelley With kitchen gardens and farmstands in full production, it's a good time to consider a green meal at any time of day.  But everyone tires, at times, of a bowlful of leaves.  Thankfully, we have salad books to turn to on those days when the whole salad enterprise seems like too much of a tax on our culinary… read more

Adrienne Kane

After my recent run-ins with pie recipes that didn't work, it was a relief and a joy to work with Adrienne Kane's United States of Pie. As I read it, I found myself wondering where Kane found so many obscure and interesting pies. So I was interested to read her piece for this week's newsletter, which chronicles her misadventures working with… read more

The family meal at “the best restaurant in the world”

We recently discovered a fascinating video made by Danish photographer and filmmaker Simon Ladefoged. He went behind the scenes to film the  staff or "family" 5:00 meal at Noma, a Michelin two-star Copenhagen restaurant that Restaurant Magazine rated "the best restaurant in the world." The meal has a simple goal - merely to fuel, energize, and satisfy an intensely knowledgable… read more

Michael Natkin

We visit with Michael Natkin, who left his job in software engineering to follow his passion for food and devote himself to an innovative vision of vegetarian cooking. He is the author of the immensely popular and award-winning vegetarian blog Herbivoracious and his new book, Herbivoracious, is out from Harvard Common Press in May. As I've been working on Herbivoracious: A Flavor… read more

Cree LeFavour

Cree LeFavour is the author of The New Steak and Poulet, she's run her own baking business and taught writing - so she knows a bit about recipes - creating them and following.   In her "Cook Book" Alice B. Toklas admitted that when she "was still a dilettante in the kitchen" cookbooks held her "attention, even the dull ones,… read more

Ron Suhanosky

Our guest cookbook author this month is Ron Suhanosky, author of Pasta Sfoglia and, most recently, The Italian Table.   Suhanosky, currently the chef at Nonna's Table on theUpper Eastside, shared his thoughts about writing cookbooks.  I was interested to learn what he considers the most difficult part of the process--scaling down to 4-6 servings per recipe!  I've often thought it's almost two completely different… read more

T. Susan Chang

We've hijacked Susie's blog and we're interviewing her.  Susie (T. Susan Chang) has been reviewing cookbooks for years for NPR and the Boston Globe - there aren't many people around who know as much about cookbooks as Susie. Now she's become an author with the release this month of her own beautiful collection of stories, A Spoonful of Promises, about food and love, with 49 recipes. … read more

Tracey Zabar

Susie interviews Tracey Zabar about cookbooks, kitchen favorites, and what makes a cookie tick.   I confess it: the cookie is my favorite dessert, any time of year, any day of the week, and (if we're being honest here) practically any time of day. I love cookies because they have a glorious variety of textures. I love them because they come… read more

Jeff Keys

It's 12:30 AM at Vintage Restaurant and my work day is finally over. The restaurant is dead quiet and sparkly clean and I'm the last one to leave. The imprint of the day is hard wired into my bones and the echoes of the wild night still hum in the walls and whether it was a good day or a bad… read more

Karen Solomon

Karen Solomon talks about her love for 'The Jewish Home Cook Book'. Karen is the author of Can It, Bottle It, Smoke It and Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It   The only thing better than cookbooks is digging through a shelf of old cookbooks, and for these I am a happily-in-denial addict. Their torn covers of dated and often hilarious cover art, featuring food both… read more

Joe Yonan

Joe Yonan is the Food Editor for The Washington Post and recent cookbook author I knew writing a cookbook would be a lot of work. After all, I had done it before -- in 2004, with Boston chef Andy Husbands. What I didn't quite realize, though, was how personal, and therefore how gratifying, my latest project would end up being.I suppose… read more

Alan Davidson

Bruce Palling - Food columnist for the Wall Street Journal Europe looks at the life of the late Alan Davidson and recalls some memorable meetings with him.  Bruce has his own blog, Gastronenophile where you can read extended versions of his WSJ articles - including his 20+ course meal at Noma and an interview with Nathan Myhrvold at The Fat Duck.  Later this month (March 24), a library… read more

Joan Nathan

Joan Nathan talks about how she unearths the stories she includes her books. The question I am most frequently asked is, "how do you find all the people with their stories for your books?"  And secondly, "how do you get the recipes?"  I answer that writing a cookbook is like going fishing.  Sometimes you find nothing.  Sometimes you reel in a… read more

J M Hirsch

J M Hirsch on Cookbooks as Inspiration. My job makes it hard not to be a little jaded about cookbooks. As food editor for The Associated Press, I get sent virtually every cookbook published, sometimes several times (when the PR people aren't all that on the ball). The result is a tidal wave of recipes clamoring to be consumed. Some are obvious… read more

Molly Stevens

Molly Stevens Why Recipes Don't Work... We caught up with the one and only Molly Stevens--author, co-author, or editor of many cookbooks, including the James Beard Award-winning All about Braising.  She's also a contributing editor at Fine Cooking and teaches cooking classes throughout the country.  She provided us with a rare insight--from a cooking teacher's perspective--on why cookbooks can only… read more

Monica Bhide

Monica Bhide looks at how family recipes change over time... This morning I was making a lentil soup for my family, almost exactly the way my grandmother, in India,  taught me decades ago. Or so I first thought. Her recipe used six tablespoons of butter,  onions, garlic, red lentils, about eight different spices, loads of cilantro and a touch of… read more

Matt and Ted Lee

Matt Lee and Ted Lee talk about their beloved grandmother... Elizabeth Maxwell, our late grandmother, had a profound influence on our cooking, though you'll have to banish any images of an aproned Southern Grandmother laboring all day at the stove, stirring her collards and hushing her puppies. Gran, as we called her, was a thoroughly modern Yankee, wearer of short… read more
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