Worldwide Best Cookbooks January – June 2019

I've written some combination of the following words at various times over the last four years: cookbooks just keep getting better. Cookbook lovers are demanding more including photographs that inspire, recipes that tempt us, unique flavor combinations and an escape from our everyday lives all wrapped up between two covers. To make December's work easier, I've divided my best/favorites list… read more

Food news antipasto

This week's sampling of interesting or offbeat food news begins with a tribute to the late Anthony Bourdain. Earlier this week, the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, Bourdain's alma mater, announced that it would be offering a scholarship in his name. It will be awarded to one or two students per year, and will help to pay for… read more

June 2019 Eat Your Books Cookbook Club Summary

We have an incredible community here at Eat Your Books that has flowed into our Eat Your Books Cookbook Club and Sweet Eat Your Books Cookbook Club, places where we share our successes and fails in cooking and baking from specific cookbook titles. This month we've been cooking from the following titles: Main selection: Around my French Table or Red… read more

Spice support: hyssop

A few days ago we reported on the trend of chefs to bring back forgotten herbs, often as part of a local and seasonal cooking focus. One of the old-fashioned herbs discussed in the article was hyssop, a perennial plant native to the Mediterranean. In today's edition of Spice Support we'll take a closer look at the uses of this… read more

Love and Lemons Every Day – Giveaway

Title:  Love and Lemons Every Day: More Than 100 Bright, Plant-Forward Recipes for Every Meal Author:   Jeanine Donofrio About the author: Jeanine worked as a graphic designer for ten years before finding her true calling in food and food photography. Besides her popular blog, Love and Lemons, she has contributed to many media outlets, her debut cookbook, The Love and Lemons Cookbook was… read more

Did the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list change its method to appease chefs’ egos?

Next week the listing of the World's 50 Best Restaurants will be announced (restaurants ranked 51-120 were announced a few days ago). Early this year we reported on changes to the selection process of the World's 50 Best rankings of restaurants. The new method was ostensibly a response to criticism that the rankings heavily favored European or European-inspired establishments that… read more

This week at Eat Your Books!

Eat Your Books (EYB) is a website for people who love cookbooks and want to make better use of the great recipes from those books. With EYB, a member can create their own personal Bookshelf and quickly find recipes from their cookbooks, food magazines, food blogs, personal recipe clippings, and favorite online recipes. New cookbooks (as well as older titles) are… read more

Not too hot, not too cold

Everyone who cooks food for a crowd - either at a dinner party or for a holiday meal - understands the struggle of timing things so that all of the hot foods are served hot and cold items don't get warm while waiting for the other items to cook. Having foods that can be served at room temperature helps solve… read more

Lesser known herbs are having their day in the sun

Make room in your herb collection for some new names to go alongside perennial favorites like oregano, basil, and parsley. Chefs are embracing lesser known, but equally delicious, herbs like lovage and hyssop in their dishes, according to the website Flavor and The Menu.  As restaurants expand on the concepts of local, seasonal, and heritage offerings, old-fashioned herbs are working… read more

Eat Cook L.A. – Giveaway

Title:  EAT COOK L.A.: Recipes from the City of Angels Author:  Aleksandra Crapanzano About the author:  Aleksandra is a screenwriter and food writer. A  recipient of The M.F.K. Fisher Award for Distinguished Writing from The James Beard Foundation,  she has been widely published in various media. Her first book The London Cookbook is a delicious journey via 100 recipes from… read more

Pok Pok Noodles – Giveaway

Title:  Pok Pok Noodles: Recipes from Thailand and Beyond Author:  Andy Ricker and JJ Goode About the author:  Andy Ricker is the chef/owner of Pok Pok Restaurants.  He first visited Thailand in 1987 and since then has spent several months each year living, traveling, eating, cooking and studying the food culture inThailand and neighboring countries. Andy is a two time James… read more

The latest garlic peeling hack makes the rounds

Perhaps you have already seen the mesmerizing video - a pair of hands, a sharp knife, a few twists, and an entire head of garlic peeled as easy as 1-2-3. This is the latest garlic peeling trick circulating on social media, following other hacks such as the two metal bowls method, the microwave method, and the high pressure air hose… read more

Sifratna by Amjaad Al-Hussain

Last week, The Washington Post featured an interview with Amjaad Al-Hussain author of Sifratna: Recipes from our Yemeni Kitchen and I immediately had to order the book.   While I am waiting for my copy to arrive in the mail, I wanted to share an EYBDigital preview with our members. This preview will take you inside Amjaad's gorgeous book and features the introduction… read more

Molly O’Neill dies at age 66

We have just learned the sad news that prolific author Molly O'Neill has lost her battle with cancer. She had been combatting the disease for nearly two years; in late 2017 O'Neill started a Go Fund Me campaign to help defray expenses associated with her illness. O'Neill's books reside on hundreds of EYB Members' bookshelves. Molly's work includes writing a food… read more

Food news antipasto

Usually when I sit down to write the daily post of what's happening in the world of food and cookbooks, it follows a lengthy session of social media and food website browsing as I search for news that will be meaningful or useful to our readers. As I scroll through various posts, many offbeat news items will catch my eye… read more

Spice support: coriander

This spice we are profiling in today's installment of Spice Support has a dual personality. Coriander (coriandrum sativum) exists in two forms, both as a leafy herb and as a seed used whole or ground as a spice. In the US, the leafy form is known as cilantro (the Spanish word for coriander), which is why many people here don't associate… read more

An open letter to Le Creuset

Dear fine folks at Le Creuset, I am writing to make a half-hearted request: Stop introducing new beautiful colors of cookware. Signed, Addicted to French cookware in Denver Last Sunday, I attended a knife skills class at Williams-Sonoma and began chatting with Keith, an employee. We are both from New York and have a cookware problem. We commiserated that each… read more

Get enthused to infuse

Wander down the aisles of any decent-sized liquor store and you are bound to see scores of flavored spirits. You will find everything from spiced rum to cucumber gin to peach and orange blossom vodka. Usually these flavored liquors command a premium price, and if you end up not liking the taste, you might find yourself with a mostly-full bottle… read more

This week at Eat Your Books!

Eat Your Books (EYB) is a website for people who love cookbooks and want to make better use of the great recipes from those books. With EYB, a member can create their own personal Bookshelf and quickly find recipes from their cookbooks, food magazines, food blogs, personal recipe clippings, and favorite online recipes. New cookbooks (as well as older titles) are… read more

Don’t let pronunciation stop you

Have you ever been too intimidated by the name of a food to make it? I must confess that I've held back from making certain items to share with others because I did not want to attempt pronouncing the name when someone asked what it was. In my case most of these items are French pastries like millefeuille. Therefore I… read more

Saffron Soul – EYBD Promotion

EYBD Title:  Saffron Soul: Healthy, Vegetarian Heritage Recipes from India  Author: Mira Manek About the author: Mira combines her love of healthy eating and Indian flavours to create her own style of vibrant Indian-inspired food. Saffron Soul was published in 2017 and her next title, Prajna, Ayurvedic Rituals for Happiness is due to be released in September of 2019. Mira also… read more

Onions Etcetera – EYBD Promotion

EYBD Title:  Onions Etcetera: The Essential Allium Cookbook: More Than 150 Recipes for Leeks, Scallions, Garlic, Shallots, Ramps, Chives and Every Sort of Onion Authors: Kate Winslow and Guy Ambrosino   Our takes you inside this title and features the following Shrimp tostadas  Kimchi scallion omelet  Harissa Harissa fried eggs   What's to love: Everything! I've made several dishes from this… read more

In awe of the restaurant supply store

If there is any shopping experience that I enjoy as much as browsing through a cookbook store it is wandering the aisles of a restaurant supply store. Not all of these establishments are willing to sell to the public, but I've found that at the very least they won't kick you out for wandering through the space - and what… read more

Summer 2019 Cookbook Previews

For those of us who feel as if we just decked our halls with boughs of holly, it's frightening to realize how quickly six months have passed. June and July are slower months in the publishing world but we still have a few great books to look forward to before August begins the madness that is Cookbooktober. For a peek… read more

Fun facts about KitchenAid mixers

It is difficult to imagine a kitchen appliance that is as universally recognizable as the KitchenAid stand mixer. It proudly adorns countertops in countless households in the U.S. and beyond (I spied KitchenAid mixers in a few seasons of GBBO). The story of KitchenAid mixers goes back 100 years, as explained in the recent Taste of Home article listing six… read more
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