January 2024 New Cookbook Review

Welcome to January! We have a new year of great cookbooks to explore. Remember you can keep track of what is coming this year with our 2024 Cookbook Preview and don’t forget that you can create a wishlist and share it with your loved ones. Our January 2024 EYB Cookbook Club Summary and February 2024 Great Big Cookbook Club Summary can be found at the links… read more

Best selling cookbooks 2023

Last month our friends at cookbook stores around the world gave us their picks for their favorite books of 2023 which we then included in our Best of the Best of 2023. Now we asked them for their top sellers of 2023 (published any year). It would be interesting to compare these charts to non-specialist store/online retailer book sales but it is very… read more

Food news antipasto

Two stories about Trader Joe's hit my radar this week. The first, from Food & Wine, is a recap of the annual survey that the grocer undertakes about its customers favorite products. Landing at number one on that list is Chili and Lime Flavored Rolled Tortilla Chips, priced at $2.99 USD. The other news concerns a complaint brought against Trader… read more

New series chronicles the rise of Martha Stewart

Martha Stewart wearing an all-white outfit smiles at the camera. The background is an off white just darker than Stewart's outfit.
A new four-part series from CNN (which will be broadcast later on Max), “The Many Lives of Martha Stewart,” chronicles the rise of the iconic domestic doyenne, from model to stockbroker to controller of a media empire. Eater's Bettina Makalintal provides us with a glimpse of what the limited series has to offer. The first two episodes trace Stewart's trajectory… read more

The art of eating snow

A new trend has popped up in recent weeks with viral videos showing people eating snow in a number of ways. Many involve making desserts or drinks containing or topped with freshly fallen snow. Reese Witherspoon recently posted a TikTok where she makes a "Chococinno" from coffee, chocolate, and flavored syrups. The internet being, well, the internet, her post drew… read more

Best of the best 2023

We have assembled 382 lists from around the world to create our 15th annual Best of the Best. The top book of 2023 is.....drum roll......Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook by Sohla El-Waylly. As well as the top 10 books of the year plus six runners up, we have charts showing the votes from the UK/Ireland, Canada and Australia/New… read more

Simply Chinese Feasts Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our US/UK/AU/NZ giveaway to win one of three copies of Simply Chinese Feasts: Tasty Recipes for Friends and Family by Suzie Lee. Suzie Lee is a Chinese cook, the 2020 winner of BBC’s Best Home Cook and the presenter of Suzie Lee Home Cook Hero on BBC One and BBC iPlayer. Brought up by her Hong Kong parents in… read more

Danny Loves Pasta – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our worldwide contest to win one of two copies of Danny Loves Pasta by Danny Freeman. Danny Freeman is the Italian-American creator behind the popular TikTok and Instagram accounts @DannyLovesPasta, where he's known for making colorful and eye-catching fresh pasta. His YouTube following is impressive as well! His debut cookbook Danny Loves Pasta is a vibrant explosion of all… read more

January 2024 EYB Cookbook Club Summary

Each month we offer at least four cooking options in our Eat Your Books Cookbook Club. This month we cooked from our favorite recipe from any cookbook, magazine, blog or online option: For past EYB Cookbook Club summaries, #EYBCookbookClub will pull up an archive of our club’s activities. Please note our announcement document shared in the club shares all our options (including those in the… read more

JBF announces semifinalists for restaurant and chef awards

Today the James Beard Foundation announced its slate of semifinalists for its 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards. Nominees will be announced on Wednesday, April 3 and winners will be celebrated at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards ceremony on Monday, June 10 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. (The cookbook award winners will be announced a few days prior to the… read more

Celebrate National Pie Day

“There is a mystery inherent in a pie by virtue of its contents being hidden beneath its crust.”Janet Clarkson, Pie: A Global History. Today, for reasons I shall never understand, is National Pie Day (I believe the logical choice for the day is March 14). Regardless of why this date was chosen, I am happy to join in the celebration. I love pie so… read more

The top 100 most popular cookbooks owned by EYB Members

In Darcie's Food News Antipasto yesterday, she mentioned The Zuni Cafe Cookbook as being one of the top books on Members' bookshelves. A Member thought it would be interesting to learn which books are "tops" in our Library. This information is easy enough to find: Go to Books, Filter by Popularity and there you have it. But I thought it might… read more

Food news antipasto

While some recent celebrity chef deaths have come at ages far too young, the news about the passing of chef and author Ronald Kinton reflects a long life, well-lived. The chef and author died in December at age 102. In a tribute, University of West London culinary ambassador Michael Coaker said: "Ron, along with Victor Ceserani, was a particular inspiration… read more

A New Way to Bake – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our US/UK/AU/NZ giveaway to win one of three copies of A New Way to Bake: Re-imagined Recipes for Plant-based Cakes, Bakes and Desserts by Philip Khoury. Philip Khoury is an award-winning pastry chef known for his innovative and delicious creations made from plants. Originally from Australia, he started his career at Quay as an apprentice pastry chef (2012-2013), one… read more

Wok for Less – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our US/CA giveaway to win one of three copies of Wok for Less: Budget-Friendly Asian Meals in 30 Minutes or Less by Ching-He Huang. Ching-He has events as follows: a virtual class at Milk Street Kitchen on February 1st (cooking for the New Year) and on March 13th at Topping & Company (Bath location). Ching-He Huang is a Taiwanese-born… read more

Looking backward for inspiration

As each year ticks by with a bevy of new cookbook releases, it amazes me that so many of them continue to be fresh, exciting, even groundbreaking. I excitedly bookmark recipes that I can't wait to try, to add to an ever-growing list. However, this doesn't mean that the older cookbooks on my bookshelves are relegated to being dust collectors.… read more

EYB is now accessible and translatable, recipes, EYBD Previews and more

We have been busy, busy, busy here at Eat Your Books. I have been helping Jane gather the data for the Best of the Best lists (which will be posted shortly), gathering PDFs for new 2024 titles, setting up Previews and other tasks. Unfortunately, I have not had a chance to do a promo since the new year, but have… read more

What’s the best way to store knives?

Consumers spend billions on home organization every year. It might be part of their New Year's resolution to get more organized, or spurred by an organizing expert like Marie Kondo, but whatever the reason, people buy a lot of stuff just to store their stuff. Kitchens are no exception to this rule, as companies like The Home Edit offer countless… read more

EYB is now accessible and translatable

We have added a very cool tool to EYB that improves the usability of the site for our members with disabilities. Click the new green symbol at bottom left of your screen and see all the options - specific accessibility profiles like blind, color blind, dyslexia or ADHD can be selected and the site will adjust accordingly. Or you can… read more

February 2024 Great Big Cookbook Club Summary

As our members know, each month we offer several cooking options in our Eat Your Books Cookbook Club. There are other fun cookbook clubs around the interwebs and we’d like to highlight those for those members who might want to cook or bake something other than our choices.  We want to get this information out to you so you can prepare… read more

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times

Reading the headlines about restaurant openings and closings these days can give you whiplash. One moment we are lamenting all of the closures that happened over the past year, and the next we are cheering the opening of dozens of new eateries. Despite the multitude of stories about the challenges restaurants face, from soaring energy and food costs to ongoing… read more

Is bread and butter the ultimate comfort food?

Writing for Salon, Mary Elizabeth Williams makes a bold statement, saying there is no better comfort food than bread and butter. After describing a perfect French breakfast of a crusty baguette, still warm from the oven paired with luxurious butter from Brittany. "What is it about bread and butter that hits the spot like nothing else in the world?" Williams… read more

Food news antipasto

While those of us in northern latitudes can only dream of luscious, ripe tomatoes, those in Australia, New Zealand, and other Southern Hemisphere countries are entering peak tomato season. SBS Food will help those lucky ducks take advantage of the bounty with a roundup of great recipes that make the most of tomato season. Homemade Samoa-inspired cookies from Food52 We… read more

Gastro Obscura’s favorite cookbook stories of 2023

Good cookbooks have well-tested recipes that work. Great cookbooks also tell stories about the food, either personal stories about love, grief, triumph, and despair, or broader stories about the culture and people where the recipe originates. The editors at Gastro Obscura agree, and they regularly feature vignettes about cookbooks - both recent releases and historical volumes. They selected eight of… read more

Beating the cold in the kitchen

After a warm start, winter is bearing down on us with full force. A large swath of the northern U.S. is bracing for a winter storm that will bring frigid temperatures and bone-chilling winds. I know this not only because of the weather report, but because the store shelves were nearly empty when I went grocery shopping earlier today. In… read more
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