September 2023 New Cookbook Review

Here we are in September and well into Cookbooktober. Last week, I published the preliminary 2024 Cookbook Preview and don't forget that you can create a wishlist here and share it with your loved ones. In May we announced that we have connected the EYB database to ckbk’s library of digital cookbooks. ckbk is a cookbook subscription site where you can access… read more

Food news antipasto

Gordon Ramsay plans to open 14 restaurants in Thailand after signing a deal with Tanachira Group, the lifestyle company behind jewelry brand Pandora. It is part of an international expansion push for the chef’s group, which runs 37 UK restaurants and 35 additional eateries worldwide. Granola for fellow "granolas" from Food52 If you describe someone as being very "granola", most people… read more

The World Central Kitchen Cookbook – Giveaway

Enter our US giveaway to win one of two copies of The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope by José Andrés and World Central Kitchen. The author has a few events scheduled to promote this title and the team at WCK has another tour which can be found on their website. In their first cookbook, World Central Kitchen… read more

Fish Butchery – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our US/UK/AU/NZ giveaway to win one of three copies of Fish Butchery: Mastering The Catch, Cut, and Craft by Josh Niland. James Beard award-winning author and culinary game-changer Josh Niland returns with the ultimate guide to the art of fish butchery, with expert techniques and ground-breaking recipes that are an urgent call for action on culinary sustainability. Josh’s multi… read more

Inside the Le Creuset Factory to Table sale

As promised, I am reporting on the Le Creuset Factory to Table (FTT) sale held in Minneapolis this weekend. The event sold out so fast that I was unable to get the coveted VIP tickets for Thursday evening that included an opportunity to buy a 'mystery box' of items for $50. I was relegated to a regular admittance ticket that… read more

2024 cookbooks, recipes, EYBD Previews and more

I finally completed the 2024 Cookbook Preview this week. There will be many changes and additions so be sure to check back frequently. All new titles will always be on the top of the month/country. Next week will be the monthly newsletter so I will keep this short. I wish to point out new author tours below: Hillary Dixler Canavan… read more

Gohan: Everyday Japanese Cooking Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our worldwide giveaway to win one of five copies of Gohan: Everyday Japanese Cooking: Memories and Stories from My Family's Kitchen by Emiko Davies. Emiko Davies' cookbooks are some of my favorite titles. She is an award-winning Australian-Japanese food writer, photographer and cookbook author who grew up in a diplomatic family. She spent most of her life in countries… read more

Olive oil prices surge to all time highs amid drought

Prepare yourself for sticker shock when buying your next bottle of extra virgin olive oil. Due to drastically reduced yields, olive oil supplies are rapidly being depleted, leading to dramatic price hikes. Spain, the world's largest olive oil producer, saw record high temperatures (the third hottest summer on record) coupled with an intense drought. In turn, this diminished the olive… read more

October 2023 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

Bake it Better – Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our US/UK giveaway to win one of two copies of Bake It Better: 70 Show-stopping Recipes to Level-Up Your Baking Skills by Matt Adlard. Matt Adlard’s debut cookbook Bake It Better: 70 Show-stopping Recipes to Level-Up Your Baking Skills is impressive. Matt is a self-taught baker and pastry chef from Norwich, England with a large social media following. Bake it Better… read more

GBBO returns on 26 September, names contestants

The Great British Bake Off has announced the contestants for the upcoming season of the show, which premieres at 8:00 p.m. on 26 September in the UK. The contestants, as always, are a fascinating slice of the population, ranging from deli manager Amos to database administrator Dana to science teacher Matty. It's fun to imagine what kind of bakes each… read more

2024 Cookbook Preview

Every September (this year I'm running a little behind!), I begin cataloging the following year’s cookbook releases. I do this for several reasons: 1) so our members know what is waiting down the pipeline and 2) it makes the monthly new cookbook reviews a little easier for me as I keep the original post updated when changes occur. As I… read more

Food news antipasto

Food critic Jay Rayner had the honor of interviewing Madhur Jaffrey for the September issues of Observer Food Monthly. On the eve of the 40th anniversary edition of her book Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery, the 90-year-old author talks about how she became "an accidental cook" due to acute homesickness when she was in London studying drama. An acclaimed actress, Jaffrey started… read more

The foods of Rosh Hashanah

Rosh Hashanah, meaning "head of the year" in Hebrew, is the celebration of the Jewish New Year. The holiday includes several food-related customs including eating apples dipped in honey, as well as eating other symbolic foods such as pomegranates, dates, string beans, beets, pumpkins, leeks, and fish heads. Each of these symbolizes a wish or blessing for prosperity and health in the… read more

History of the BLT

I'm not alone in searching for the background of a particular dish; historians and food writers have been doing this for ages. Chef Farideh Sadeghin likewise enjoys digging into food history, in this case the history of the BLT sandwich. As a huge fan of BLTs myself (but only when I can get my hands on fresh garden tomatoes), this… read more

Tracing a recipe’s path

In the small North Dakota farming community where I grew up, most residents belong to a group known as "Germans from Russia" (GFR), which describes a "a unique group of Germans who lived in Russia after the 1760s and began their immigration onto the Great Plains in the 1870s" according to The Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. My ancestors fit this description,… read more

Sometimes you have to stray to remember how good you have it

Because I was having issues with my internet service today I needed to test response times and decided to use some recipe search engines to gauge how well the ISP's fix was working (yes, I know I could do an Oookla speed test but where's the fun in that?). After navigating several websites, I was reminded of just how good… read more

Pasta et Al Cookbook Giveaway

Enter our US/UK/AU/NZ giveaway to win one of three copies of Pasta et Al: The Many Shapes Of A Family Tradition by Alec Morris. Pasta et Al: The Many Shapes Of A Family Tradition by Alec Morris is a gorgeous book filled with inspirational recipes and photographs to level up your pasta game. The author was taught how to cook fresh… read more

Food news antipasto

Even though I love to cook and bake, sometimes nothing will satisfy a craving like junk food: cheese puffs with an orange coating that resembles no real cheese but is so good I'll lick it off my fingers , a too-sweet cake with a best-by date that is months into the future, or cookies with an ingredient list of things… read more

Le Creuset supercollectors – and Gen Z loves LC too

Jenny and I have written about our fondness for Le Creuset and its ever expanding range of gorgeous colors, designs, and shapes. Both of us have collected many pieces over the years, and while Jenny's collection puts mine to shame, both of us look like rank amateurs when compared to the Le Creuset "supercollectors" profiled in a recent article in… read more

NOON by Meike Peters, recipes, EYBD Previews and more

This week saw the publication of several great cookbooks including Meike Peters' Noon: Simple Recipes for Scrumptious Midday Meals and More. Meike has a few events scheduled to celebrate her latest title. It has been said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day but that was before Meike tackled lunch. In Noon, you will find 115 scrumptious… read more

TikTok food trends can have real economic impact

Whether you love or hate trending TikTok food videos, they are more than just something entertaining to watch. In the aggregate, they can actually drive food producers to change their production, says Marketplace's Stephanie Hughes. This is especially true of "center of the plate" proteins (which usually means meat), but it can affect other products as well. But with every… read more

Guild of Food Writers announces 2023 winners

The Guild of Food Writers announced the winners of its prestigious awards at a banquet this evening at the Royal Institution’s world-famous theater. The Guild awards recognize emerging talent as well as the best-known food writers and broadcasters in the UK. The 16 categories range from books and podcasts to recipe and restaurant writing. There was a new category this… read more

GBBO gets the message

After a few years of poorly conceived country-based theme weeks, the producers of the Great British Bake Off have finally seen the light. They have eliminated these types of themes and are returning to the basics that made the program an international success. The show's producer, Kieran Smith, acknowledged the missteps in an interview with The Guardian. “We didn’t want… read more

Food news antipasto

First up this week is a delightful interview with Jürgen Krauss, a semifinalist in the 2021 Great British Bake Off. Krauss discusses how his childhood in Germany's Black Forest region influences his baking, and why he doesn't hold a grudge against GBBO for his shocking exit from the program, which spurred over 100 to make complaints to the UK's communications regulator.… read more
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