James Beard Foundation Book Awards: 2009 Winners
It was a rainy night in New York City, but that didn't stop hundreds of chefs, restaurateurs, food writers, journalists, and extreme foodies from hitting the water-logged red carpet for "the Oscars of the food world"--the annual James Beard Foundation awards. Twitter was, well, atwitter, the past few hours with attendees updating their followers across the country with every award announcement and celebrity chef (and just plain celebrity--"Look, it's Richard Gere!") sighting. The JBF also kept everyone informed with their own Twitter feed and their blog, Delights & Prejudices.
This year's theme celebrated Women in Food, and one of the early awards of the night, Best Chef: Pacific Northwest, went to Maria Hines, chef/owner of Seattle's Tilth Restaurant. And, on Sunday night, during the Media Awards, former Seattle-PI food writer Rebekah Denn won for Best Newspaper Feature with Recipes for her April 2008 piece highlighting Heath Putnam's prized Mangalitsas, "Super-Succulent Imports Are Everything U.S. Pork Isn't."
As for the book awards, winning titles were spread out among publishers, but Ten Speed Press continued its winning streak (last year, their River Cottage Meat Book won JBF's Cookbook of the Year, and their A16: Food + Wine won top honors at the 2009 IACP Awards) with a big win for Jennifer McLagan's wonderful book, Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes, which wonCookbook of the Year and took the prize in Single Subject.
While I lack any evidence to prove it, I went 8/12 with my personal picks in the book awards this year, but it's a safe bet that there's still a lot of celebrating going on tonight in the streets of Manhattan. Congratulations to all of this year's winners and finalists.
--BTP
2009 James Beard Foundation Book Award Winners
Cookbook of the Year
Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan
American Cooking
Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: Recipes and Tales from a Southern Cook by Martha Hall Foose
Baking
BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking by Shirley O. Corriher
Beverage
WineWise by Steven Kolpan, Brian H. Smith, and Michael A. Weiss
Cooking from a Professional Point of View
Alinea by Grant Achatz
General Cooking
How to Cook Everything (10th Anniversary Edition) by Mark Bittman
Healthy Focus
The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life by Ellie Kriegar
International
Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
Photography
The Big Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal
Reference and Scholarship
The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg
Single Subject
Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan
Writing and Literature
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
rookie cookie on May 06, 2009 at 03:52 AM
So glad to see Ellie Kriegar is getting some love. She does a great job of making healthy food accessible to the lay man. And Michael Pollan's "In Defense of Food" is absolutely brilliant. That book will change anyone's opinion of food on so many different levels.