Al Dente

Southern Foodways Symposium 2009: A Weekend of Food and Music (and More Food)

I think the reason it's taken me over two weeks to write about this year's Southern Foodways Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi, is because I'm still stuffed from three days of power eating: pork every which way imaginable, biscuits, fried chicken, and even Momofuku Milk Bar cookies and Crack Pie (TM). Hosted by the University of Mississippi's Center for the Study of Southern Culture, this year's symposium explored the cultural and culinary crossroads of Music and Food, and brought together a sold-out crowd of 300-plus like-minded chefs, food writers, academics, restaurateurs, and serious eaters. This was only my second year attending SFA, but I fell hard for Oxford. Its literary and culinary charms alone make it a town where the birthplace of William Faulkner and the local late-night guilty pleasure called chicken on a stick (sold at the Chevron station) are held with equal respect.

Fellow Al Dente contributor Leslie Kelly chronicled her time in Oxford in a previous post. Here are some of my favorite moments (and meals) from my time in Oxford.

• The Bottletree Bakery (whose sweets have been celebrated by Ms. Oprah Winfrey) was the setting for Thursday's supper, dubbed "Pig in a Bottle(tree)" with former Oxford chef Dan Latham, who studied all-things salumi with Mario Batali and is now with Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q, taking center stage. After flying cross-country all day and driving down from Memphis (with a quick stop for rib-tips at Neely's Interstate Barbecue) I had only an hour to spare before I was sitting down to a family-style dinner. Highlights included a passed plate of chicken liver toast along with thick slabs of smoked fresh ham and hunks of sharp cheese. An ethereal bowl of rigatoni with ricotta, onions, late-summer squash, and jalapeño peppers made the rounds along with local grits with smoked ham and kale with local field beans. Porchetta sandwiches with jalapeño pesto sealed the deal.

• One of my favorite memories of last year's visit to Oxford was multiple breakfasts at John Currence's Big Bad Breakfast. Esquire knew what they were talking about when they selected BBB as one of the top 50 breakfast spots in America. The menu celebrates Oxford's literary heritage with tips of the plate to Larry Brown (Big Bad Breakfast Plate), Donna Tartt (The Secret History), John Grisham (Pel-"Egg"-Can Brief), and Jonathan Miles (Dear American Airlines). Sadly, this year's trip permitted only one visit but I made the most of it, ordering The Cathead (a breakfast biscuit as big as a cat's head with an over-medium egg, cheese, and country ham) with a side of cheese grits and even more pork with a side of Currence's bacon. He rubs his pork bellies with a Tabasco mash from Louisiana's Avery Island creating a smoky and spicy bacon that's not to be missed. Currence's City Grocery and his new joint, Snackbar, also served as end-of-the-night gathering spots.

• One of the first presentations on Friday, "From the Field to Your Ear," by Ralph Ellison scholar Robert O'Meally, the Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, effortlessly wove together James Brown's "Make It Funky," Bessie Smith's "Gimmee a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer)," and the "I yam what I yam" section of Ellison's Invsible Man.

• Walking the few blocks from Oxford's Lyric Theater to the Powerhouse in a Biblical downpour. Even with an umbrella (not very Seattle of me, I know) I was soaked to my boxer shorts, but Susan Spicer's Tabasco Lunch helped get my pilot light burning once again. Conceived as a tribute to renowned New Orleans chef Buster Holmes (1905-1994), lunch featured Buster's red beans and rice with hot sausage, a mirliton slaw, and a fried chicken thigh. Sweets included strawberry chocolates spiked with Tabasco (which I wolfed down prior to the meal) and a slice of pecan pound cake with peach compote and a generous scoop of whipped cream.

• South Carolina musician Marshall Chapman, author of the memoir, Goodbye, Little Rock and Roller, was a crowd favorite as she bookended her "On the Road" talk with a playful acoustic set. She rattled off memories of meals eaten throughout her travels with her bandmates and her decision to only tour cities with the best opportunity for decent food: Texas, Louisiana, the Southern coastal cities, and New York City. After the applause died down, SFA director John T. Edge added, "One of the best parts of my job is asking an open-ended question of an intellectually curious individual."

• During the National Peanut Board book signing (picture Black Friday with cocktails as people were elbow to elbow with stacks of cookbooks for holiday gift-giving), I got to meet David Chang. I've exchanged e-mail with Dave a few times and had recently interviewed him, but it was a double-thrill that he was chatting with Allan Benton when I ran into him. I tried not to geek out too much, but it was like bumping into Superman and The Incredible Hulk. Benton, of Tennessee's Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams, immediately asked me to drop the "mister" when addressing him and then went on to praise Dave. "I wouldn't be anything without these chefs putting my product on their menus." (You can read Dave's recap of his time in Oxford on his GQ blog.) At some point in that evening I had a cocktail incorporating boiled peanuts. I think it involved boiled peanut "milk," whiskey, amaretto, and toasted marshmallow syrup. Put that in a punch bowl and you've got yourself a holiday party.

• An SFA tradition is loading up on several double-decker buses for the tree-branch-scraping Mr. Toad's Wild Ride to Taylor, Mississippi, home of the must-visit Taylor Grocery.It was pouring out and muddy--the wellies and Barbour jackets were out in full force--but Lynn Hewlett and his crew put out an unforgettable fried catfish feast. I spent too much time hanging out on the front porch eating hush puppies and talking barbecue, bourbon, and bitters with Hill Country's Elizabeth Karmel and missed the Sweet Potato brew that Durham's Fullsteam Brewery team had brought down with them. But I did get a sample of their Sparkling Scuppernong Ale.

• Do yourself a favor and watch the documentary Smokes & Ears, about Jackson, Mississippi's Big Apple Inn, home of two historic sandwiches: the pig ear and smoked sausage ("smokes").

• Another musical highlight was the Saturday morning invocation. Legendary Otis Clay and His Band made an early morning (very early, by musicians' standards) appearance and played a full-force, hour-plus set of shake-the-roof soul. Born in Waxhaw, Mississippi, Clay ("Chicago's deep soul king") had rolled in from the Windy City overnight, catching a few winks at a roadside reststop before our Saturday morning wake-up call. Looking around at the crowd he said, concerned: "This is a food symposium. But where's the food? I don't see any of you with any plates." John T. quickly appeared on stage carrying six sack breakfasts (filled with amazing cornmeal donuts and livermush sandwiches) for Otis and the band. Clay gave them the once over: "Those bags aren't greasy. I like my bags greasy."

• Saturday's lunch was cooked by Virginia native David Chang, who brought a little bit of Momofuku to Oxford (along with his insanely talented pastry chef Christina Tosi) with a killer "Rock and Pork" lunch that featured a baby lettuce salad with Benton's ham and a coffee vinaigrette, Bo Ssäm (slow-roasted pork shoulder with kimchi and bibb lettuce) and kimchi Brussels sprouts with peanuts. Slices of Crack Pie (TM) (think an intense pecan pie without the pecans) and a buffet of assorted Milk Bar cookies had us bouncing back for afternoon sessions with a wicked sugar buzz. Later that day, Roy Blount, Jr. took the podium, paused, looked around, and said: "I've got a piece of that pork from David Chang in my teeth. The thing is, I don't want to let it go.I want it to stick around with me all the way home."

• Finally, I know water is water is water, but I'm completely smitten with Arkansas' Mountain Valley Spring Water. Those bottles have such a retro charm. They're not available in Seattle but you can buy them online. I'm trying to talk myself out of ordering a case or two.

--BTP

Southern Living: Talking with Matt Lee and Ted Lee

With their debut cookbook, The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook, South Carolina siblings Matt Lee and Ted Lee swept the 2007 cookbook award season, winning two James Beard Awards, including Cookbook of the Year, and two IACP awards. With The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern: Knockout Dishes with Down-Home Flavor, Matt and Ted continue celebrating Southern cuisine in a collection filled with easy, approachable dishes for home cooks. Matt and Ted are also the founders of The Lee Bros. Boiled Peanuts Catalogue, where Southern ex-pats can get their grits fix, and are contributing editors for Travel + Leisure and the wine columnists for Martha Stewart Living.

Full disclosure: I've been following Matt and Ted's byline for years and since their cookbook came out in 2006 I've been lucky to call them both great friends. We've cooked together and shared many meals together since then. I recently caught up with the guys, calling in from their Harlem office where they were gearing up for their book tour. Read on, or listen in to our podcast, as we talk about Southern food (naturally), quick pickles, how to win friends with a jar of sorghum molasses, entertaining tips (it helps to have live fire and/or a mystery guest), Lowcountry living, and what it means to cook "simple fresh Southern."

And check out Matt and Ted's recipe for Clams with Sweet Potato, Smoked Sausage, and Watercress.

--BTP

Amazon.com: First of all, what do you think is the biggest misconception about Southern food?

Matt Lee: Heavy, fried, overcooked, hostile to vegetables...

Ted Lee: Well, that's the first four! I think the fifth is that it's very difficult to make. In part because so many Southern meals are ones that sort of happen outdoors with a ton of people. People have come to think that every meal in the South is like a whole-hog barbecue--you dig the pit the day before, that sort of thing. Don't get us wrong--we love that. That is one of the great things about Southern food. What we wanted to focus on in the new book was kind of like the way we cook in the South from day to day. The way Matt and I cook in Charleston from day to day. We like to think it's a very vegetable-focused kind of cooking, wouldn't you say, Matt?

Matt Lee: Absolutely. The thing that people inherently know about the South and yet they seem to forget is that everything grows there. The climate is so favorable for growing vegetables, fruits, and things, so it's not a stretch to recognize that we do a lot of things with those fruits and vegetables and they become a part of our lives in a very meaningful way. Anyone who collects Southern cookbooks knows that and see that there are some great, classic dishes that involve vegetables. Everyday cooking in the South involves vegetables on a regular basis. The sexiness of our fried chicken and barbecue and long roasts get a lot of play but there are some exciting things going on in other parts of the grocery store, too.

Amazon.com: Can you break down the bullet-points for "simple fresh Southern." What does that mean to you and how do you want that translated to the home cook?

Ted Lee: I think the first word, "simple"--our notion of simplicity isn't bound by a five-ingredient book or recipes that are going to take less than 30 minutes. Those might be easy recipes but every recipe in the book was evaluated according to how easily it fit into the rhythms of the life of a busy person. So even though our whole roast chicken, which we cook in a skillet on a bed of vegetables, may take an hour it's very stress-free cooking time and at the end of it you have this amazing chicken and you have your side dish. That would be part of the whole notion of simplicity.

Matt Lee: And it takes place in a single skillet so there is a minimum of clean-up afterward. All those different factors of purchasing, cooking, and clean-up are very present in our minds at the time we were developing the recipes for our book.

Ted Lee: So the notion of simplicity is a very holistic notion of simplicity. And then secondly, "fresh." Fresh, in it's most literal sense--we don't use a whole lot of processed or canned ingredients or packaged goods. Fresh ingredients--we love them, we get a lot of them in Charleston, whether it's produce, shrimp, oysters, fish, that kind of thing--great pork, too. We also felt like fresh had a double-meaning in a sense, because in our last book we had some recipes in there that people did not recognize from the Southern canon. There was a lot of authentic recipes in there but some of them, like our butterbean pâté, for example, which was a simple spread--like a sandwich spread, or a dip made with butterbeans and mint.

Matt Lee: And parsley and lemon.

Ted Lee: And olive oil. That was sort of a riff on Southern ingredients that we love, sort of distillation of the Southern garden into a dip. In this book, with the fresh thing, we really wanted to focus on things like that, that may not be classics in the Southern canon, but are our riffing on getting excited about okra in a new way.

Matt Lee: And being inspired by the ingredients in the South. And to the point of the butterbean pâté, sort of the flavor of summer. We were channeling a lot of the different moments in a Southern calendar year that really inspire us. The fall for us is always oysters and oyster roasts. It's simple to do them and easy to cover but we thought we had neglected the wonderful soups you can make with oysters. So we developed this soup that's simple and emphasizes the fresher flavors. You put the oysters themselves in a bottom of a bowl raw, and then you laddle a hot soup over it that cooks it just enough. It's a cream-based soup and couldn't be simpler. We're going to reuse that word in this interview, aren't we? For us, a warm, comforting oyster soup channels the feeling of late October, early November in the South.

Ted Lee: As Matt said, what's original in that oyster soup seems to be the method of its preparation. The freshness and originality might express itself in a different way as a new use for a classic Southern ingredient. One example of that in our book is the buttermilk fresh cheese, which is sort of a ricotta-like cheese. We curdle milk with buttermilk and then strain it through a cloth. It just makes this really wonderful farmers' cheese that you can do a ton of things with. You can roll it up with country ham and blanched collards and make a sort of passed appetizer kind of thing. You can just put it on a plate with some crackers. You can dust it with all kinds of nuts--pistachios, pecans. And sometimes the freshness in the title also refers to our taking a classic Southern dish and then having fun with it. A classic example of that would be the mint julep panna cotta. A panna cotta is not exactly a Southern preparation. What's funny is that things in this day and age are so fluid that a panna cotta to us seems like the sort of gelatin salads, aspics, that sort of thing. It seems very Southern in texture certainly. We brought all the flavor and fun of a mint julep into a panna cotta and I think that's going to be one of the breakout desserts from the book.

Matt Lee: Ted, I think Giada pronounces it panna cotta.

Ted Lee: We're Southern, we say panna cotta.

Amazon Exclusive: David Chang's Favorite Cookbooks

David Chang has a thing for cookbooks. In our recent interview with him he admitted: "The only person that has a bigger cookbook collection or is a bigger cookbook nerd than myself is Wylie Dufresne."

He also gushed about a cookbook that isn't even out yet, a mammoth collection by Nathan Myhrvold and Chris Young: "It's going to be a massive tome that's going to capture, I guess, everything progressive that's been cooking. I'm assuming it's going to be a modern-day Larousse. I'm really looking froward to it. I don't know how many people know about it or how many are going to be published but I think it's going to be about a 1,500-page, volume cookbook that will be the be-all end-all of cookbooks." Until that eagerly awaited tome lands on bookshelves, Chang was gracious enough to supply us with a desert-island roundup of his favorite cookbooks.

Chang's own debut cookbook, Momofuku, written with Peter Meehan, releases tomorrow.

--BTP

David Chang's Favorite Cookbooks

White Heat by Marco Pierre White
Why? Because Marco Pierre White is the man. That book is chip on your shoulder cooking at its finest. And it’s all about the photos--they were crazy then and they're still crazy today, gritty and glamorous and in your face before everybody and everything was trying to be that way. Marco was the first one to do it and White Heat was how he got the message out.

The Big Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal
Currently I hold it to be the greatest cookbook of all time. It is highly educational but also deeply personal--it highlights the humility and dogged perseverance of Heston’s approach to cooking and learning. I’m sure the cheaper soft cover version is great, but the big one is just too insane not to own

Everything ever published by Ferran Adrià and Albert Adrià
Ferran and Albert Adrià changed the whole game with their restaurant, El Bulli, in Roses, Spain. The books they have published are almost as revolutionary as the style of cooking they created and then constantly redefine. Their books document the relentless pursuit of creativity in painstaking detail and spell out exactly what it takes to be the best restaurant in the world. They are just hugely inspiring books.

Essential Cuisine by Michel Bras
Essential Cuisine, his second book, is what the title says it is: essential. If there ever were a question about Bras, and I don’t think there ever was, this book would have answered it, as it firmly positioned him somewhere between godfather and God in the pantheon of great chefs. Nobody ever plated food like he did before, and now you see his influence everywhere. He looked at food and cooking and ingredients from a completely different place than anyone else. I wouldn’t live without both, but Essential Cuisine is the one that best expresses Michel Bras’ naturalism in cooking, an approach to cooking that is as singular as it is significant.

Grand Livre de Cuisine by Alain Ducasse
If you ever need a squab recipe--or a any recipe for anything, ever, done in the way a French master chef would do it--it’s between the covers of this book.

The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller
This book, in conjunction with Kitchen Confidential, changed the lives of a generation of American cooks. There hasn’t been, and will probably never be, another restaurant cookbook that distills and clearly presents the philosophy of a chef and a restaurant as well as this book does. It will be in print forever.

Mastering Simplicity by Christian Delouvrier, The Elements of Taste by Gray Kunz
I group these books together because they’re by two grand masters of New York City dining, both of whom helmed Lespinasse at different points in their careers. Those two men launched and influenced the careers and cooking of so many really talented cooks and chefs it would be impossible to count them all and, despite that and their individual accomplishments, I don’t think either chef gets the respect he deserves. I keep their books out and in view, like talismans, like memorabilia, in homage to two of the greats.

The Last Course by Claudia Fleming
The Last Course is one of the best pastry books ever written. People forget that Claudia Fleming trained just about every pastry chef for years--that for my generation, it all starts with Claudia. The pastry chef who works for you or works at your favorite restaurant might be two or three generations removed, but all roads in the pastry kitchen lead back to Claudia. Her recipes are classics.

The Whole Beast by Fergus Henderson
This nose-to-tail book shows that cooking doesn’t have to be complex to be interesting and that it can be simple without being easy. And it’s not just offal cookery for the sake of cooking offal—there’s something deep and resonant and resolutely honest about Fergus’s connection to organ meats and off cuts.

Great Chefs of France by Anthony Blake
A killer book from the 1970’s, with pictures, menus, and recipes from the restaurants of all the big guys behind nouveau cuisine: Troigrois Brothers, Chapel, Guerard, Verge, Thuilier. It’s a history lesson and a cookbook and a cool document of a really important time in French cooking. I was really stoked about how Heston talked about it in The Big Fat Duck Cookbook as one of the most important books in his life--it absolutely is in mine.

The Perfectionist by Rudolph Chelminski
No other book captures the French culinary spirit and the history of it in the same way like this one, which tells the tragic story of Bernard Loiseau. And that’s just the western cookbooks. Or some of them.

Don’t even get me started on Japanese cookbooks…

The Momo Touch: Talking with Momofuku's David Chang and Peter Meehan

David Chang has revolutionized the culinary landscape of New York City and has influenced the tastes of a nation with his eclectic East Village eateries, Momofuku Noodle Bar, Momofuku Ssäm Bar, the award-winning Momofuku Ko, Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar, and the new Momofuku Midtown outpost (Ma Pêche) opening next month. Chang has also been honored as a Food & Wine Best New Chef, Bon Appétit Chef of the Year, GQ Man of the Year, and is the winner of three James Beard Awards. Chang's debut cookbook, Momofuku, written with Peter Meehan, is easily one of the most anticipated cookbooks of the year.

I recently caught up with Chang and Meehan to talk about their ambitious cookbook; the joys of bourbon, bacon, and fried chicken; a detailed history of Ssäm Bar's John McEnroe poster; why you won't find Christina Tosi's recipe for Compost Cookies in the book; tips for scoring a resy at Ko; and much more. Read on or listen to our podcast of our marathon chat, and stay tuned for more Momofuku as we count down to next Tuesday's publication date. We'll be highlighting featured recipes--with an exclusive, not-found-in-the-cookbook dish--and an annotated list of Chang's favorite cookbooks.

--BTP

Amazon.com: Gentlemen, I think I've read your book, cover to cover, three times now. It's really just fantastic. It certainly, as you'll probably hear, has more f-bombs per page than any other cookbook out there right now.

David Chang: [Laughs] Actually, I think we took some f-bombs out.

Peter Meehan: Yeah we did, I kept a few in.

Chang: I mean, I didn't know that was the only word I used--

Meehan: No, like every third word you use.

Amazon.com: I know that, with that infamous New Yorker profile of you there was some feedback that "he needs to clean up his language" and "he's not representing himself well," but that's just genuine "chefspeak"--

Chang: If you get into any normal kitchen, any kitchen that tries to do serious food, I guess, or tasty food. There's a lot of vulgar language... that's just the way it is. I don't know how else to describe it. It's one of the reasons why it's a tribute to the profession. You can act like a total buffoon--almost--but still work and cook and do your job. Unfortunately, for everyone around me, it's carried into my personal life.

Amazon.com: Tell us how you guys teamed up. I understand Mark Bittman played a role in your introduction.

Chang: Peter had reviewed us for the $25 and Under column he was writing for the New York Times and he gave us a review, but he didn't originally like it and we didn't get reviewed for eight months or so. Which is strange, because you usually get reviewed in the Times in your first three months. Later I found out it was because Peter really hated our restaurant.

Meehan: It was not a very good restaurant.

Chang: [Laughs] I don't blame him, I wouldn't want to eat there either. But after the review came out--

Meehan: I started going pretty regularly. Early on Noodle Bar was rough going--at the time it was six or seven months old. It was a great place to eat and I wrote a pretty glowing review of it. It's in the neighborhood I live in so I started going every weekend, mostly with Mark Bittman who I had worked with and worked for him before he came to the Times. We had kind of a standing lunch date. After five or six or ten or however many times we'd been there he kind of like, I'm not going to pretend--

Chang: I had done a couple of things with Mark Bittman for the New York Times, so Bittman came in for lunch one day and said, "Hey, this is Peter Meehan." And I was like... I think there were a few expletives. I was shocked that this guy, who I had recognized, was the food critic who had been coming in to our restaurant. So, that was it.

Meehan: And then we started hanging out and kind of became friends and I stopped writing about him for the paper. At a certain point he was getting hounded by book agents and cookbook writers to put together a cookbook. He asked me to do it, and I said yes.

Chang: I've always liked Peter's writing. Even if he wasn't a food writer I liked what he was writing and what he did. We had a lot in common--at least musically.

Amazon.com: Peter writes about that in the introduction--you talk about running into him at a concert.

Chang: Yeah.

Amazon.com: And you said to him, "Are we going to pretend like we don't know each other." I love that.

Chang: [Laughs]

Meehan: That was his pickup line.

Amazon.com: Seemed to work, right?

Meehan: It did, it did. I mean, he had a cold beer, we're at a concert, and it was either that or being able to write about him for the newspaper. In the end the cold beer sounded far more appealing.

"The Craft of Baking" by Karen DeMasco and Mindy Fox

Whether she knows it or not (and I think she might know it), Dorie Greenspan has been my culinary guardian angel, and her award-winning cookbook, Baking: From My Home to Yours, has acted like a personal recipe box for me no matter the occasion, helping me step up my game in the cookies, cake, and pie departments. And while Baking will always have a spot on my frequently used cookbook shelf, there's a new baking book that's caught my eye: Karen DeMasco's The Craft of Baking. Written with Mindy Fox, The Craft of Baking takes a seasonal approach to flavor profiles as filtered through an urban farmstand (James Beard Award-winner DeMasco is the pastry chef at Locanda Verde and has worked at Craft and Gramercy Tavern). Autumnal standouts include Apple Cider Muffins, Pumpkin Spice Bread, Maple Custard, Concord Grape Pie, Apple Fritters, and Butterscotch Cream Pie with Gingersnap Crust. I've dog-eared the Spicy Caramel Popcorn recipe to make this weekend. And as someone with a weakness for all things malted, I can't wait to whip up a pint of her Banana Malt Ice Cream and top it with a dollop (or two) of Malted Chocolate Sauce.

Demasco begins the book with plenty of advice on setting up your pantry for baking with her recommend brands and shopping resources (living near a Whole Foods will come in very handy) and sprinkled throughout are "Building Your Craft" sidebars with tips on variations or mastering a technique. I just love how DeMasco uses the color of various dog breeds to monitor which stage you're at when making caramel.

(Maybe it's just me, but every time I look at the cover of the book I "see" Parmesan cheese. A quick office poll reveals I'm the only one who thinks this, and readers can rest assured that the cover shot is of Lamnigton Cupcakes--tiny vanilla cakes rolled around in toasted coconut.)

The Craft of Baking is an urbane collection of inventive recipes for bakers of all levels.

Recommended for fans of Baking: From My Home to Yours, Baked, and Dolce Italiano.

--BTP

Dishing with food52's Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs

Last month food writers Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs launched their much-buzzed-about website, food52, hosting an enthusiastic, open forum where home cooks are invited to submit their best recipes based on weekly themes. After a year of gathering winning recipes--determined by reader votes--the results will be collected in a cookbook published by HarperStudio.

And today Amanda and Merrill launched what promises to be a very entertaining feature: The Tournament of Cookbooks. Sixteen of 2009's best cookbooks will face off against each other with their fates determined by a star-studded panel of celebrity chefs and food writers. The winning cookbook will take home "the coveted Piglet trophy." Early round action kicked off with an upset as Donald Link and Paula Disbrowe's Real Cajun sent John Besh's My New Orleans back to the Big Easy. And the first-round fun continues with Eugenia Bone's Well-Preserved taking on Erin McKenna's BabyCakes and Matt Lee and Ted Lee's The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern going up against David Chang and Peter Meehan's Momofuku.(See the complete bracket.)

I caught up with Amanda and Merrill to check in on food52 and talk about what makes a great recipe, the art of adaptation, collaborating in the kitchen, and get the skinny on the Piglet.

--BTP

Amazon.com: You and Merrill have been working together for five years testing 1,200 recipes and now, with food52, you’ve launched another major project together. What’s the key to your collaborative success?

Merrill Stubbs: We're great friends, and we have similar cooking styles and palates, which makes things run pretty smoothly in the kitchen. Of course, there are ingredients and techniques that we don't agree on, which often inspire interesting (and sometimes lively) debates. Our writing styles are different but complimentary, perhaps because each is colored by the fact that both of us are home cooks at heart.

Amanda Hesser: Merrill has excellent knife skills; I do not. I like working with pastry; Merrill does not. That pretty much sums it up!

Amazon.com: There’s an austere charm to your mission: “Every week we name the themes. You submit the recipes. We pick two finalists. Everyone votes. And the winner goes into the book.” How do you go about curating the selection of finalists for each week’s themes?

Hesser: We read through every recipe that's submitted for a given recipe theme, and we choose a handful to test. Then we split up these recipes, test them and report back. After selecting the best two, we cook them again on the day we do photography. For our weekly video, we cook two finalist recipes a third time, so by the time the finalists are announced, the recipes are fully vetted. This also gives us a chance to genuinely get to know the recipes and write up an informed headnote. We also read through all of the recipes coming into the site because every week we name a "Wildcard Winner." Any recipe uploaded to the site is eligible, and we keep a running list of recipes we think have great potential. So, behind the scenes, we're constantly cooking these recipes in search of ones we think are truly great. Wildcard Winners also go into the cookbook.

Amazon.com: Now that you’ve opened the doors to food52 what has surprised you the most about the submissions?

Hesser: How great they are! We've been delighted by the quality and originality of the recipes. When we came up with this idea, we were betting that there were extraordinary home cooks out there waiting to have their work discovered. And it turns out--thankfully--we were right.

Straight Up: Talking Cocktails with Danny Meyer

Whenever I'm in New York, the trip doesn't seem complete unless I've hit a Danny Meyer restaurant. Whether it's a glass of bourbon and Texas beef ribs at Blue Smoke, a black-and-white shake and a Double Shack Burger at Shake Shack, or the chef's tasting menu at Gramercy Tavern, I've never been disappointed. As the owner of some of New York's most acclaimed restaurants (with 19 James Beard Awards between them), restaurateur Danny Meyer has been raising the bar on hospitality for a generation of diners. In Mix Shake Stir, a gorgeous collection of creative cocktails, mixology tips, and gourmet nibbles, Meyer extends his legendary level of service behind the bar, offering readers the ultimate resource for elegant entertaining at home. I recently checked in with Meyer over e-mail to talk about cocktail culture, signature drinks and spirits, the popularity of food trucks, summer at CitiField, and Meyer's new restaurant, Maialino. (Stick around 'til the end for the recipe for one of Meyer's favorite drinks, the Dirty Pete.)

--BTP

Amazon.com: So I imagine you and your staff had a grand time testing the recipes for Mix Shake Stir. What are some of your favorite drinks in the book?

Danny Meyer: I'm fond of anything that does not include Tequila or Gin. There. Now you know the two spirits I just can't stomach. Seriously, one of my top favorites is the Dirty Pete [recipe follows]--so named because it's a dirty martini juiced up with Texas Pete hot sauce. There's a fun story behind its creation. It fits perfectly at Blue Smoke.

Amazon.com: In the introduction to the book you ruminate on the "ritual of cocktail hour" your parents and their friends observed when you were growing up in St. Louis. There's even a drink in the book, the Mortoni, in honor of your father. Do you think the at-home cocktail hour will ever regain its Mad Men-era popularity?

Meyer: Every now and then, one or two--or more--people find themselves tempted by the idea of a cocktail--even though it had been the furthest thing from their mind when they arrived. When entertaining at home I sometimes begin by saying, "I'm having a cocktail--but we also have wine and beer if you'd prefer." Cocktails will probably not regain their early dominance--mostly because there weren't as many really good wines back in the Mad Men era. But they'll always have a place at the table.

Amazon.com: What are some of your tips, regarding cocktails, for successful entertaining at home?

Meyer: Always have plenty of ice on hand, and make sure to have a bottle of each major spirit--vodka, gin, white and dark rum, scotch, and bourbon. It helps to have vermouth in case someone might want a martini, and it can't hurt to have lemon, lime, and green olives.

Amazon.com: I'm a firm believer that every man should have a go-to drink at the ready when he steps up to order at the bar. What's yours?

Meyer: The Mortoni.Equal parts Campari, vodka, and tonic; over lots of ice and garnished with a lime. I named it for my late father, Morton Meyer, whose go-to drink was a Negroni (which is classically gin or vodka mixed with Campari and vermouth). I'd drink a Mortoni over a Negroni any day.

Amazon.com: Do you have a favorite signature drink at each of your restaurants?

Meyer: I love the Dark and Stormy at Blue Smoke. And the Martini at Eleven Madison Park (have it mixed tableside!) is peerless. At Tabla, I'd order the Tablatini, and at Union Square Cafe, I tend to drink wine.

Fall Food Lit Preview: "Save the Deli" by David Sax

In Save the Deli: In Search of Perfect Pastrami, Crusty Rye, and the Heart of the Jewish Delicatessen, journalist David Sax, dubbed "the M.F.K. Fisher of pickled meats," sets out on an entertaining yet often elegiac journey to chronicle an endangered cuisine. Sax kicks things off with an endearing story about his grandfather, who celebrated his discharge from the hospital (where he was being treated for angina) with a mile-high smoked meat sandwich which turned out to be his last meal. Sax then spends time covering the history of delis in New York, even taking a shift behind the counter at Katz's, and chronicles the 2nd Ave Deli's sudden, and much-mourned closure. Then he takes a three-month cross-country tour following the deli trail with stops in New Orleans, Detroit (and nearby Zingerman's in Ann Arbor), Florida, San Francisco, Kansas City, and more. (Mel Brooks makes a cameo in the section on Los Angeles along with Mr. T.: "Anyone who says deli is bad for you: I pity the fool!") He even stamps his passport for an international take in Montreal, Toronto, London, Paris, and Krakow.

The current state of the Jewish deli is telling when Sax offers that the working title for his book was The Death of the Deli. But, just as the famed 2nd Ave Deli reopened after closing the doors on their landmark Lower East Side eatery, the love for deli rose up like a pastrami phoenix. The line out of the door of eager eaters with a passion for cured meat, chopped liver, and knishes should serve as inspiration to keep this cuisine alive and well. The detailed listing of delis in the back of the book should be laminated and kept on hand when traveling.

Recommended for fans of Sweet and Low: A Family Story and 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late.

--BTP

Fall Cookbook Preview: "Michael Symon's Live to Cook"

In his debut cookbook, Michael Symon's Live to Cook (available November 3), the Cleveland chef with the infectious laugh, who beat  John Besh to become Food Network's newest Iron Chef, presents a collection of family-style fare inspired by his Greek-Italian-Eastern European roots. In the introduction to the book, his coauthor and fellow Cleavelander, Michael Ruhlman, classifies their book as "an uncompromising chef's book that speaks directly to home cooks without talking down to chefs or simplifying any of the food." And as an ambassador for all things pork, Symon gives readers a passport to porcine goodness with nose-to-tail dishes like Crispy Pig's Ears with Pickled Vegetables, Fresh Bacon with Watermelon and Haloumi, Pappardelle with Pig's-Head Ragu, and Roasted Rack of Pork with Grilled Peaches and Chestnut Honey Vinaigrette. You won't find any desserts between the covers, but there's plenty of meat-centric menu items (Braised Rabbit Thighs with Olives and Orange, Beef Cheek Pierogies with Wild Mushrooms and Horseradish) and a lineup of killer sides (Ohio Creamed Corn with Bacon, Whipped Root Vegetables) that could stand on their own. And the sections on charcuterie (Lamb Bresola, three different sausages) and pickles (Pickled Ramps, Pickled Cherries) are outstanding. One minor quibble I have with the design of the book is the all-caps Judas Priest-style font that's used for the chapter subheads. While they may capture Symon's blue-collar, rebel spirit they're a pain to read (but that won't stop me from spending more time in the kitchen with the book).

Recommended for fans of Bruce Aidells's Complete Book of Pork and Charcuterie.

--BTP

Fall Cookbook Preview: "Bubby's Brunch Cookbook"

Whenever I'm in New York I stay at the same hotel in Tribeca. Since I'm coming in on the red-eye and it's usually too early to check into the hotel, I'll drop off my bag and walk a couple of blocks over to Bubby's Pie Co. for a bite to eat. Open since 1990, the packed eatery is well-known for its menu of comfort food classics like sour cream pancakes, cheesy grits, chicken noodle soup, grass-fed burgers, and bacon-wrapped meatloaf. And let us not forget the pie (Michigan sour cherry, mile-high apple, key lime), gloriously collected in their debut cookbook, Bubby's Homemade Pies. (I'm a card-carrying member of the "pie for breakfast" club.)

One time last year when I was dining at the counter the owner, Ron Silver, looked up from his copy of the New York Post and introduced himself. We talked a lot about barbecue and pie and he told me a little bit about the new cookbook he was working on. That book, Bubby's Brunch Cookbook,will be available on October 20 and serves as a testament to why brunch is one of the best meals of the day (and one worth waiting for--often over an hour on line if you're dining at Bubby's on a weekend). The book opens with menus for special occasion brunches (New Year's Day, Mother's Day) and then moves onto baked goods like Pumpkin Spice Bread, Honey Jalapeño Corn Bread, and Sticky Buns. Eggs are served every which way (deviled, scrambled, poached, shirred) and the griddle gets its due with crêpes, pancakes, blintzes, and French toast. Savory sandwiches (Traditional BLT) and salads (Chicken Salad with Grapes) make the list as well as meats (Pork Belly Hash) and sides (Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon).

For all the love I have on display for Bubby's, when I was in NYC earlier this month and stopped in for a piece of chocolate peanut-butter pie and a glass of watermelon lemonade, I did a double-take when I paid the bill and saw that that refreshing pink beverage came in at $7.50. Urbane as I am, I couldn't help but whine to my girlfriend the rest of the day like Vincent Vega trying to wrap his head around a "five dollar shake" ("You don't put bourbon in it or nothin'?"). The recipe for that expensive elixir is in the book (page 245) and yields five quarts. Enough for me to set up my own lemonade stand and earn back that $7.50 (and then some).

Recommended for fans of Bubby's Homemade Pies and Gale Gand's Brunch!

--BTP

Reading Frank Bruni's "Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater"

How a man with a lifelong battle of the bulge landed the most influential job in the food world is only half the story (more like a third, really) in Frank Bruni's brave, brutally honest, often hilarious, and truly endearing memoir, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater.

Bruni, who will step down from his current post as restaurant critic for the New York Times when his book is published next month, struggled with over-eating since he was a little kid growing up in a food-focused family in White Plains, NY. From adolescence through adulthood, Bruni was on the losing side of maintaining a healthy relationship with food, and eventually his inability to control his hunger--manifested in Bulimia, convenience store binges, and bouts of sleep eating--defined his life. There aren't many books out there dealing with what it's like to be a man with an eating disorder, and even though his story is peppered with humor, Bruni's disgust at himself as he yo-yo's up to size 42 khakis at the Gap and endures years-long patches of celibacy, leaves the reader aching in empathy.

Self-doubt about his appearance causes him to sabotage any chances at happines as he makes lame excuses to postpone dates in the hopes that he'll drop those few extra pounds before he might have to reveal himself. And throughout the book he's banking on being slimmer in the future--whether it's a few days, weeks, or months--and sacrifices truly appreciating the present, even when he's holding prestigious jobs at Newsweek and the New York Times.

"I was in retreat, my weight a reason not to reach out or take risks. I'd deal with my love life once I got thinner.... Fatness simplified life and lessened the stakes. It put life on hiatus, making the present a larded limbo between a past normalcy and a future one. It argued against bold initiatives.... But while I wasn't trying to make things happen, they nonetheless happened to me."

There's a very funny account of how he worked with a photographer friend to digitally manipulate his author photo for Ambling Into History in an attempt "to transform the round into the oblong, chubby into chiseled, gone-to-seed to come-to-Papa." When he saw the results of the final photo (the one that would be taped behind the reservation stand of many New York restaurants) his friend wondered: "When was the last time anyone at the publishing house saw you?"

And when he gets the tap to become restaurant critic and leaves his gig as the Times' Rome bureau chief (and the strange, unwritten rules of working out in Italian gyms), he begins a preparatory world-tour of eating research before entering an exhausting career of eating out seven nights a week, juggling multiple dining identities (with matching AmEx cards), and becoming one of "the most loved and hated tastemakers in New York."

Recommended for fans of Heat, Between Bites: Memoirs of a Hungry Hedonist, and Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise.

--BTP

Cuckoo for "Momofuku" Cookbook

I realize I have an unfair advantage playing the inside baseball "I've Read This and You Can't Until Four-and-a-Half Months From Now" card, but I wanted to take a moment to champion one of this fall's most anticipated cookbooks, Momofuku. My bound galley arrived last week and I immediately read it cover to cover in one sitting. Written by award-winning chef David Chang and co-writer Peter Meehan, the book captures the eclectic spirit and inventive dishes of Chang's East Village eateries. There's probably more f-bombs per headnote than you'll find in your average cookbook, but that's just part of the David Chang experience.

The book is broken out into sections covering Noodle Bar, Ssäm Bar, and Ko, with detailed origin stories of each restaurant, including original menus, staff e-mails, and personal notes. But will I cook from it? You bet. The signature Pork Buns are in there, along with the Bo Ssäm (an 8lb mash note to pork butt), noodles, oysters, Slow-Poached Eggs, Fried Chicken, and Ko's Frozen Foie Gras. As a pickle fiend, I was thrilled to see several pages devoted to quick-pickle variations using one master brine that, with some tweaks, works for ramps, cherries, sunchokes, and watermelon rinds alike. At certain points in  the book, Chang devotes several pages to some of his culinary passions: Allan Benton's country ham and smoked bacon, Wylie Dufresne's "meat glue," and Hudson Valley foie gras.

While a typical sweet finish to a David Chang meal used to be a cone of soft-serve ice cream at Noodle Bar or a slice of Blondie Pie at Ssäm Bar, I do regret that recipes from his most recent venture, Momofuku Bakery and Milk Bar, are absent. Momofuku includes pastry Chef Christina Tosi's Cereal Milk Custard and Fried Apple Pie, but Bakery and Milk Mar's menu highlights like Crack Pie, Pistachio Cake, and Cornflake-Marshmallow-Chocolate Chip Cookie are sadly MIA.

I realize the the desserts were probably omitted due to deadlines, or perhaps we'll see a future Momofuku cookbook devoted to Bakery and Milk Bar. Until then, I guess I'll need to reverse-engineer a recipe for the Blondie Pie at home.

Recommended for fans of The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating and The Babbo Cookbook.

--BTP

Christopher Walken on Beer, Spaghetti, and Ice Cream

In the June issue of Esquire, the What I've Learned feature spotlights the great Christopher Walken, who's listed simply as "Actor, 66. Wilton, Connecticut." In around twenty random observations he offers his thoughts on golf, wrist watches, Dennis Hopper, and zoos ("Awful."). In addition to a his take on Danish and Boston Cream Pie ("Very good."), Walken shares this culinary gem, which I can't seem to shake.

I love spaghetti. And I like to cook spaghetti. And I used to eat it every day. I weighed thirty pounds more than I do now. You can't--you can't do that. Ice cream--I love to watch television and eat ice cream. But that's like a ten-year-old. I can't do that anymore. Beer. Beer, spaghetti, ice cream.

If the world needs another celebrity cookbook, let's make it a Christopher Walken cookbook. We already know the man knows how to make a mean Chicken with Pears. Who's with me?

--BTP

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

It's Burger Time: The History of In-N-Out Burger

I had my inaugural In-N-Out Burger experience last spring when BookExpo America was held in Los Angeles. Almost immediately upon arriving from Seattle I piloted a rental car filled with hungry Amazon book editors to the In-N-Out Burger on Sunset where Dave Callanan, our resident Californian, guided us through the ordering process. Eating our Double Doubles and "Animal Style" fries al fresco on a sunny afternoon, it was love at first bite, and an eye-opening understanding of why In-N-Out's fans practice a cult-like dedication in their constant craving.

In my April Best of the Month pick, In-N-Out Burger: A Behind-the-Counter Look at the Fast-Food Chain That Breaks All the Rules, Stacy Perman chronicles how the family-run California hamburger joint went on to become an American pop culture icon. Founded in 1948 by Harry Snyder and his wife Esther in Baldwin Park, CA, In-N-Out Burger attracted a devoted fanbase of cruising teens, surfers, and celebrities alike (who developed a secret, word-of-mouth shorthand for custom orders). As they expanded slowly over the years across California and into Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, they never sacrificed their core customer-service values and commitment to quality as the fast-food wars raged on.Their made-to-order story packs enough family drama to fuel an HBO biopic. After Harry died in 1976, his son Rich took over the business (and was responsible for adding discreet Bible verses to In-N-Out cups and wrappers) until his death in a 1993 plane crash. His brother Guy, a Big Lebowski-esque drag-racing rebel with a dark side, stepped in to helm the business until his accidental overdose in 1999.

Beyond burger fans, this food lit/business/biography mash-up will appeal to readers who enjoyed Rich Cohen's quirky and endearing Sweet and Low: A Family Story as well as food-based, customer-service obsessed business books like Danny Meyer's Setting the Table, Making Dough: The 12 Secret Ingredients of Krispy Kreme's Sweet Success, and Howard Schultz's Pour Your Heart Into It.

You can also whet your appetite by reading the prologue to the book and Stacy Perman's guide to In-N-Out's not-so-secret "secret menu." And, as a bonus to our readers, photographic proof of our editorial excursion, pictured as we wait patiently to tuck into our burgers.

--BTP

IACP Cookbook Awards: 2009 Winners

Tonight in Denver the International Association of Culinary Professionals handed out their annual cookbook awards. Cookbook of the Year and Julia Child First Book award-winner Nate Appleman updated his Twitter followers of the good news, and I've had to rely on Twitter (and an editor friend e-mailing me from Denver) for updates as the IACP website hasn't been updated just yet. Appleman and his coauthor and A16 wine director Shelly Lindgren's debut cookbook, A16: Food + Wine (one of Amazon's Top 10 Cookbooks of 2008), won top honors of the night. Chanterelle: The Story and Recipes of a Restaurant Classic, by Dave Waltuck and Andrew Friedman, was the only other book to win two awards (Chefs and Restaurants and Food Photography and Styling). Ten Speed Press continued their impressive cookbook awards run with three awards overall. Artisan's Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China won in the International category, but their other big contender, Thomas Keller's Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide, came home empty handed.

A16, Baked, and Fat were my personal picks for Cookbook of the Year. Fat did win in Single Subject, but no such luck for Baked (which was woefully left off of the James Beard finalists). A heartfelt congratulations to all of tonight's winners.

And that chewing sound you might be hearing? That's me humbly eating my hat for giving Denise Vivaldo's book such a hard time in my finalists post. It turns out Do It For Less! Wedding: How to Create Your Dream Wedding Without Breaking the Bank did indeed deserve to be included in the General category. Congratulations on her win tonight, and when it comes time for me to plan my own nuptials I promise to add her book to the top of my reading pile.

Stay tuned for the James Beard Foundation Book Award winners, which will be revealed on May 4.

--BTP

2009 IACP Winners

Cookbook of the Year
A16: Food + Wine by Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren

American
Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited by Arthur Schwartz

Baking
The Art and Soul of Baking by Sur La Table and Cindy Mushet

Chefs and Restaurants
Chanterelle: The Story and Recipes of a Restaurant Classic by Dave Waltuck and Andrew Friedman

Compilations
The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh by Barbara Fairchild

First Book (The Julia Child Award)
A16: Food + Wine by Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren

Food Photography and Styling
Chanterelle: The Story and Recipes of a Restaurant Classic by Dave Waltuck and Andrew Friedman

Food Reference and Technical
The Science of Good Food: The Ultimate Reference on How Cooking Works by David Joachim and Andrew Schloss

General
Do It For Less! Wedding: How to Create Your Dream Wedding Without Breaking the Bank by Denise Vivaldo

Health and Special Diet
The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life by Ellie Krieger

International
Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Literary Food Writing
Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood by Taras Grescoe

Single Subject
Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient by Jennifer Mclagan

Wine, Beer, or Spirits
Ciderland by James Crowden

James Beard Foundation Book Awards: 2009 Finalists Announced

Earlier today the James Beard Foundation announced their 2009 lineup of finalists, revealing the nominees via Twitter before updating their awards page. Billed as "the Oscars of the food world," the Beards are handed out in a number of categories, including Broadcast Media, Journalism, Restaurant and Chef, and, where we'll soon be turning our attention: Book Awards.

But first, we raise a glass to our local Seattle nominees:

• Tom Douglas (Outstanding Restaurateur)
• Maria Hines (Best Chef: Northwest)
• Joseba Jiménez de Jiménez (Best Chef: Northwest)
• Ethan Stowell (Best Chef: Northwest)
• Jason Wilson (Best Chef: Northwest)
• Rebekah Denn (Newspaper Feature Writing with Recipes)

And a special toast (two fingers of Pappy Van Winkle 15-year Reserve should do the trick) to "the Faulkner of Southern Food," John T. Edge, who'll be inducted into the Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America.

Publisher John Wiley and Sons received the most nominations (4), just beating out Ten Speed Press (3, down from their 5 IACP nominations) and Chronicle Books (3). Clarkson Potter and Artisan both came in with two nominations each. After being overlooked on the IACP's final list, I was disappointed to see that David Tanis' A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes, our own No. 1 editors' pick for the Top 10 Cookbooks of 2008, was MIA among the Beard nominations. And one of last fall's big-buzz books, Ferran Adrià's A Day at el Bulli was also absent on both lists. And surely there was room for Eat Me: The Food and Philosophy of Kenny Shopsin.

Who will win Cookbook of the Year? Find out on May 4, when the winners are announced at a gala reception in New York City.

--BTP

2009 James Beard Foundation Book Awards

American Cooking
Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited by Arthur Schwartz
Cooking Up a Storm: Recipes Lost and Found from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans edited by Marcelle Bienvenu and Judy Walker
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
Baking for All Occasions by Flo Braker
The Art and Soul of Baking by Sur La Table and Cindy Mushet

Beverage
The Harney and Sons Guide to Tea by Micahel Harney
The Wines of Burgundy by Clive Coates
WineWise: Your Complete Guide to Understanding, Selecting, and Enjoying Wine by by Stephen Kolpan, Brian H. Smith, and Michael A. Weiss

Cooking from a Professional Point of View
Alinea by Grant Achatz
The Big Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal
Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide by Thomas Keller

General Cooking
How to Cook Everything (10th Anniversary Edition) by Mark Bittman
Martha Stewart's Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook by Martha Stewart
The Bon Appétit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook by Barbara Fairchild

Healthy Focus
Cooking with the Seasons at Rancho La Puerta: Recipes from the World-Famous Spa by Deborah Szekely and Deborah M. Schneider, with Jesús González
EatingWell for a Healthy Heart Cookbook by Philip A. Ades, M.D. and the editors of EatingWell magazine
The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life by Ellie Krieger

International
Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
Jewish Holiday Cooking: A Food Lover's Treasury of Classics and Improvisations by Jayne Cohen
Southeast Asian Flavors by Yuji Wakiya

Photography
The Big Fat Duck Cookbook by Heston Blumenthal
Decadent Desserts
Haute Chinese Cuisine from the Kitchen of Wakiya by Yuji Wakiya

Reference and Scholarship
Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages by Anne Mendelson
The Flavor Bible by Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page
The Science of Good Food by David Joachim and Andrew Schloss with A. Philip Handel, Ph.D.

Single Subject
Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan
Mediterranean Fresh by Joyce Goldstein
The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever by Beatrice Ojakangas

Writing and Literature
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
Shark's Fin Soup and and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop
Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef by Betty Fussell

IACP Cookbook Awards: 2009 Finalists Announced

This Tuesday I began hearing rumors that the nominations for the International Association of Culinary Professionals had been announced. I didn't have any luck getting a complete list of 2009 finalists, but  finally, late this afternoon, the list went public.

Ten Speed Press led the lineup with a total of five nominations, but painfully absent was one of their most buzzed-about cookbooks of 2008, Grant Achatz's groundbreaking Alinea. Artisan, publisher of Thomas Keller's Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide (short-listed for Food Photography & Styling and Single Subject), was next with five nominations, and Houghton MIfflin Harcourt with three. Only three titles from our own editors' list of Top 10 Cookbooks of 2008 made the cut, and I would've bet big that our No. 1 pick, David Tanis' terrific A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes, would've been among the Artisan nominations.

As in past years, due to the international nature of the awards, some of the titles aren't readily available on Amazon.com. Four Star Restaurant Marketing Cookbook and Ciderland aren't in our catalog and there's an international edition of Karen Martini: Cooking at Home coming in June that's available for pre-order. (I think I'm linking to the correct edition of Techniques of Healthy Cooking (3rd Edition) but it has a 2007 pub-date which seems odd.) With all of the Food Network-stamped cookbooks being published each year, only one made the cut:Ellie Krieger's The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life. And how the good people at the IACP could find only two worthy titles for the International category I'll never know. And, with all due respect to the author, I'm still scratching my head that  Do It For Less! Wedding: How to Create Your Dream Wedding Without Breaking the Bank made the cut in the competitive General category.

As for Cookbook of the Year? It alredy feels like a very Thomas Keller year, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for Baked, A16: Food + Wine, and Fat. Good luck to all the finalists! The winners will be announced on Saturday, April 4 at a gala reception in Denver, CO.

--BTP

2009 IACP Finalists

American
Arthur Schwartz's Jewish Home Cooking: Yiddish Recipes Revisited by Arthur Schwartz
Bon Appetit, Y'all: Recipes and Stories from Three Generations by Virginia Willis
Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue by John Shelton Reed and Dale Volberg Reed

Baking
Baked: New Frontiers in Baking by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito
The Modern Baker: Time Saving Techniques for Breads, Tarts, Pies, Cakes, and Cookies by Nick Malgieri
The Art and Soul of Baking by Sur La Table and Cindy Mushet

Chefs and Restaurants
Chanterelle: The Story and Recipes of a Restaurant Classic by Dave Waltuck and Andrew Friedman
At the Crillon and at Home: Recipes by Jean-Francois Piege by Jean Francois Piege, Patrick Mikanowsk, and Grant Symon
On the Line by Eric Ripert

Compilations
Cooking with Les Dames d'Escoffier: At Home with the Women Who Shape the Way We Eat and Drink edited by Marcella Rosene with Pat Mozersky
The Bon Appetit Cookbook: Fast Easy Fresh by Barbara Fairchild
The Culinary Institute of America Cookbook: A Collection of Our Favorite Recipes for the Home Chef by the Culinary Institute of America

First Book (The Julia Child Award)
A16: Food + Wine by Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren
Yolele! Recipes from the Heart of Senegal by Pierre Thiam
Puff by Martha Holmberg

Food Photography and Styling
Chanterelle: The Story and Recipes of a Restaurant Classic by Dave Waltuck and Andrew Friedman
Karen Martini: Cooking at Home by Karen Martini
Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide by Thomas Keller

Food Reference and Technical
The Science of Good Food: The Ultimate Reference on How Cooking Works by David Joachim and Andrew Schloss
Four Star Restaurant Marketing Cookbook by Linda Drake
Food Wine Budapest by Carolyn Banfalvi

General
The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rosetto Kasper and Sally Swift
Do It For Less! Wedding: How to Create Your Dream Wedding Without Breaking the Bank by Denise Vivaldo
Things Cooks Love: Implements, Ingredients, Recipes by Sur La Table and Marie Simmons

Health and Special Diet
The Food You Crave: Luscious Recipes for a Healthy Life by Ellie Krieger
The Perfect Recipe for Losing Weight and Eating Great by Pam Anderson
Techniques of Healthy Cooking (3rd Edition) by the Culinary Institute of America

International
Olives and Oranges: Recipes and Flavor Secrets from Italy, Spain, Cyprus, and Beyond by Sara Jenkins and Mindy Fox
Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid

Literary Food Writing
Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood by Taras Grescoe
Raising Steaks: The Life and Time sof American Beef by Betty Fussell
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China by Fuchsia Dunlop

Single Subject
Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient by Jennifer Mclagan
Under Pressure: Cooking Sous Vide by Thomas Keller
Jacques Torres' A Year in Chocolate: 80 Recipes for Holidays and Special Occasions by Jacques Torres

Wine, Beer, or Spirits
Ciderland by James Crowden
The Beer Book edited by Tim Hampson
Artisanal Cocktails: Drinks Inspired by the Seasons from the Bar at Cyrus by Scott Beattie

Featured Forager: Langdon Cook

While flipping through the current issue of Bon Appétit I came across a familiar face from the Amazon Books team: former senior editor Langdon Cook. Since leaving Amazon in 2004 Lang has been keeping himself very busy living off the grid, writing, and blogging at Fat of the Land. His blog's companion book, Fat of the Land: Adventures of a 21st Century Forager, which chronicles his edible adventures around the Puget Sound, comes out this fall. Take this tip to the bank next time you're tempted to pop a random mushroom you might come across on a woodsy constitutional into your mouth: "As the saying goes, 'there are old mushroom hunters and there are bold mushroom hunters, but no old, bold mushroom hunters.'" Plus, the guy knows how to rock a compass.

--BTP

"And the Award for Best Cocktail Goes to..."

Wondering what to serve to drink at your Oscar® party this Sunday night? Gourmet.com has an all-star lineup of inventive cocktails inspired by this year's Best Actor and Best Actress nominees. While "I'll have a Frank Langella" may not exactly roll of your tongue, you may be tempted to imbibe The Mickey Rourke (a tequila and bitters blend inspired by the Mexican heritage of his late Chihuahua, Loki) or the nice his-and-hers pairing of The Angelina Jolie (single-malt Scotch with elderflower liqueur) and The Brad Pitt (organic vodka with seltzer, mint, cucumber, and lime).

My pick? Make mine a Richard Jenkins (muddled lime and sugar, small-batch bourbon, bitters, and egg whites).

--BTP