2020 Gift Guide for the cookbook lover and cook & an Emile Henry tagine holiday giveaway

November 12, 2020 by
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Several times a year, I put together a gift guide of great products and cookbooks that would make a special gift for the cook/cookbook lover in your life. My 2020 gift guide for the baker can be found here. For sake of brevity, I will refer you to my Best Books of Fall/Autumn 2020 and Best Books of Spring 2020 for cookbook… read more

2020 Gift Guide for the Baker

November 2, 2020 by
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Several times a year, I put together a gift guide of great products and cookbooks that would make a special gift for the baker or cook in your life. My cookbook lovers/guide for the cook is coming soon. Today is all about the baker. First, let's talk about baking all-star titles from 2020: Baking at the 20th Century Cafe: Iconic… read more

Cookbook preorder perks and cookbook subscription boxes for Fall and Winter.

September 26, 2020 by
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Often authors offer special perks for preordering their books and this post will cover a few of those. Also, I wanted to let you know about Hardcover Cook's Fall and Winter cookbook boxes - they are exciting! Peabody Johanson of Sweet Recipeas' first cookbook will be released November 17, 2020. You can check out a preview here . Peabody is… read more

Cookbooks can be life-changing

August 12, 2020 by
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I do not have to work very hard to convince readers of our blog about the magic of cookbooks. They have woven a spell over our lives, enchanting us with their descriptions of faraway lands, mesmerizing us with detailed scientific explanations of baking chemistry, and wowing us with evocative images and stories. It never gets old seeing others discover the… read more

Guild of Food Writers announces 2020 winners

June 17, 2020 by
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Last month we reported on the finalists for the 2020 UK Guild of Food Writers Awards. Today the Guild has announced the winners in the various categories. Highlighted winners are listed below, and you can visit our 2020 Guild of Food Writers awards page to see the complete list. The big winner for 2020 is The Vinegar Cupboard by Angela Clutton,… read more

The stories behind the scribbles

May 21, 2020 by
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When I spy a used cookbook I am interested in buying, the first thing I do is skim the pages to see if anyone has written any notes inside. Early in my cookbook collecting, if I saw writing in the margins I would put book back on the shelf. I was only interested in pristine volumes, as years of working… read more

2020 James Beard Cookbook Award Nominees announced

May 4, 2020 by
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Originally slated to be announced in March, the nominees for the 2020 James Beard Awards for cookbooks were revealed today via Twitter. This comes on what would have been the 30th Anniversary James Beard Awards in Chicago. The JBF chose to put the nomination announcement on hold and focus on supporting relief efforts for the restaurant industry. To date, the… read more

Food writers and chefs on their favorite cookbooks

April 11, 2020 by
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It's always fun to learn which cookbooks famous food writers and top chefs find useful or inspirational. Today our insight into this arena comes via Eater London, where they have polled several food writers and chefs (in addition to Eater staff members) on which cookbooks are their favorites. EYB Member favorites Ruby Tandoh, Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi, and Nigella Lawson… read more

We will always need cookbooks

April 4, 2020 by
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More now than ever, the cooking community is coming out in full force. Everyone is live-streaming a dish, recipe and offering their advice on all things cooking. For those of us who know how to make a sourdough starter or transform a can of beans into a feast, it is our time to shine. Over the years, people have asked… read more

Jenny’s Best Cookbooks of Spring 2020

March 17, 2020 by
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We are all looking for some semblance of normalcy during this difficult time. I will continue to write and share about cookbook news in the hope that it brings our members some distraction. We are all in this together. I suffer from an affliction which many of you can relate to - I obsessed about cookbooks. I am continually updating… read more

‘Classic Indian Cooking’ turns 40

March 3, 2020 by
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We live in what has been described as a golden age for cookbooks. There are thousands of cookbooks published each year, and of those thousands, hundreds are noteworthy. But will they still be discussed after forty years has passed? Only the best and brightest books can claim to be relevant and inspiring decades after their release. Julie Sahni's Classic Indian… read more

Were you a pie baker, when pie baking wasn’t cool?

February 27, 2020 by
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Remember when Bundt cakes were only for funeral eats and definitely not considered to be one of the cool kids of baking. The same can be said about pies. Pies were made by grandmothers who whipped them out for holidays, but the pie times they are a-changing - pie baking isn't just for grandmas anymore. Thanks to the power of… read more

IACP Cuisinart Awards – 2020 Nominees

February 18, 2020 by
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Congratulations to the 2020 class of nominees for the International Association of Culinary Professionals Cuisinart Awards. The winners will be announced at the IACP Annual Conference on March 28, 2020 in Pittsburgh. Once again the IACP has made changes to the categories of books being judged. For 2020 two categories got the axe: there will be no Compilations or Reference/Technical books… read more

A tale of two covers

February 6, 2020 by
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Have you ever noticed that the covers of the same cookbooks published in the US and the UK are frequently different? There are several reasons for this phenomenon, explains Charlotte Druckman in a recent Epicurious article for why this occurs so often. One of the examples discussed is Diana Henry's 2016 release Simple.  Says Henry, “The cover is the thing… read more

More cookbooks, but less cooking

January 27, 2020 by
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It is always fun to stumble upon a good interview about cookbooks, and today I hit the jackpot. It's a conversation between food historian Kyle Cherek and radio host Bonnie North, and it covers everything from the first cookbook published in the U.S. to the latest trends of celebrity chef books. Cookbooks serve as cultural markers of the times, says… read more

The best selling cookbooks of 2019

January 22, 2020 by
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Last month our friends at cookbook stores around the world gave us their picks for their favorite books of 2019 which we then included in our Best of the Best of 2019. Now we asked them for their top sellers. In past years we have compared the lists from specialist stores in the USA to that for all US sales… read more

Cookbook authors on the books they keep returning to

January 16, 2020 by
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What is better than finding out which cookbook an author thinks is indispensible? Learning the same from a half-dozen authors. Over at The New York Times, they've assembled a sort of cookbook author relay race, in which one recently published author recommends his or her favorite title from the past year or so, then passes on the honor to that… read more

Looking forward to 2020 cookbooks

December 9, 2019 by
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While the last twelve months have provided a great deal of enjoyment for cookbook lovers, 2020 is looming bright and not too far off on the horizon. The last year sped by and while I would like time to slow down a bit I always find joy in the excitement of what is to come. This outline will provide a… read more

Joy of Cooking’s enduring appeal

December 2, 2019 by
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Ask almost anyone in the U.S. to name their favorite cookbooks and you will probably hear 'Joy of Cooking' somewhere in the list. The book, which first debuted in the 1930s, has taught several generations not only how to cook, but also how to preserve food and much more. Abagail Weir explains why Joy has had such longlasting appeal. Weir… read more

Worldwide Best Cookbooks July – December 2019

December 1, 2019 by
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On June 23th, I shared my Worldwide Best Cookbooks for the first half of 2019. Today's list contains my choices for best cookbooks for books released in July - December 2019. As in past years, there were so many fantastic books to cull through including the re-release of The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern that it made it… read more

Gift Guide for the Baker & Giveaway!

November 16, 2019 by
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Today, I have compiled a list of gift ideas all geared toward the baker. My gift guide for cookbook lovers was posted earlier this week. The tag #giftguide will bring up all past compilations which include classic cookbook suggestions and past years' recommendations. For the purposes of this guide, I’ll be including titles from 2019. Prior gift guides as linked… read more

Changes coming to Chicago’s Read It & Eat

November 15, 2019 by
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We were delighted to profile Chicago cookbook store Read It & Eat when it opened its doors for business in 2015. Owner Esther Dairiam discussed the many events held at the store, located at 2142 N. Halsted in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Today we learned about new developments at Read It & Eat. In a news release, Dairiam announced that the… read more

Gift Guide for the Cookbook Lover and Serious Cook

November 13, 2019 by
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The madness that is the holiday season is upon us. I will be doing at least two gift guides this year. This guide will include cookbook ideas for a wide variety of subjects. There will be a baker's gift guide with cookbooks and baking gift ideas along with a giveaway hopefully by this weekend! The tag #giftguide will bring up… read more

Diana Henry’s favorite new fall cookbooks

October 5, 2019 by
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When Diana Henry makes a list of her favorite new cookbooks, it's time to drop everything and make certain that you have all of them on your bookshelf and if not, to get them on the way as soon as possible. The bestselling author knows her way around both storytelling and recipe writing. She spent weeks going through the best… read more

Best cookbooks of the 21st century (so far)

July 15, 2019 by
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It is difficult - nearly impossible, for me - to consider that we are 20 percent of the way through the 21st century. Nevertheless, it is true. That means we have 20 years of cookbooks to think about when discussing the best books of the century. Helen Rosner at The New Yorker breaks down which books she believes are standouts. … read more
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