whether you have little ones or not, brooke’s guest post this morning on abc books is a feast for the eyes. it’s always so fun to see how artists and graphic designers interpret the alphabet in creative ways. click here to check out the full post…
November 10th, 2009 - 08:00am
This week, I thought I would focus on cookbooks with great food photography, since photography is becoming a bigger part of the food experience these days. There are a few new books out this season which I believe raise the bar in cookbooks. Why? They do not just deliver recipes. They deliver an entire food experience, from the location in which the food is enjoyed, to the environ in which the food is gathered, prepared, and served. [image above from Gordon Ramsey's 'Cooking with Friends', after the jump]
What sets the photography apart in these books? I can tell you what I like, starting first and foremost with the subject, which fills the frame– not a narrow depth of field (where one particular element closest to the camera is in sharp focus and the rest of the image is quite out of focus). I also like images which go beyond the ordinary or the expected. If the idea is to portray the ‘wholesome’ aspect of fresh eggs, instead of a basket of eggs with chicken feathers on them, an image that shows a picture of a grandfather and his grandchild rinsing off eggs before using them to make a birthday cake makes a greater impression on me. Finally, I like to feel like I am there in the scene– so images where the photographer has gotten into the action and shoots from a ‘participatory’ point of view makes a much greater impact.
CLICK HERE for the full cookbook reviews (and a list of great food photographers to check out!) after the jump!
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November 6th, 2009 - 11:00am
This week’s books go along with the great recipe from Emma and Sara for an Eggplant Torta over on the In the Kitchen With column. As soon as I saw the images of the recipe, I thought “Italian”. There are a lot of Italian books out there. Some “authentic”, some “inspired by” which in the end aren’t any more “Italian” than what my grandmother from Alabama used to make for us. So I have chosen an assortment of books this week that fall into the “Italian etc.” category. If you’re wondering, personally, I think the best Italian cookbooks on the market are produced by Slow Food Editori (the publishing arm of Slow Food Italy). They cover most of the Italian regions (one per region, with a few exceptions) and there are a few monothematic ones: Fish, Vegetables, Desserts, Soups, and Recipes from the Osterie featured throughout the regional books. Accompanying the recipes are brief descriptions, in many cases, of the origin and transformations of ingredients, socio-cultural notes, regional variations, or the history of the recipe. In short, the books present a snapshot of food and its development in Italy (unfortunately there are no photos). If you happen through Italy, stop in any Feltrinelli bookstore and pick up one or two or more. Even if you don’t speak Italian, you can fumble through them just fine! People who love food always find a way to explore new and great dishes.
In celebration of the autumn season, we have included a bonus recipe today for Chocolate Hazelnut Cake (torta di gianduia) at the end of this post, an Italian dessert probably from the Piedmont region where amazing hazelnuts are grown, and gianduia was ‘invented’. If you have a favorite Italian recipe book, please share yours below! -Kristina
CLICK HERE for the cake recipe and kristina’s cookbook reviews after the jump!
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October 30th, 2009 - 12:00pm
Many of you asked for more vegetarian recipes in the launch of this cookbook column but you also asked for cookbooks for special diets each week. So today we’ll be focusing on vegetarian/vegan friendly cookbooks and including a special vegan cornbread recipe at the end of the post! Also, if you’d like to try different crepe recipes (in addition to today’s crepe recipe), sweet or savory, Lou Seibert Pappas has an excellent book called Crepes (Chronicle Books) which is perfect! -Kristina
CLICK HERE for the cookbook reviews and a vegan recipe after the jump!
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October 23rd, 2009 - 12:00pm
i’ve been anxiously awaiting the second edition of book city jackets’ artist series and was pleasantly surprised to see new work by cheeming boey, nishat akhtar and michael hsiung. i really love a good guest artist series and this new set of covers really makes me smile. i love the idea of rotating different artist-drawn paper covers to both protect books with beautiful covers and cover books with not-so-beautiful covers. if you’d like to pick up the new edition of covers ($12 for all 3) click here to shop. thanks, jeremy!
October 20th, 2009 - 09:00am
Whether you like sweet scones like the ones Chris Chun offered up for us a few weeks ago or the savory ones from this week, there’s nothing like having something great to go with them. Amy Azzarito suggests fried chicken with this week’s savory scones and Damon Lee Fowler’s Fried Chicken: The World’s Best Recipes (Broadway Books) is a great resource if you’re looking to head in that direction. But, if you don’t have $210 to buy that out-of-print first edition (Glad I got my copy at cover price 11 years ago!), have a look at this week’s books which can help you make something to go on your scones, or with them.
CLICK HERE for Kristina’s cookbook reviews after the jump!
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October 16th, 2009 - 12:00pm
in honor of today’s new recipes and cookbook reviews i couldn’t resist adding these beautiful illustrations by blexbolex for i know how to cook by ginette mathiot. phaidon bought the rights to this classic french home cooking book and assigned one of my favorite bloggers of all-time, clotilde dusoulier, to oversea an updated american version with illustrations by french illustrator blexbolex. with over 1400 recipes and pages upon pages of gorgeous illustrations, what’s not to love? click here to order online. thanks, sonya!
October 16th, 2009 - 09:00am
