Books

[Liam LaCivita]

Before reading this, you might enjoy reading "Burgundy Stars" by William Echikson. It covers a year in Loiseau's life as he strives for his third star. The book gives a good look at what goes on behind the scenes in a Michelin-starred operation, as well as insight into Loiseau's personality and that of the people on his staff.

It made for a good read and I was very sad to read of his suicide. To get a perspective on the man and his, some might say, mania for a third star, check this book out.

when i first started out in this crazy profession that was one of the first books i read and was very impressed...!!! definetely a must read!!!

[Barbara]

I'm reading it now.  I tried one of the recipes and liked it a lot: his mother's deviled eggs (plenty of parsley, evoo and garlic, no mayo, and then fried, yolk side down, in peanut oil.)

And the Chicken with Cream Sauce was a real revelation for me. I can't tell you how many times I made that since I read his book. BTW it's titled "The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen" and I believe it is out in paperback now. What a charming man!

[ol_ironstomach]

Finished Steven "Fat Guy" Shaw's Turning the Tables: Restaurants From The Inside Out last week. Not surprisingly it was much like his accompanying talk at National Geo last fall, only presented using far more convoluted sentence structure. Ouch.

Mostly through Kitchen Confidential, which I hadn't previously read. Oh, the perils of not making enough time to read. But it's an awful fun rant, every page of it so far.

I'll put in a plug for a couple of titles which have been around, but which I like and have been leafing through again recently. One is Andrew Dalby's fascinating Dangerous Tastes: The Story Of Spices, which is both a history lesson and spice compendium wrapped up in one. You might not look at your spice rack again without thinking of caravans and wooden ships.

The other is Lobscouse & Spotted Dog (Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin novels). I picked this up long before I started reading O'Brian's series because it looked like fun, and one thing led to another - chiefly a need to clear several feet of shelf space for an O'Brian collection. In any case, it's a casually serious attempt to recreate all of the recipes (except boiled birdshit) mentioned in the Napoleonic-era novels, following the series through 1996 or so.

[MeMc]

I'd be into book club for Garlic and Sapphires or whatever. I also want to read the History of the World in Six Glasses. Has anyone read it? I guess the six glasses are beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, coke.

Also, thanks for the suggestions!

Edited January 5, 2006 by MeMc

[Sthitch]

For Christmas I received a number of books, several of them were food related. The two that I have finished were Michael Psaltis’s The Seasoning of a Chef, and the Witherspoon/Friedman compellation Don’t Try This at Home.

When I read The Seasoning of a Chef I was not aware of the controversy around it. So I went into it with few expectations. My reactions to this book were mixed. The story was fairly well written, even if it had many gaps, and later I would find out lapses in honesty. But these lapses in honesty were not all Psaltis’s. I discovered the controversy over his chapter about the French Laundry, and thought that it was a tempest in a teapot. His comment that Keller is more enthralled with the way food over the way it tastes, echoes my experience there. It is not that I found the food bad, it wasn’t, it was quite good, it just was not as good as many other meals I have had with lesser expectations, and a much lower cost. If I had read only the reactions to this chapter, I would think that the entire book was about Thomas Keller killing small children and storing them in his disorganized walk-in.

The various chefs who provided quotes for the book have certainly lost more credibility in my eyes than Psaltis. I knew nothing of the guy, and on the back cover I read that Batalli, and Pepin praised this book. I assumed that they read the book (because they make that contention), and loved all of it (Bourdain admitted on eGullet that he did the same, having not read the book, but his bit was not used). They now say they only read a chapter or snippets of the book, and have retracted their comments. I wonder what lead them to put their name on a book they had never read. I am sure that people will say that they do not have time to read every book they praise, or because of deadlines they needed them before the book was finished. Those might be true, but it does not negate the dishonesty of providing accolades to a book that they have not read, some people would call that a lie.

Psaltis is not beyond rebuke. He contends that he helped start a restaurant in the Washington Square. It appears that this story is absent of many facts. He said that the businessman who was funding the restaurant had no experience beyond running a small catering company, and then imposed himself on the kitchen. I guess that because he does not name Blue Hill or Dan Barber, but that is who he was writing about. Barber had as much, if not more experience than Psaltis had when the restaurant was founded. Finding out this little nugget, made me question many of the other aspects of the story. Now I consider this just a slightly interesting work of fiction.

Don’t Try This at Home was a much different book. It was a compellation of short stories submitted by various chefs. This was also an easy read, and mostly self-deprecating stories about their screw-ups. With one or two exceptions I enjoyed most of these stories, others left me a little wanting, and some were cringe worthy. The story about Michael Richard and the wedding cake is quite funny, the story from the chef who cooked for Princess Margaret lacked a point, and the Milliken/Feniger was repulsive, and I cannot believe they admitted what they did.

Next on my list are Kaminsky's Pig Perfect and Rhulman’s Charcuterie.

[Heather]

I finished Julie and Julia over the weekend. I found Julie Powell pretty intensely irritating in the beginning, almost as irritating as the friends (and their sex lives) that she goes on about at length, but she turns it around as the book goes on and I found myself rooting for her to finish. She's a skilled writer with the kind of snarky, dirty humor that's right on my level, but I was expecting to read a lot more about cooking and a lot less about her less-than-interesting relationships.

One of my dining companions on Saturday dismissed it as "chick lit", and while that's more than a little dismissive it has a kernel, a very small kernel, of truth.

Edited February 6, 2006 by Heather

[Barbara]

I finished Julie and Julia over the weekend.  I found Julie Powell pretty intensely irritating in the beginning, almost as irritating as the friends (and their sex lives) that she goes on about at length, but she turns it around as the book went goes on and I found myself rooting for her to finish.  She's a skilled writer with the kind of snarky, dirty humor that's right on my level, but I was expecting to read a lot more about cooking and a lot less about her less-than-interesting relationships. 

One of my dining companions on Saturday dismissed it as "chick lit", and while that's more than a little dismissive it has a kernel, a very small kernel, of truth.

Yeah, it's like dismissing Jacques Pepin's "The Apprentice" as "guy lit" and not worth the time of any of us females.

I thought Julie's husband seemed like a great guy and, with the number of married men on this site, there is lot in her book that should speak to our compadres of the male persuasion.

I believe her blog is still available and in that she described the food in greater detail, particularly since she was writing entries on a mostly daily basis. It certainly had me going back to my copy of MTAoFC more frequently and in more depth.

[MeMc]

I also was intensely annoyed at first. But. Having reluctantly moved here from New York and romanticizing how great it was, she reminded me about aspects of how excruciating it was, too: the critters in the apt, the feeling of wanting to bang your head on the yellow subway "keep off" line as you wait during rush hour delay, and just the general combination of extremes-- really great and really trying and exhausting in the same minute.

I also liked reading about her progression as a chef and about her disasters, which I can sympathize with. .

It's such a good idea. I can't believe it hadn't been done sooner.

[Heather]

It's such a good idea.  I can't believe it hadn't been done sooner.

Oh yes, the idea for the project was brilliant.

Call me cynical, but the "it's so hard to live in NYC" stuff always has a whiff of self-congratulation to it, and in this book it detracted from talking about the food.

[smokey]

I finished Julie and Julia over the weekend...I was expecting to read a lot more about cooking and a lot less about her less-than-interesting relationships. 

Somebody else I knew who read it made a similar comment. Something along the lines of how, if you enjoyed her blog, you actually wouldn't necessarily enjoy this book because it's *not* so much about the cooking.

In a perhaps(? ) self-interested maneuver, I gave it to my mom for xmas. I'll be seeing her in a couple of weeks and hope she's finished it so that I can borrow it!

Oh, and Heather, maybe we're both just cynical together, but I agree about the whiff of self-congratulation of which you speak.

[Waitman]

One of my dining companions on Saturday dismissed it as "chick lit", and while that's more than a little dismissive it has a kernel, a very small kernel, of truth.

I will point out that, of the four (of 12) people at the table who had read the book, all were "chicks." And that it appears to spend a lot of time talking about relationships -- one of the key warning signs of chick lit.

[Heather]

I will point out that, of the four (of 12) people at the table who had read the book, all were "chicks."  And that it appears to spend a lot of time talking about relationships -- one of the key warning signs of chick lit.

Yeah, yeah. Whatever.

Also recently finished The Perfectionist. What a compelling and tragic story.

[mdt]

Yeah, yeah.  Whatever.

Also recently finished The Perfectionist.  What a compelling and tragic story.

I am working on this one right now. A rather slow start, but interesting information about the whole Michelin rating scene.

[zoramargolis]

And that it appears to spend a lot of time talking about relationships -- one of the key warning signs of chick lit.

So, I suppose this means that the key warning signs of culinary "dude lit" would be: out in the wild, chasing after terrified critters who are running away, disemboweling and incinerating them, then thumping your hairy chest and bellowing in self-congratulation. Sounds like a great read.

[Barbara]

So, I suppose this means that the key warning signs of culinary "dude lit" would be: out in the wild, chasing after terrified critters who are running away, disemboweling and incinerating them, then thumping your hairy chest and bellowing in self-congratulation. Sounds like a great read. 

[Heather]

So, I suppose this means that the key warning signs of culinary "dude lit" would be: out in the wild, chasing after terrified critters who are running away, disemboweling and incinerating them, then thumping your hairy chest and bellowing in self-congratulation. Sounds like a great read. 

It's called Hemingway.

Mike, I too thought the perfectionist got off to a slow start. It picks up, and the relationships between all of those chefs (there's that damn "R" word again) were fascinating, as was the Michelin info and the details about the apprenticeships and means of advancement in that world.

[DameEdna]

My wife loved reading Julie and Julia.

She does, however, follow the "Henry Miller" rule:

"some words from the printed page are not suitable

for oral application".

For a fuckwit such as myself, any interesting Anglo-Saxon-isms I

read will quickly be added to my vocabulary list for the week, and

used with the enthusiasm of a five-year-old.

Maybe that is why my wife has not encouraged me to read Julie and Julia.

[zoramargolis]

She does, however, follow the "Henry Miller" rule:

Henry Miller wrote a brilliant rant on American bread in his book _The Air Conditioned Nightmare_-- it was written in the early 40's after his return from Paris. The fluffy, tasteless and textureless bread that was ubiquitous at the time was emblematic of everything wrong with American food and culture, to him.

[Waitman]

So, I suppose this means that the key warning signs of culinary "dude lit" would be: out in the wild, chasing after terrified critters who are running away, disemboweling and incinerating them, then thumping your hairy chest and bellowing in self-congratulation. Sounds like a great read. 

I believe you're referring to this well-known cookbook author.

Heather and I will be convening a brief, gin-fueled literary debate as to the exact category into which Hemingway's "The Short, Happy Life of Francis Macomber" falls later this week.

[Heather]

“I’ll have a gimlet too. I need something,” Macomber’s wife said.

“I suppose it’s the thing to do,” Macomber agreed.

Did they eat the buffalo? If not then this little roundtable will have to find another online venue.

Are there men's cookbooks and women's cookbooks? Discuss.

[MeMc]

I just did a piece on dcist on Edna Lewis' death. When I first read of it, I realized that I must live in a box.

Not only did I know nothing about her Country Cooking cookbook, but I used to live down the street from Gage and Tollner, where she was chef and was clueless as to who she was. Why don't I have this? She's so great/ubiquituous that Gillian Clark has used it as wallpaper in the bathroom of CK.

Do other people use this cookbook alot? What are some recipe favorites from it?

[Anna Blume]

I will point out that, of the four (of 12) people at the table who had read the book, all were "chicks." And that it appears to spend a lot of time talking about relationships -- one of the key warning signs of chick lit.

As one of the two literate err chicks present who has not contributed to this thread until now, I'd like to make a few observations about Julie and Julia as Chick Lit.

One of the reasons that Harry Potter isn't Harriet Potter is that girls are much more willing to read books with male protagonists than boys are apt to read books featuring a heroine. At a certain age that changes, of course, but primarily in terms of comic books where the strong central figure is as gorgeous as she is heroic, prompting desire rather than identification. There are exceptions, too, but quite a few are not flattering, e.g. Madame Bovary whose male author uses his titular character to speak of the susceptibility of the bourgeoisie to romantic novels and thus, its petty values and foolish views on life. And we all know about Henry James and women.

The marketing of Julie Powell's book kept such tendencies in mind. Look at the cover. How many guys will pick up and buy something with a jacket designed in pastel Eastery blue-green tones (which I LOVE) with such a cutesy whisk in the foreground of a culinary still life?

The author is nonetheless a type whose vulnerable hysteria (I did choose that word wisely) is balanced by her guts, her fondness for swearing, handling of offal and the kind of gross animate phenomena that one encounters on plates in reruns of Fear Factor. (Are you supposed to italicize the names of TV shows? Does that one deserve it?) She's also a damn good writer. I am biased, though, since I began to learn how to cook with the same book that she takes as the subject of her year-long blog and I also believe that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is one of the best shows ever broadcast.

For me, Nigel Slater's Toast is a good touchstone for J/J. It is equally emotional and also about relationships. Come on, so is Nabokov's Speak, Memory and Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars. (Read the former, not the latter.) Like entries on a blog, and unlike JP's publication, its meditations on food are quite short. What distinguishes it is that it is more retrospective. It is about the shaping of a culinary profession at the same time that it is about the shaping of a self. This gives it a kind of Guy respectibility, I suppose, since Slater's punchline is known. He is a successful chef and cookbook writer. Slater is actually best when speaking about his childhood and the ways food mattered as he found his way in and outside of his family. The book glosses over his early career far too abruptly and without the immediacy that lends power to the earlier sections.

One could say that Powell's book is the work of a younger voice as well as that of a female author, one whose sales and publicity help establish a career that will be spent at a computer rather than a stove.

[Heather]

For me, Nigel Slater's Toast is a good touchstone for J/J.  It is equally emotional and also about relationships.  Come on, so is Nabokov's Speak, Memory and Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars.  (Read the former, not the latter.)  Like entries on a blog, and unlike JP's publication, its meditations on food are quite short.  What distinguishes it is that it is more retrospective.  It is about the shaping of a culinary profession at the same time that it is about the shaping of a self.

I have read Toast and between Powell and Slater, his is more the more interesting book by far. Not so much in his handling of prose, but his less facile handling of food discovery as a personal journey.

And as writers neither will ever be worthy enough to lick Nabokov's boots, IMO.

[MeMc]

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/review/index.html

Book reviews worth reading. . .Julia Reed, John T. Edge, etc. Fun stuff.

[cjsadler]

Really enjoying Michael Ruhlman's new "The Reach of a Chef", the third book in his series.

[Heather]

Really enjoying Michael Ruhlman's new "The Reach of a Chef", the third book in his series.

Chris, did you find this a little breathless? I just read it again and the hero worship is almost too much for me.

[mdt]

Chris, did you find this a little breathless? I just read it again and the hero worship is almost too much for me.

I am reading this now (about half way done) and don't find so much hero worship. So far it has been a pretty enjoyable read.

[Heather]

Maybe I'm just comparing it to Heat, which took a pretty worshipful tone initially and became rather critical of Batali toward the end. Ruhlman seems to buy into the celebrity chef mystique (such as it is) more than Bruford.

[bilrus]

I finished reading Reach of a Chef during my solo dinner at Alinea a few months ago.

I thought Ruhlman was pretty fair. Not overly hard like so many people are on people like Emeril and Rachel, and only veering into worship a few times with Keller and Achatz and too concerned with the "poetry" of the section on the woman chef in Maine (whose name I can't remember).

But I did feel like a bit of a groupie doofus standing in the kitchen talking to Achatz holding the book.

It really was a coincidence.

[Heather]

I picked up Nigel Slater's A Year In the Kitchen a couple of days ago. Very good, and beautiful photos.

[yassandhu]

Which libraries in the area have the best selection of food books? Cookbooks, memoirs, fiction, whatever.

I'm looking for branches that have both the classics and some newer sexier selections, is this a hopeless quest?

(I know that these types of libraries can exist. The best local library I ever experienced was the central branch in Cambridge, MA -- I loved being able to try out some of those expensive cookbooks before I decided to purchase. or not purchase, as was the case many times.)

So, where do you all go? Or does everyone just buy...?

[mdt]

Which libraries in the area have the best selection of food books? Cookbooks, memoirs, fiction, whatever.

I'm looking for branches that have both the classics and some newer sexier selections, is this a hopeless quest?

(I know that these types of libraries can exist. The best local library I ever experienced was the central branch in Cambridge, MA -- I loved being able to try out some of those expensive cookbooks before I decided to purchase. or not purchase, as was the case many times.)

So, where do you all go? Or does everyone just buy...?

Not sure where you live, but Fairfax County public libraries allow you to search and reserve books online from any branch. You select the pick-up point and they will let you know when they are ready. Great option if you are not interested in buying.

[yeuxblu]

Not sure where you live, but Fairfax County public libraries allow you to search and reserve books online from any branch. You select the pick-up point and they will let you know when they are ready. Great option if you are not interested in buying.

Arlington does the same.

I tend to browse at book stores (with out my wallet). Book stores are more damaging to my bank account than vineyards and farmer's markets.

[Heather]

Montgomery County allows you to search and reserve books from any branch, and they send an email when it's ready for pickup.

I check out cookbooks all the time, most recently Mastering the Art of French Cooking because my copy was still packed. The only problem is keeping them clean. I am an inveterate cookbook splatterer and I write in the margins.

[MeMc]

This doesn't merit its own thread, but. Michael Ruhlman, author of Charcuterie, dishes about Rocky Mountain Oysters today on his blog. I keep going back to the comments waiting for Bourdain to weigh in, as he often does on his board.

[Biscuit Girl]

Not sure where you live, but Fairfax County public libraries allow you to search and reserve books online from any branch. You select the pick-up point and they will let you know when they are ready. Great option if you are not interested in buying.

Checking out cookbooks before you decide to buy one is indeed a wonderful option. I do it often and have an advantage as I work for the Fairfax County Library System. I also wanted to add that, like Montgomery County, FCPL also has e-mail notification. You not only get an e-mail when your holds have arrived but you also get e-mails reminders three days before something is due back.

And I'd venture to say that whatever library system here in the area you live in will probably have a hearty cookbook collection. So just visit whichever one is closest to home or work.

[Heather]

I am a big fan of Strangers With Candy and just picked up I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris. Part comedy, part cookbook, and very funny. Includes helpful tips to determine the specific enhancer your guests are flying on, and what to offer for the munchies.

[Heather]

The Washington Post is hosting a live chat with David Kamp, the author of The United States of Arugula today (11/21) at 3pm. Questions may be submitted in advance.

Link.

[smokey]

I just finished reading Heat (checked it out of the library).

I was surprised the book didn't come up at all in the discussion of Sietsema's 'recognizability', its affect on the meals he eats/experience he has when dining and what restaurants do when they know/think a critic is coming to dinner. Buford (name?) talks about (towards the end) the machinations Babbo went to before each time they expected a NYT reviewer (including playing the kind of music that Reichl would like as opposed to Batali's typical musical preferences). It certainly bashed the notion that any reviewer was anonymous once they had been on the job for a few months.

Beyond that, I found the book interesting and entertaining, but far from great. (Acknowledged, however, that I doubt he was aiming for great.)

The NYT hasn't come out with their 2006 cookbook roundup, have they? I don't think I've seen it, but haven't been diligently checking.

[Heather]

I was inspired by some truffle sausages to order Madeleine Kamman's When French Women Cook. I am enjoying her reminiscing, and her take-no-prisoners approach to quality and substitutions.

[zoramargolis]

I was inspired by some truffle sausages to order Madeleine Kamman's When French Women Cook. I am enjoying her reminiscing, and her take-no-prisoners approach to quality and substitutions.

Madame Kamman published a cookbook in the late 70's or early 80's that I learned a great deal from. I loaned it to a friend and never got it back, but everything that was in that early book, and much, much more is in her book _The Making of a Cook_, which is one of my cooking bibles. Her step-by-step descriptions of technique and her recipes are completely reliable. Using just that book, one could learn to be a very good cook.

[MeMc]

Thanks for that reminder, Zora. I'd been cowed by my copy. You make it sound more accessible than its 1000 pages look on the shelf.

[mktye]

Anybody have Shaw's book on their list?

It's ready for pickup for me at the Arlington County Library. I ain't buyin' it.

$5.99 at BookCloseouts.com. Hurry, only 100 copies left!

[zoramargolis]

I just finished reading _Toast_ by Nigel Slater, a very popular British food writer. It is subtitled "the story of a boy's hunger." It is a very touching food memoir, which began when his editor asked him to write about foods, snacks, etc. that he ate when he was growing up. Thinking about and tasting those foods again apparently unleashed a flood of memories for him, and he ended up writing about his childhood and coming of age in a very open and honest way. While the names of particular candies or desserts may not be familiar to Americans, anyone can relate to the feelings, conflicts and challenges he faced--particularly those engendered by being not the kind of masculine boy his father wished for his son to be, the death of his mother when he was eight, a domineering and compulsive stepmother--many of the conflicts and struggles played out around food, and at the dinner table. It's very well written, and I enjoyed reading it enough that I now want to read other things he's written.

[lackadaisi]

$5.99 at BookCloseouts.com. Hurry, only 100 copies left!

Why did I not know of this website? And, why can't I just file such information away and not go on a shopping spree instantly. But seriously, the Gourmet Cookbook for under $15?

[Barbara]

$5.99 at BookCloseouts.com. Hurry, only 100 copies left!

Thanks a lot! Now, I have another cookbook on the way. Like I NEED another one.

[mktye]

Why did I not know of this website? And, why can't I just file such information away and not go on a shopping spree instantly. But seriously, the Gourmet Cookbook for under $15?

Be sure to click on the "Promotions" link in the top toolbar... $5 off a $25 order, $10 off a $50 order and $20 off a $100 order, through the end of January.

You can also create a wishlist and they'll notify you via email when they have the book you want in stock.

[ol_ironstomach]

Why did I not know of this website?

Also possibly of interest, Columbia-based Daedalus Books, another remaindering specialist. They operate a storefront attached to their warehouse near the intersection of Broken Land and Snowden River Parkways...one of my guilty shopping pleasures when I'm in the neighborhood. There's now a second storefront in Baltimore as well.

[Arion]

"Heat" was interesting as a peek into the mind of Batali, but Bill Buford works my last nerve. This self-described foodie is all a-fluster when confronted with a chicken's oysters. "Oh, my, is poultry, is not fish, tee hee I am cute!" Kill. How can you not know that, Jessica Simpson?

I am halfway through "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and find I can't with good conscience eat anything on the planet anymore. Oh, Polyface Farms, come back to the North Arlington Farmer's Market before I starve!

Also got Alex Kapranos' "Sound Bites" because he's smart and funny, loves music and food, and I wuv Franz Ferdinand. Can't wait. Has anyone read it?

[DinerGirl]

I was bored today and started reading through some of these older threads. Thanks. Thanks SO MUCH for the bookcloseouts.com mention. Because I really needed to part with $50 this evening.