THE RESTAURANT/CELEBRITY COOKBOOK...

...is one of the hottest trends in cookbooks. Actually, they've been around for

 

many years, but never in such proliferation. They are automatic best sellers,

 

since the book can be flogged at the restaurant or TV show and since the

 

chef ends up being a celebrity somewhere, doing guest cooking or catering

 

or even turning up on the Food Network. Most of these books will certainly

 

appeal to fans of the chef and/or the restaurant and/or the media

 

personality. Many of the recipes in these books actually come off the menus

 

of the restaurants involved. Occasionally, there will be, in these books,

 

special notes or preps, or recipes for items no longer on the menu. Stories

 

or anecdotes will be related to the history of a dish. But because most of

 

these books are American, they use only US volume measurements for the

 

ingredients; sometimes there is a table of metric equivalents, but more often

 

there is not. I'll try to point this out. The usual shtick is "favourite recipes

 

made easy for everyday cooks". There is also PR copy on "demystifying

 

ethnic ingredients". PR bumpf also includes much use of the magic phrase

 

"mouth-watering recipes" as if that is what it takes to sell such a book. I

 

keep hearing from readers, users, and other food writers that some

 

restaurant recipes (not necessarily from these books) don't seem to work at

 

home, but how could that be? The books all claim to be kitchen tested for

 

the home, and many books identify the food researcher by name. Most

 

books are loaded with tips, techniques, and advice, as well as gregarious

 

stories about life in the restaurant world. Photos abound, usually of the chef

 

bounding about. The celebrity books, with well-known chefs or entertainers,

 

seem to have too much self-involvement and ego. And, of course, there are

 

a lot of food photo shots, verging on gastroporn. There are endorsements

 

from other celebrities in magnificent cases of logrolling. If resources are

 

cited, they are usually American mail order firms, with websites. Some

 

companies, though, will ship around the world, so don't ignore them

 

altogether. Here's a rundown on the latest crop of such books –

 

 

 

CHEESE (Quadrille Publishing, 2017, 256 pages, ISBN 978-1-84949-966

 

-8 $24.99 USD hardbound) is by Michel Roux, who has held three Michelin

 

stars for over 30 years (The Waterside Inn at Bray UK). He's had many

 

awards including OBE, and has been a TV personality. He's authored five

 

other books for Quadrille, selling 2.5 million copies. Here he delves into

 

cheese. It also includes about 100 preps for canapes, soups. Starters,

 

snacks, salads, fish and meat dishes, pasta, rice and veggies, plus

 

desserts. He's got some new classics, such as

 

pear/Roquefort/honey/almonds pizza, halloumi with roasted peppers, phyllo

 

wrapped feta and watermelon, and more. The recipes encourage

 

substitution so that you can use whatever cheese you have around, within

 

reason. It is arranged by course, not by cheese, beginning with a

 

cheeseboard. Apart from quality classifications, there are few categories for

 

cooking: fresh cheese, soft cheeses, hard cheeses, and blue cheeses.

 

Flavoured cheeses are on the rise, those with the addition of spices, herbs,

 

dried fruit, and smoked cheeses. They need to be examined before actual

 

cooking and melted integration. The book could have been improved if it

 

also used avoirdupois in the recipes, or at least had a conversion chart.

 

Quality/price rating: 90.

 

 

 

 

 

HOME GROWN (Artisan, 2017, 342 pages, ISBN 978-1-57965-674-4 $35

 

USD hardbound) is by Matt Jennings, formerly of Farmstead in Providence

 

RI, opened Townsman in Boston in 2015. He's co-founder of the Northern

 

Chef Alliance and has collaborated with numerous Canadian chefs such as

 

Rob Gentile of Bar Buca in Toronto. It's a book of New England cuisine,

 

updated through his contemporary feel for reworking the classics. Basically,

 

he renovates the meat-heavy boiled dinners and the cream-laden chowders.

 

He uses more molasses and cider and maple syrup for sweetening. And he

 

includes Quebecois food such as tortiere pie, but with seafood. Along the

 

way, he explains why he updates in a sort of memoir type retelling of his

 

path to New England cuisine roots. Log rollers include Batali ("simple,

 

approachable, and delicious recipes") and Boulud ("inspired compilation"

 

among eight or so others. It's arranged by terroir: dairy, ocean, farm,

 

garden/orchard, and forest, with typical dishes such as fish stew, clam

 

cakes, cider donuts, fried pike, and pan-roasted venison. The book could

 

have been improved if it also used metric in the recipes for international

 

sales. But it does have metric conversion charts. Quality/price rating: 88

 

 

 

SHEET PAN SUPPERS MEATLESS (Workman Publishing, 2017, 250

 

pages, ISBN 978-0-7611-8993-0 $16.95 USD paperbound) is by Raquel

 

Pelzel, a food editor and test kitchen director who has authored over 20

 

cookbooks, and has been a TV judge for Food Network shows. Here she 

 

concentrates on vegetarian/vegan and gluten-free sheet pan meals – 100 of

 

them straight out of the oven. It's another cooking treat for the millennials:

 

quick and easy yet nutritious. She's got the technique of cooking pasta in a

 

sheet pan, and then cooking soups and stews in a sheer pan, and then

 

making kale and veggie chips in a sheet pan, pot pies, veggie braises,

 

risottos, polenta, and of course both granola and desserts (pear galette,

 

dulce de leche pumpkin squares, and a vegan sticky toffee pudding. As she

 

says, sheet pan cooking is convenient, versatile and tasty. One for the

 

plant-based food lovers. Preparations have their ingredients listed in

 

avoirdupois measurements, but there are tables of metric equivalents.

 

Quality/price rating: 88.

 

 

 

SHEET PAN MAGIC (Quadrille Publishing, 2017, 160 pages, ISBN 978-1-

 

78713-048-7 $19.99 USD hardbound) is by Sue Quinn, an award-winning

 

food writer and author of several cookbooks. Here she looks at "one pan,

 

one meal, no fuss" dishes. The basic arrangement is by course: breakfast,

 

brunch, snacks, light bites, lunch, warm salads, dinner, and sweet things. It is

 

basically one-pot roasting, using a heavy 8 x 12 x 2 inch sheet pan.  And it is

 

a breeze to clean up: just soak it overnight. The preps are straightforward

 

enough, with roast pear and rhubarb compote; classic full English breakfast

 

(all in the one pan); ricotta-asparagus and mint tartlets; creamy baked leeks

 

with apple, theme and goat cheese;sea bass with stewed summer veggies;

 

orange and caraway slices with orange blossom glaze. Something for

 

everybody, 70 recipes in all. The book could have been improved if it also

 

used metric in the recipes, or at least had a metric conversion chart.

 

Quality/price rating: 87.

Chimo! www.deantudor.com

MORE RECENT FOOD AND DRINK BOOKS FOR DECEMBER

 

EASY SOUPS FROM SCRATCH WITH QUICK BREADS TO MATCH

 

(Chronicle Books, 2017, 176 pages, ISBN 978-1-4521-5502-9 $24.95

 

USD hardbound) is by Ivy Manning, cookbook author and free-lance food

 

writer. The title pretty much says it all: 70 recipes to pair and share. There

 

are meaty stews and bisques, each one paired with a quick bread such as

 

blue corn and maple skillet bread (with a BBQ pork ramen). The soups are

 

arranged by type (veggie-centric, bean and grain soups, seafood soups,

 

meat and poultry soups. The bread types are flatbreads, soda breads and

 

skillet breads, muffins, rolls and biscuits. Preparations have their

 

ingredients listed in mainly avoirdupois measurements with some erratic

 

metric, but there is no table of metric equivalents.

Audience and level of use: millennials would find this useful

Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: zucchini, feta and dill muffins to

 

pair with either Persian yogurt, lentil and bulgur soup or egg and lemon soup

 

with toasted orzo and kale.

The downside to this book: I wanted more...

The upside to this book: each prep tells you the quantities, the service, the

 

active time and the total time.

Quality/Price Rating: 86.

 

 

 

4.SUPERFOOD SLOW COOKER (Ryland Peters & Small, 2017, 144

 

pages, ISBN 978-1-84975-843-7 $19.95 USD hardbound) is by Nicola

 

Graimes who specializes in vegetarian cooking. She's authored 26 or so

 

books. It's with Cathy Seward, a consultant home economist and cookery

 

writer. An electric slow cooker is great for a busy lifestyle (and millennials

 

love it too). Here are 60 preps, using mainly grains, beans and pulses,

 

along with superveggies and lean meats. So it is not strictly a vegetarian

 

book. Fresh herbs and relevant spices also contribute. Each prep gives a

 

nutritional breakdown. She's arranged it by course, beginning with breakfast

 

and brunch, light bites, weekday meals, and slow weekends. All dishes are

 

made in the 3.5 Litre slow-cooker. Preparations have their ingredients listed

 

in both metric and avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of

 

metric equivalents.

Audience and level of use: millennials

Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: winter beef and prune pot roast;

 

piri piri lamb salad; bone broth pho; Spanish octopus with white beans and

 

lemon; sea bass in chile tomato sauce; beet falafel with lemon tahini sauce.

The downside to this book: I wanted more...

The upside to this book: good use of slow cooker.

Quality/Price Rating: 86

 

 

5.A TASTE OF LATIN AMERICA (Imagine! Books, 2017, 168 pages, ISBN

 

978-1-62354-521-5 $19.99 USD hardbound) is by Patricia Cartin, from

 

Costa Rica and caterer to the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the

 

United Nations in NYC. These are the culinary traditions and classic recipes

 

from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, Peru,

 

Puerto Rico and Venezuela. There is also a bit of fusion here, and the

 

regions do share common foods such as sweet potatoes, squash, corn,

 

chocolate, and chili peppers. The arrangement is by country with about eight

 

preps each. Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois

 

measurements, but there are tables of metric equivalents.

Audience and level of use: Latin American food lovers, libraries

Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: coxinhas; farofa; curanto;

 

chimichurri; empanadas; brigadeiro; manjar; almojabanas; tamales; perico;

 

arepas; lucuma; nachos.

The downside to this book: The Mexican section has already been well-

 

documented by countless books, so there isn't really nothing new from that

 

country.

The upside to this book: a good collection of regional dishes that (apart

 

from Mexico) have not really surfaced in North America – terrific sampler!

Quality/Price Rating: 88

 

 

 

 

6.CHICKEN AND RICE (Fig Tree Penguin Books, 2016, 288 pages, ISBN

 

9780241199077 $42.95 CAD hardbound) is by Shu Han Lee, UK freelance

 

food writer and stylist and at www.mummyicancook.com These are mainly

 

dishes from Singapore and Malaysia with a Hokkien China influence – her

 

background in culinary development. The range embraces weeknight food,

 

weekend foods, snacks, celebrations, and others. The Southeast Asian

 

foods are arranged by type, from rice through noodles, soups, seafood,

 

meat, eggs/tofu, veggies, snacks and sweets. Her book was originally

 

published in the UK last year but is now making its way into North America.

 

At the back, she has 10 suggested menus (quick midweek suppers for one

 

or two) through brunches, veggies, through dinner parties and BBQ – plus

 

some ideas for DIY parties. Preparations have their ingredients listed in

 

both metric and  avoirdupois measurements, but there is no table of metric

 

equivalents.

Audience and level of use: SEA food fans, millennials

Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: congee with preserved radish

 

omelette and cabbage; Hokkien prawn noodle soup; fennel pad ka prao

 

with fried egg; peach on sticky rice with sweet and salty coconut cream;

 

barbecued sambal lemon sole; nasi ulam; nyonya achar; lamb shank

 

adobo.

The downside to this book: the currency exchange rate bringing the book

 

over makes it a bit pricey, but it is worthwhile overall.

The upside to this book: she's got an interesting pantry selection plus a

 

glossary of ingredients and kitchen equipment needed.

Quality/Price Rating: 89

 

 

 

 

7.AUTENTICO (St. Martin's Griffin, 2017, 364 pages, ISBN 978-1-250-

 

12497-5 $35 USD hardbound) is by Rolando Beramendi, an importer

 

(Manicaretti). The 120 preps here are classic, and explore regionalisms.

 

Several important writers on Italian food provide the log rolling (e.g.

 

Lebovitz, Jenkins). The subtitle is "cooking Italian, the authentic way".

 

Rolando (with Rebekah Peppler) takes some family preps and others from

 

his suppliers, and has arranged them by chapters dealing with the pantry (la

 

dispensa), the prepared and ready to use food, the primo course, the

 

secundo, the accompaniments, ending with dolce. It's a vividly written book

 

sure to appeal to food book collectors.

Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and US avoirdupois

 

measurements.

Audience and level of use: Italian food lovers

Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: zuppa di farro; boiled veal

 

tongue with green sauce; broken fresh tomato halves; poached baby

 

pumpkins with traditional DOC Balsamic of Modena vinegar; fennel braised

 

in Chianti; orecchiette with sausage and broccoli rabbe.

The downside to this book: Physically, it is a very heavy book and the

 

gutters are hard to deal with when looking at text near the spine.

The upside to this book: a good accomplishment, with lots of head-notes for

 

background.

Quality/Price Rating: 87.

 

 

 

8.FIX-IT AND FORGET-IT HOLIDAY FAVORITES (Good Books, 2017, 338

 

pages, ISBN 978-1-68099-330-1 $19.99 USD paperbound) is by Hope

 

Comerford. It is one of a best-selling series of cookbooks centered around

 

the slow cooker. Hope Comerford has taken over the FIFI franchise. Here

 

she presents well over 150 slow cooker recipes suitable for holiday hosting,

 

including such as eggnog bread pudding, cranberry brisket, and orange

 

cheesecake. Once again, it has larger print (including the index) and

 

conversion charts for the measurements. Of course, everything here can be

 

braised on top of the stove the old-fashioned way. But if you have a slow

 

cooker (or an instant pot), you could do worse than "chicken broccoli rice

 

casserole". This prep comes from Gloria Julien in Michigan (all preps are

 

sourced), and gives the time as 30 minutes prep, 2 – 3 hours cooking, 5

 

quart slow cooker size. It's an easy-peasy recipe, slightly upscale for any

 

holiday feast. It is useful for potlucks or friendship dinners, especially for

 

people who are not terribly big meat eaters. And, as usual, there is a photo

 

of the finished product. The 150 preparations have their ingredients listed in

 

avoirdupois measurements, but there is a table of metric equivalents and

 

conversions. All courses are covered, and the print is large.

Audience and level of use: beginners, slow cooker aficionados.

Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: slow cooker turkey and dressing;

 

ham with sweet potatoes and oranges; gingerbread puffing cake; creamy

 

chive and onion mashed potatoes; cranberry pork loin.

Quality/Price Rating: 88.

 

 

9.HOW TO INSTANT POT (Workman Publishing, 2017, 280 pages, ISBN

 

978-1-5235-0206-6 $16.95 USD paperbound) is by Daniel Shumski, who

 

has authored "Will It Waffle?" and "Will It Skillet?". He currently lives in

 

Montreal. Here he tells us about the Instant Pot: a slow cooker, pressure

 

cooker, steamer, yogurt maker, rice cooker. It's just about perfect for the

 

single person, making a variety of dishes with leftovers for other meals.

 

Over 1.5 million have been sold to date in the USA. It is organized with a

 

primer at the front, followed by function, with measurement conversion

 

tables, general times for pressure-cooking, recipe conversion formats, high

 

altitude modifications, and so forth. His 100 recipes include a six minute

 

no-stir risotto, five kinds of yogurt, soups with dried ingredients from scratch,

 

quick pickles, even "baked" potatoes. He's also got quite a few instant pot

 

shortcuts. Preps are meant for the six quart IP models.

Preparations have their ingredients listed in avoirdupois measurements, but

 

there are also tables of metric equivalents.

Audience and level of use: Instant Pot fans

Some interesting or unusual recipes/facts: pork shoulder ragu; French onion

 

soup; Korean short ribs; French toast casserole; beef barbacoa tacos;

chocolate lava cakes with dulce de leche; faux cassoulet.

Quality/Price Rating: 88.

Chimo! www.deantudor.com

THE REISSUES, THE REPRINTS, AND THE NEWER EDITIONS...

 

...all reflect a boom in the cookbook publishing business. A paperback reprint will lower the cost to the purchaser, and also give a publisher a chance to correct egregious errors or add a postscript. Some will reissue a book in paper covers with a new layout or photos. Others will rearrange existing material to present it as more informative text while keeping the focus tight. Some magazines will reissue popular or classic recipes in an "easy" format. Here are some recent "re-editions"...

 

 

18.HOME SAUSAGE MAKING. 4th ed. (Storey Publishing, 1981, 1987, 2003, 367 pages, ISBN 978-1-61212-869-6 $24.95 USD paperbound) is by Charles G. Reavis and Evelyn Battaglia (who has completely revised and updated this book with new text and 120 new recipes out of the 200 total). It has been around since 1981 and has sold more than 277K copies thus far. The recipes cover fresh, cooked, smoked, dried and cured sausages, and include andouille, linguica, chorizo, bangers, kosher salami, breakfast sausage – about 100 recipes for beef, poultry, pork, lamb/goat, wild game, seafood, and veggies. Then there are 100 preps for sausage-based recipes such as skillet strata with greens and sausage, savoury quinoa breakfast bowl with vegetarian sausage, Scotch quail eggs, Spanish tortilla and mortadella mousse. Of course, there's the basic primer and some 20 profiles of professional sausage makers (including Blake Royer of Toronto who is listed as a "hobbyist"). The book could have been improved if it also used metric in the recipes, but at least it had metric conversion charts. Maybe next revision? Quality/price rating:  89.

 

 

 

 

 

19.HOW I COOK (Quadrille Publishing, 2010, 2017, 256 pages, ISBN 978-1-84949-950-7 $22.99 USD paperbound) is by Skye Gyngell, an Australian chef who has worked in Sydney, Paris and London, opening her UK restaurant Spring in 2014. It's a paperback reprint from 2010 and now available in North America. She has a basic collection of 100+ recipes dealing with her home cooking, ranging from breakfast and brunch through afternoon teas, weekday suppers, celebrations, and meal planning. There is also a large 40 page section on alfresco eating. It's an engaging book with an Oz-UK sensibility (huge prep for Christmas pudding). Try chicken with rice and basil, meringues with strawberries and cream, or cucumber sandwiches. Home life is the great life. Preparations have their ingredients listed in both metric and avoirdupois measurements. Quality/price rating: 87

 

 

 

20.CANADIAN WHISKY; the new portable expert. Rev and Updated 2d ed. (Appetite by Random House, 2012, 2017, 236 pages, ISBN 978-0-14-753075-2 $20 USD paperbound) is by Davin de Kergommeaux, a sommelier and whisky expert who has been writing for more than decade about whisky through print and his award-winning blog at <www.canadianwhisky.org> . This book is a revised paperback edition of the 2012 edition. At the time, it became a finalist of the 2013 Taste Canada Food Writing Awards, and then went on to win IACP Award for wine, beer and spirits. As a basic book, it covers what Canadian whisky contains (grains, water, wood), how it is made, flavours and tasting techniques, plus a concise history of the industry, with extra notes on the eight large distillers of Canadian whisky. There have been some changes here, including ownership and name changes, since 2012. And there is more material on micro-distillery bottling. About 100 new tasting notes have been added. A great basic book about Canadian whisky and the industry, made better for most people by the inclusion of a section about tasting techniques. There is a bibliography, a glossary, and two indexes: a general one and an index to the tasting notes. Quality/price rating: 89.

 

Chimo! www.deantudor.com

MORE TOP GIFT BOOK IDEAS FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON: Reference Books/Memoirs/Polemics, et al

MORE TOP GIFT BOOK IDEAS FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON

====================================

 

C.Perhaps some reference books? Such as:

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--KITCHEN SMARTS (America's Test Kitchen, 2017, 310 pages, $19.95

 

CAD paperbound) is from Cook's Illustrated magazine. It is in a Q & A

 

format designed to draw in the curious cook. Topics deal with myths,

 

substitutions, confidence, science, and terminology. There's a thematic

 

table of contents, covering baking, coffee, meat, pasta, seafood, salt,

 

equipment, veggies, dairy, etc. Plus an extended index.There are cheat

 

sheets galore plus advice on how to better use your fridge and oven, among

 

other appliances (such as ricers and food mills). It's a good tool, but a little

 

awkward and heavy to hold. Great for two-minute reading.

 

 

--THE BOOK OF CHEESE: the essential guide to discovering cheeses

 

you'll love (Flatiron Books, 2017, 406 pages, $56 CAD hardbound) is by Liz

 

Thorpe who has been working with cheese since she left a cubicle in 2002,

 

beginning with Murray's Cheese and now dealing with cheese in the New

 

Orleans area. Along the way she has authored The Cheese Chronicles.

 

Here she begins with exploring a world of cheese based on what you

 

already like or love via what she calls the Gateway cheeses: Swiss, blue,

 

Cheddar, Brie, and so forth. It's arranged by type, including Mozzarella,

 

Havarti, Taleggio, Manchego, Parmesan, and "Misfits", with appendices on

 

pasteurization, cheesemaking, flavours of gateways. Each type comes with

 

vertical and horizontal tastings for comparisons (e.g., gouda made from

 

goat, made from sheep, and made from cow milk).  There are also a few

 

recipes using cheeses from each section. A nice, nifty, and new approach.

 

Kudos!

 

 

--THE BOOK OF SPICE (Pegasus Books, 2016, 273 pages, $35.95 CAD

 

hardbound) is by John O'Connell. It's a dictionary-arranged tool A – Z, from

 

"ajowan" (used mainly  for Indian savouries and snacks, sometimes referred

 

to as Ethiopian cumin) to "zedoary" (widely used in Indonesian and Thai

 

food preps). Each is given a botanical name, none are illustrated, and there

 

are internal cross-references.  Also, there are end notes and  a bibliography.

 

The introductory chapter covers the importance and cultural history of

 

spices; the last chapter is a directory of 36 spice mixes, such as apple pie

 

mix, Cajun, Chinese five-spice powder, curry powder, harissa, quatre-

 

epices, za'atar, and more. No recipes, except for some of the mixes.

 

 

--PEPPERS OF THE AMERICAS (Lorena Jones Books, Ten Speed Press,

 

2017, 342 pages, $47 CAD hardbound) is about as comprehensive as they

 

come. Maricel E. Presilla is chef-owner of two restaurants, Cucharamama

 

and Zafra in New Jersey. She was a Beard Best Chef, Beard Cookbook of

 

the Year 2013, and has other accolades. As a food writer/columnist, she is

 

eminently qualified to write this researched reference tool on the Latin

 

American pepper. This the history of how "capsicum" traversed the various

 

foodways around the world, from its home in the  Amazon. She describes in

 

detail the 200 varieties, with illustrations (225 colour pix) and botanical

 

terms, tasting notes, recommended uses, plus info on growing. Buying,

 

storing, processing, and cooking. She's got the practical here: 40 recipes

 

for ground pepper blends, vinegars, sauces, and sides. A terrific gift for your

 

Scoville hound.

 

 

 

 

--HOW FOOD WORKS (DK, 2017, 256 pages, $26 CAD hardbound) is

 

from the project art team at DK. The shtick: the facts are visually explained,

 

So there are issues explored on nutrition basics, hunger and appetite,

 

flavour, smell and taste, digesting nutrients, carbos, fibre, fats, proteins, etc.

 

And more: water, fermentation, raw foods, processing, freezing, types of

 

food, drinks, diets, and the environments. Millennials will go nuts over this

 

multiple typeface, graphs, pix, timeline characterizations. Talk about rapid

 

eye movements! Usually it is two pages a topic. So diabetes is covered in

 

three body shots, a q & a, some graphs, and a lot of colour. Well-worth the

 

price.

 

 

 

--THE FOOD LOVER'S HANDBOOK (Ebury Press, 2017, 319 pages,

 

$31.99 CAD paperbound) is by UK grocer Mark Price, formerly of

 

Waitrose. He deals with how history, geography and production affect

 

quality and price, albeit from a British perspective. It's a good tool for

 

uncovering data about beverages (tea, coffee, whisky, cider, beer), oils,

 

preserves, desserts, butter-milk-flour-eggs-sugar, meats, veggies, fruit, salt,

 

pepper, herbs and spices. Each has an invariable rationale about why the

 

price varies. Typical answers here include which tea has expensive buds

 

and needs golden scissors, how to  make the perfect cup of coffee, where

 

to find the world's best beef, and others in this treasure trove. A bibliography

 

and index concludes the tome.

 

--THE BAKER'S APPENDIX (Clarkson Potter, 2017, 112 pages, $24.99

 

CAD hardbound) is by Jesica Reed. It's a handbook of tables with

 

conversions to/from avoirdupois and metric, fractions/decimals, unusual and

 

historical  measurement conversions (pinch, drops, gill, tumbler, wineglass,

 

dash, dram, jigger), sugar syrup temperatures, ingredient substitutions, DIY

 

extracts and natural food colourings, sprinkles, decorating tips for cakes

 

and cookies, adjustments for baking at high altitudes, and volume charts for

 

baking pans of all sizes. She's also got some basic recipes for cakes, quick

 

breads, cookies, frostings – all with variations.

 

 

--KNIFE (Quadrille, 2017, 224 pages, $41.99 CAD hardbound) is by food

 

writer Tim Hayward. It's an appreciation of the culture, the craft, and the cult

 

of the cook's knife. As log roller Anthony Bourdain manplains, it is "sheer

 

blade porn". He details the "anatomy" of the knife, the grips, the strokes,

 

knifemaking, knifemakers, and the differences and similarities of the major

 

40 knifes of the Western world, China , and Japan. Plus, of course, there is

 

the issue and technique of sharpness. No bibliography for further reading,

 

but there is a thorough index.

 

 

--9000 YEARS OF WINE; a world history (Whitecap, 2017, 438 pages,

 

$19.95 CAD paperbound) is by Rod Phillips. It's a revision of his earlier

 

work "A Short History of Wine" published in 2000, fully updated and

 

extended to the 21st century. He's comprehensive in coverage, looking at

 

different social classes and wine, trends in consumption, wine as a source

 

of pleasure through history, and as a cultural product, It's an engaging

 

reference tool noting dates, places and people, all with an index and a

 

bibliography. Illustrated with a few historical engravings. Nice little gift

 

package for your wine lover friends.

 

 

--THE NEW WINE RULES (Ten Speed Press, 2017, 152 pages, $19.99

 

CAD hardbound) is by Jon Bonne, award winning (Beards, Roederer) wine

 

writer and wine book author. Here he delves into 89 new rules of the wine

 

world, a tool which he says is a "genuinely" helpgul guide to everything you

 

need to know. His first new rule is to "drink the rainbow" -- all the colours of

 

wine from the clearness of Chablis through the ochreness of Syrah. His last

 

rule (#89) is "don't save a great bottle for anything more than a rainy day".

 

It's all wonderfully illustrated and can be read intermittently. My fave rule?

 

#39 - "the best time to buy a wine is when it's out of style" (as he points out,

 

"the upside to hating Merlot was that Merlot got much better").

 

 

 

D. For the more literate person, there are the histories, "memoirs", polemics

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and humour of writers, chefs, and wine people. Some have called these

memoirs "creative non-fiction", some with embellishments and gilding. And

many of them may suffer from a lack of indexing, which makes it difficult to

find what the writer said about another person or subject. But this also

avoids the potential for lawsuits and disjointed noses. Nevertheless, they

are rewarding to read. Who cares about poetic license? Here then are

some that stood out from  this year's run, and any of them would make great

gifts for the reader. Here we go, in no particular order…

 

 

--A HISTORY OF COOKBOOKS (University of California Press, 2017, 384

 

pages, $49.95 CAD hardbound) is by Henry Notaker, a literary historian

 

who has taught food culture. His numerous books and articles cover

 

European and Latin American food history and culinary literature. The dust

 

jacket promises a "sweeping"  overview of the cookbook genre, from the

 

Late Middle Ages onwards. It seems like a good survey text for the

 

burgeoning series of gastronomy courses. He's good at tracing the

 

transformation of recipes from brief notes with ingredients to detailed

 

recipes with a specific  structure, grammar and vocabulary. Along the way

 

he explores a lot of non-recipes found in cookbooks, that deal with nutrition,

 

morals, manners, history,  menus, and reflections/memoirs. Sub-genres

 

here include recipe naming, cookbook organization, didactic approaches,

 

recipe forms, vegetarian cookbooks, Jewish cookbooks, and the role of

 

cookbooks in promoting nationalism. There are also plenty of notes,

 

bibliographic references, and an index. With illustrations based on pages

 

from books and engravings of covers, this is a terrific tome for a gift.

 

 

 

--APRON STRINGS (Goose Lane, 2017, 380 pages, $24.95 CAD

 

paperbound) is by Jan Wong, an award-winning journalist who has written

 

about food off and on. Her father owned Ruby Foo's in Montreal. Here she

 

crafts a memoir with the subtitle "navigating food and family in France, Italy,

 

and China". These three countries excel at daily "haute cuisine" without

 

batting an eye, taking it all in stride. As a true reporter, Jan Wong narrates

 

the memoir of the journey she takes with her 22-year-old son Sam. She's full

 

of observations about the  globalization of food, families and culture. In

 

southeast France, they share with a family sheltering undocumented

 

immigrants; in Italy's slow food country they pick up authenticity of style; in

 

Shanghai they labour in the kitchen with some migrant maids of some of

 

China's "nouveaux riches". As with many mother- son stories there are levels

 

of disagreements, but they both share a central core. There are a dozen

 

recipes per country, but that's not really the point of the memoir. Good

 

stories, compellingly told.

 

 

 

--IN VINO DUPLICITAS (The Experiment, 2017, 248 pages, $37.95 CAD

 

hardbound) is by Peter Hellman, a long time journalist with writing credits at

 

Wine Spectator, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and others, along with

 

a string of investigative books (e.g. Kitty Genovese). Here he tackles the

 

"rise and fall of a wine forger extraordinaire", the Indonesian Rudy

 

Kurniawan, who, with a skilled palate, began promoting a limitless supply of

 

the rarest wines in the world. It reads like a crime novel, with tens of  millions

 

of dollars at stake in what later became spurious wines. Rudy slipped when

 

he tried to sell a particular red burgundy from 1945:  the winery was actually

 

first producing wine in 1982. Hellman does many skilful interviews to come

 

up with the story, which had appeared earlier as the 2016 documentary

 

"Sour Grapes".  (Duplicitas is a play on the word Veritas; it is actually a

 

medical term related to siamese twins). A fascinating read.

 

 

 

--SWEET SPOT (Dutton, 2017, 309 pages, $35 CAD hardbound) is by Amt

 

Ettinger, free lance writer. Here she  crosses the USA looking for the best

 

artisanal ice cream brands. In addition, she evokes childhood memories of

 

her love for ice cream, writes a few chapters on the cultural-social history of

 

ice cream in the USA, and attends seminars on making it. Her trips include

 

a visit to the one place in the USA that makes real frozen custard in a huge

 

machine known as the "iron lung", turf wars among ice cream trucks,

 

artisanal competitions, and even extreme flavours such as foie gas and

 

oyster. It comes complete with end notes that can serve as a bibliography,

 

and a great topical index.

 

 

--WHAT SHE ATE: six remarkable women and the food that tells their

 

stories (Viking, 2017, 307 pages, $36 CAD hardbound) is by culinary

 

historian  Laura Shapiro (Pefection Salad, Something from the Oven). Here

 

are stories about women who, apart from Rosa Lewis, have a tenuous

 

relationship with food. Yet good memoir writers can relate fascinating

 

stories about anybody from a specific angle, whether it is their relationship

 

to driving a car, doing home repairs, or just simply eating. Eva Braun is

 

here, with the food angle of Hitler; Eleanor Roosevelt and the menus at the

 

White House; and writer Barbara Pym. Also: Dorothy Woodsworth and

 

Helen Gurley Brown, and, in an Afterword, Laura Shapiro herself. Parts of

 

the work have appeared in The New Yorker. There are end notes, sources

 

and bibliographies, and even an index. Marvellous gift book.

 

 

 

 

--THE TEN (FOOD) COMMANDMENTS (Penguin, 2017, 140 pages, $15

 

CAD paperbound) is a worthy commentary. The "original" Ten

 

Commandments do not offer much in the way of food advice, so Jay Rayner

 

(restaurant critic for the Observer for 15 years, multiple appearances on UK

 

TV) has stepped in. In separate chapters, he deals with 10 Thou Shalts

 

(e.g., eat with thy hands, honour thou leftovers, not cut off the fat, celebrate

 

the stinky,  honour thy pig). Something decent to read on the commuter

 

train...

 

 

--GIVE A GIRL A KNIFE (Clarkson Potter, 2017, 311 pages, $35 CAD

 

hardbound) is by Amy Thielen, a Beard cookbook winner and host of a TV

 

show on the Food Network. This is a food memoir about her life's journey

 

from the US Midwest to New York City and then back again. It's a

 

humourous coming-of-age story, made all the better by the inclusion of a

 

index for retrieving specific stories, such as those about women working in

 

restaurants (many references here). Check out the work in  top end NYC

 

restaurants. Nicely written and worth reading, a good gift for the holiday

 

spirits.

 

 

--MEXICAN ICE CREAM (Ten Speed Press, 2017, 174 pages, $29 CAD

 

hardbound) is a delicious cookbook by Mexico City native Fany Gerson.

 

These are stories and cultural histories of the ice cream tradition in Mexico:

 

tropical fruits, chiles, and nuts. The range is from the ice cream parlours

 

(heladerias) to the mobile carts and roadside stands. Classic recipes

 

include Oaxacan lime sherbet, chocolate-chile ice cream, and horchata

 

(almond) ice cream with cinnamon. Added attractions include preps with

 

spicy and boozy flavours, plus an unusual assortment of toppings and

 

sauces. Great niche cookbook gift.

 

 

 

--CATHARINE PARR TRAILL'S "THE FEMALE EMIGRANT'S GUIDE":

 

cooking with a Canadian Classic (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2017,

 

540 pages, $39.95 CAD paperbound) has been edited by academic

 

Nathalie Cooke (editor of "What's to Eat?") and Fiona Lucas (co-founder of

 

the Culinary Historians of Canada). It is an amazing work. Originally

 

published in 1855, the Traill classic is full of recipes and advice, with tips on

 

local food sourcing (in 1855) and  describes daily domestic and seasonal

 

routines of settler life: make your own cheese, butcher your own hog, collect

 

your own eggs, drink your own homemade beer (reserve dregs for bread

 

yeast risings). The book has been annotated for modern living, with updated

 

preps, conversion charts, a large glossary, and an index for retrieval. Not

 

only is it about survival in Victorian Ontario, it is about the emigrant

 

experience. Very difficult to put down, and a perfect gift for the millennial to

 

understand context in life.

 

 

--IN MEMORY OF BREAD (Clarkson Potter, 2016, 262 pages, $35 CAD

 

hardbound) is by Paul Graham, an academic who teaches English. He's an

 

essayist, and these 20 gems take us through his new life as a celiac victim

 

and forced to rethink his eating and cooking patterns. It's a paean to the

 

memory and to the cherishing of food.  Gluten-free eating  is his journey.

 

He's got end notes and a bibliography, and there is even an index!  But no

 

recipes.

 

 

--TASTES LIKE CHICKEN (Pegasus Books, 2016, 273 pages, $36.95

 

CAD hardbound) is by Emelyn Rude. It is a history of North America's

 

favourite poultry. The first 50 pages covers the essentials of the bird in

 

history; the rest of the book is about the US development of the bird through

 

the fast food movement and the military might of  Colonel Sanders and

 

General Tso, leading up to the Freedom Rangers (my own term for free-

 

range chicken). Eggs are also discussed, and there are extensive end

 

notes and bibliography. Older recipes (and some modern ones) are used

 

and cited. In the middle of the book there is a collection of archival shots of

 

ads and people and farms from the past.

 

 

--THE NEW FOOD ACTIVISM (University of California Press, 2017, 336

 

pages, $37.95 CAD paperbound) is a collection of 11 major essays on

 

opposition, cooperation and collective action on food issues of today. In

 

addition to statements about pesticide regulatory-reform in California, there

 

are essays on food workers and food justice, Boston's emerging food

 

solidarity, and cooperative social practices in Chicago. There's even a

 

chapter on how Canadian farmers fought and won the battle against GM

 

wheat. The collection has been curated by Alison Hope Alkon and Julie

 

Guthman, both west coast US academics. They provide an introduction and

 

an epilogue for constructing a new food politics schematic. There are also

 

end notes and references plus a description of the contributors and an index

 

to tie it all together. Engaging, and well-worth reading over the holidays as a

 

reminder of what we are and how privileged we all are in North America

 

within the current global food structure.

 

 

--THE MEATY TRUTH (Skyhorse Publishing, 2017, 224 pages, $ 25.99

 

CAD paperbound) is a polemic by Shushana Castle and Amy-Lee

 

Goodman, outlining why our food is destroying our health and environment –

 

and who is responsible for the massive problems caused by the food supply

 

chain. Water, meat and milk-dairy are filled with toxins, antibiotics, growth

 

hormones, ammonia, and animal waste. Eating organic is not enough –

 

because there is not enough organic food for the world. So what to do? One

 

possibility is to shift to a plant-based diet.

 

 

 

--MY MOTHER'S KITCHEN (Henry Holt and Company, 2017, 306 pages,

 

$39 CAD hardbound) is a combo biography and autobiography by prolific

 

author Peter Gethers. His mother Judy Gethers was the daughter of a

 

restaurateur (Ratner's) in New York and a cookbook writer. In her 80s she

 

suffered a bad stroke and could no longer cook. Son Peter eventually

 

decided to prepare a birthday meal for her. But first he had to learn how to

 

cook better! He visits her regularly, they share meals together, they talk

 

about the meal that he will cook for her to tell the story of her life. His

 

mother's friends and  family will be brought to the table one last time. She

 

passed on but not before  tasting most of his food. She did not experience

 

the salmon coulibiac, filet mignon, tarte tatin or the challah. Scattered

 

throughout there are some recipes. This is a terrific memoir about how food

 

and family can do much more than feed us.

 

 

--EAT THIS POEM (Roost Books, 2017, 206 pages, $24.95 CAD

 

paperbound) is by Nicole Gulotta. She's got 25 inspirational poems dealing

 

with food and 75 recipes that were relevant to the poem. For example, to

 

Mary Oliver's "Mushrooms", she has preps for truffle risotto with

 

chanterelles, mushroom pizza with taleggio and thyme, and mushroom and

 

brie quenelles. Great fun for the poetry lovers among your friends. Recipes

 

are indexed and there is a listing by category for breakfast, soups, mains,

 

etc.

 

 

--FOOD, HEALTH AND HAPPINESS (Flatiron Books, 2017, 232 pages,

 

$45 CAD hardbound) is by Oprah Winfrey She's got 115 recipes for great

 

meals and a better life. Her preps, some with seven named chefs, are

 

paired with personal essays and memoirs from her life. There is also an

 

insight into her kitchen and how she works. Lots of it is simple, such as

 

"unfried chicken" or "kale and apple salad". She strongly believes that food

 

is a ritual to be shared in life, although I suspect that there is unfortunately 

 

strong competition from "texting". WeightWatchers SmartPoints are in each

 

recipe.

 

 

--EMPIRE OF BOOZE (Unbound; Random House Canada, 2017, 291

 

pages, $27.99 CAD hardcovers) is by Henry Jeffreys, a freelance UK wine

 

writer. His premise: "if not for Britain, most of the world's favourite drinks

 

would not exist, not even the French ones." His history of  the British Empire

 

is told through the filter of how the fave alcoholic beverages came to be. He

 

starts with cider, port, marsala, beer, madeira, gin, cognac, "claret",

 

champagne (with a direct connection to cider), and whisky. Compelling

 

evidence, or is it just coincidence? Also covered is the impact of alcohol on

 

literature, science, philosophy, and culture – quite a big overview here, with

 

interesting trivia and nicely written.

 

 

--AN IRISH COUNTRY COOKBOOK (Forge Books, 2017, 368 pages,

 

$24.99 CAD paperbound) is by Patrick Taylor, originally from Northern

 

Ireland but now living in BC. It's a collection of ten new short stories with

 

Kinky Kincaid, Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly, and others, complemented by 140

 

authentic family recipes such as champ, potted herrings, sweet mince,

 

potato and pumpkin seed bread, and classics such as colcannon and soda

 

bread. For your Irish friends, or Irish lovers.

 

 

--THE VEGETARIAN'S GUIDE TO EATING MEAT (Greystone Books, 2017,

 

240 pages, $22.95 CAD softcovers) is by Marissa Landrigan, a professor

 

of creative writing. It is the story of a young woman's search for ethical food,

 

told in memoir form. She grew up in a food-loving Italian-American

 

household, but transformed into a vegan activist at college. She says that

 

eating ethically was far from simple and cutting out meat was not the

 

answer. She then realized that the most ethical way of eating was to know

 

her food (meat or veggie) and prepare it herself. Read how she found the

 

ethical approach.

 

--PRESERVING ON PAPER: 17TH century Englishwomen's receipt books

 

(University of Toronto Press, 2017, 352 pages, $34.95 CAD softcovers) has

 

been edited by Kristine Kowalchuk. It's a critical edition of three handwritten

 

"receipt" books that includes culinary recipes, medical remedies, and

 

household tips which document the work of women at home. This was

 

shared knowledge that was passed on from generation to generation. Her

 

study offers insights into early women's writings and the original sharing

 

economy. Typical preps include stewed calf's head, boiled capon larded

 

with lemons, and plague water.

 

--BADDITIVES! (Skyhorse Publishing, 2017, 181 pages, $22.99 CAD

 

softcovers) should win  the award for the best play on words in titling. Food

 

safety journalists Linda and Bill Bonvie take on food corporations with their

 

notes about the 13 most harmful food additives in our diet. Then they tell us

 

how to avoid them. A well-researched account of toxicity: aluminum, artificial

 

colours, aspartame,  BHA/BMT, GMOs, High Fructose Corn Syrup, MSG –

 

and more, about 15 pages on each, along with an index, end notes and

 

bibliography. Well-worth reading.

 

--A GEOGRAPHY OF DIGESTION (University of California Press, 2017,

 

222 pages, $43.95 CAD paperbound) is by Nicholas Bauch, an academic

 

at the University of Oklahoma. It's all about biotechnology and Kellogg

 

cereals, number 62 in the California Studies in Food and Culture. It's

 

scholarly, of course, with many end notes, bibliography, and an index.

 

Kellogg was experimenting with nutritional and medical science at his

 

sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan. He believed that good health

 

depended on digesting the right food in the right manner. He created a

 

relationship between food, body and the environment. This is his story, as

 

researched and told by the author, and involves Seventh Day Adventists, the

 

Sanitarium, modern nutrition and health, and the rise of new medical

 

technologies. Fascinating.

 

 

--CORK DORK (Penguin Books, 2017, 329 pages, $23 CAD paperbound)

 

is by Bianca Bosker, who writes about food and wine for major US and UK

 

magazines and newspapers. The subtitle pretty well says it all -- "a wine-

 

fueled adventure among the obsessive sommeliers, big bottle hunters, and

 

rogue scientists who taught me to live for taste." It is also about a wine

 

epiphany: tasting wine. She looks at what drives people's tastings –

 

pursuing flavours through underground tasting groups, sommeliers at

 

restaurants, large wineries, neuroscientists, and the like. She briefly alludes

 

to the concept of "supertaster": one-quarter of the population has a higher

 

concentration of taste buds on the tongue, and with training, can pick out a

 

larger variety of flavours. I'm a verified supertaster; unfortunately, she is not.

 

So that makes it harder for her, and she spends 18 months pursuing this

 

goal of tasting. Does she succeed? Well, read the book, it's worth a shot.

 

Chimo! www.deantudor.com

TOP GIFT BOOK IDEAS FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON

 

By Dean Tudor, Ryerson Journalism Professor Emeritus and Gothic

Epicures Writing, www.deantudor.com (World Wine Watch Newsletter).

Blogs: http://gothicepicuresvincuisine.blogspot.com.

           http://fauxvoixvincuisine.blogspot.com.

          Twitter: @gothicepicures

 

------

 

There are always many new food and wine books out there for people who

have picky tastes!! What to choose? I have cast about for material and have

come up with a decent selection of materials published in 2017 to satisfy

any pocketbook, any host, and any friend or relative. All books and book-like

materials that are listed here are RECOMMENDED for gifting, and can be

purchased at a discount via Amazon.Ca, Chapters.Indigo.Ca (with free

delivery on a total purchase of over $25 or so), or even The Book

Depository in Guernsey (free delivery and no GST from the UK).

Price Alert: because of US dollar fluctuations with Canada, all prices will vary.

 

Part One: TOP GIFT IDEAS

========================

 

A. Art/travel/restaurant cookbooks might be some of the best books to give

a loved one (or to yourself, since you are your own best loved one). Most

may cost you an arm and a leg. Books for the coffee table have their place

in the gift scheme: just about every such book is only bought as a gift! And

are often perused first by the donor (you). Don't let the prices daunt you.

Such books are available at a discount from online vendors. Because of the

"economy", not too many pricey food and wine books were released this

year. Herewith, and in random order:

 

 

--DAVID TANIS MARKET COOKING (Artisan , 2017, 480 pages, $58 CAD

 

hardbound) is by, well, Chef David Tanis. You know the chef has arrived

 

when the publisher puts the name as part of the actual title. He's worked as

 

a chef for three decades, notably at Chez Panisse and Cafe Escalera. He's

 

also the author of several cookbooks, and is currently writing a weekly food

 

column for the New York Times. Here is a collection of 200 recipes and

 

thoughts, ingredient by ingredient, on food likely to be found at farmers'

 

markets, or, as the French say "la cuisine du marche". As he says, it means:

 

I go to the market, see what looks best, and then decide what will go in the

 

meal. Fresh ingredients provide the inspiration, and the majority of the

 

preps are veggie-based and global in scope. Indeed, the arrangement is by

 

vegetable, with alliums (garlic, onions, leeks, shallot, scallions) having a

 

chapter all to themselves. There is also material on seasoning and kitchen

 

essentials (eggs, dairy, rice, pasta, noodles, et al).

 

 

--THE LAMBSHANK REDEMPTION COOKBOOK (Dog 'n' Bone, 2017,

 

144 pages, $29.95 hardbound) is by Lachlan Hayman, who also wrote

 

Killing Me Souffle (a collection of music-based recipes). Here he has

 

collated 50 movie-inspired recipes. Although Silence of the Lambs is here

 

renamed Silence of the Clams (and comes in as a bacon and clam

 

chowder), I think the original fava beans and liver with Chianti would have

 

been  more appropriate. But chacun a son gout. Most of the dishes relate to

 

a re-titling of the films, such as Bratwurst at Tiffany's, The Hummus Crown

 

Affair, The King's Peach, or My Big Fat Greek Salad. Jurassic Pork also

 

works for me.  Good idea for the movie mavens.

 

 

--ISTANBUL & BEYOND (Rux Martin/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, 352

 

pages, $50 CAD hardbound) is by food writer Robyn Eckhardt. It's an

 

exploration of the diverse cuisines of Turkey, with excellent travel and food

 

photography by David Hagerman. There is also material on stocking the

 

Turkish pantry for the serious cook, and a glossary. This is the cross-roads

 

country between Europe and Asia, and shows heavy influences from the

 

surrounding countries such as Syria, Iraq, Iran, Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria

 

and Greece. All courses are covered, and there is a separate index to

 

recipes by category. For example, breads include borek, tahini buns, pan

 

bread, kete, corn breads, flatbreads, hand-pies, and bread rings. Plenty of

 

meat, but no pork. Historical cultural and travel notes accompany just about

 

every recipe.

 

 

 

--VENETO: recipes from an Italian country kitchen (Guardian Books/Faber

 

and Faber, 2017, 288 pages, $42.95 CAD hardbound) is by Valeria

 

Necchio, who grew up in the countryside of inland Veneto (not Venice itself).

 

Here she tells stories of food, people and places, sharing recipes with

 

credit. This is, as Alice Waters endorsed, regional home cooking at its best.

 

The first part explores "then", the second part does "now" (both 125 pages

 

each) while the third part is the Venetian seasonal pantry.  There's baccala

 

mantecato, schie frite, sarde in saor, ovi e sparsi, maroni rosti, fritaja de

 

erbe – and scores more. Good company for Brunetti when he travels inland.

 

 

--LISBON (Hardie Grant Books, 2017, 256 pages, $50 CAD hardbound) is

 

by UK freelance food writer and TV presenter Rebecca Seal who has

 

written other food travel books (Istanbul, The Islands of Greece). She's got

 

some culinary links to former Portuguese colonies such as Goa,Brazil and

 

Mozambique, which have added to the local Lisbon food scene  Each

 

recipe has a story. The classics are here: salt cod and chickpea seals, piri

 

piri chicken, Goan fish curry, and, of course, clams with pork (or is it pork

 

with clams?). Preps are titled in both Portuguese and English, and the index

 

provided a comprehensive analysis. Travel and plated photos  are by her

 

husband food and drink photographer Steven Joyce. A very worthwhile gift

 

for people who have already been there and want to refresh their memories.

 

 

--RIVER COTTAGE A TO Z: our favourite ingredients and  how to cook them

 

(Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017, 708 pages, $86 CAD hardcovers) is by

 

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall plus contributions from eight others on the River

 

Cottage team. They go to work with short notes and cross-referenced

 

recipes for each ingredient (with writer attribution). It is this year's monster

 

gift at this price and weight of just under six pounds (2.6 kilos). Not for the

 

slight. It is a fine reference tool as well since there is a lot here that you may

 

never see or use, such as puffballs, woodcock, winkles, purslane, or snipe.

 

But the common are also covered, such as eggs, bacon, cheese, salt, and

 

allspice.  Each mini-essay details  the origins, propagation, and culinary

 

uses of vegetables, herbs, seafood, and meats. Beware, though, of the

 

distinct British orientation (eg, aubergines).

 

 

--BANGKOK (Ten Speed Press, 2017, 360 pages, $47 CAD hardbound) is

 

by Leela Punyaratabandhu, who writes about Thai food (she had previously

 

authored Simple Thai Food). This one covers the food of Bangkok, her

 

hometown. It's loaded with street food which, of course, needs a strong

 

urban/tourist environment. In addition to the photos of plated recipes, there

 

are many stories of Bangkok with photos of the landscape. Here are 120

 

preps ranging from curried chicken puffs, omelette rolls with crabmeat and

 

shrimp paste relish, chicken matasman curry, noodles and desserts. She's

 

got strong notes on pantries and rice, as well as the engaging stories of

 

Bangkok foods.

 

 

--DALMATIA (Hardie Grant Books, 2017, 224 pages, $57 CAD hardbound)

 

is by Ino Kuvacic, who owns and chefs at  Dalmatino in Melbourne. It's this

 

year's Croatian cookbook (there is usually one a year). These are preps

 

from Croatia's  Adriatic coast, with four chapters covering veggies, seafood,

 

meat and sweets. Most of the photos are of the plated foods, but there are

 

some obviously tourist-y ones from along the coast. Try brudet (Dalmatian

 

fish stew), crni rizot (black risotto) and duved (sauteed veggies with rice).

 

Engaging...

 

 

--LURE (Figure 1, 2017,  240 pages, $38.95 CAD hardbound) is by Ned

 

Bell, once executive chef of Four seasons Hotel Vancouver and other

 

places but now heavily involved with seafood sustainability groups such as

 

"Chefs for Oceans" which he founded in 2014. He's writing with Valerie

 

Howes, food editor of Reader's Digest Canada and currently writing a work

 

on edible landscapes and seascapes of Fogo Island, Newfoundland. These

 

are sustainable seafood recipes from the West Coast of Canada. The

 

recipe section is arranged by type: white fish, fatty fish, shellfish, and sea

 

greens. It is headed by a recipe list by course, so you can always find a

 

sandwich or soup or app. There is a 50-page chapter on specie profiles, so

 

you can get the lowdown on what to look for when buying and how to prep.

 

There's one dessert here (seaweed brownies), and one drink (seaweed

 

vodka caesar) plus salads, mains, snacks, appetizers, sandwiches, and

 

soups. He's identified all the healthy fish and shellfish species on the West

 

coast, so it is a useful tome to assuage any feelings of irresponsibility.

 

 

 

--THE CHILTERN FIREHOUSE: THE COOKBOOK (Ten Speed Press,

 

2017, 320 pages, $66 CAD hardbound) is from a London restaurant in a

 

Victorian building which also houses a 26-suite hotel. The building, in

 

Marylebone, was once the Manchester Square Fire Station, but was

 

renovated by Andre Balazs (who also owns hotels in New York and

 

Hollywood). He's on the title page, as is Nuno Mendes the chef. The

 

Firehouse is strong on cocktails and snacks. Stephen Fry's faves are the

 

Firehouse Sazerac, bacon cornbread fingers with chipotle maple butter and

 

fried chicken with smoky bacon ranch dip. Among the mains you will find

 

the red mullet with endive hearts, mussels and marcona almonds. To

 

conclude, Fry wants to die with the frozen apple panna cotta on his lips. A

 

third of the (oversized) tome is cocktails and snacks, and if you add starters

 

(which are actually large snacks or small plates), then you are up to page

 

170  -- more than half the book. Mains and deserts are about 100 pages.

 

Add brunch and a lot of well-sited photos with a history of the establishment.

 

Recommended strongly as a gift for the millennials.

 

 

--THE DESSERTS OF NEW YORK (Hardie Grant Books, 2017, 242

 

pages, $34.99 CAD softbound)  is by travel cookbook author Yasmin

 

Newman. It is a detailed survey guide to the various places one can find

 

desserts in NYC, with info on places, people and areas. She's got the

 

recipes for the "best" NYC cheesecake, NYC cupcakes, and NYC banana

 

cream mille crepes – among others. For your NYC friends and visitors.

 

 

--THE GRAND CENTRAL MARKET COOKBOOK (Clarkson Potter, 2017,

 

256 pages, $40 CAD hardbound) is by Adele Yellin (her firm owns and has

 

operate the GCM since 1984) and Kevin West. This is cuisine and culture 

 

from downtown Los Angeles. The GCM has been here since 1917; this is its

 

centennial year. The 34 stalls are a mix of legacy tenants and new vendors –

 

all culturally diversified with a great ethnic mix of food. There are 85 recipes

 

to make at home, plus pix of the buzz at the market. Narratives include

 

behind-the-scenes stories and interviews with popular vendors and longtime

 

shoppers. Preps have been sourced from the stalls and the whole book has

 

been wrapped around excellent photography and illustrations.

 

 

 

 

 

--IN MY KITCHEN (Ten Speed Press, 2017, 286 pages, $42.50 CAD

 

hardbound) is by the indefatigable Deborah Madison, one of the most

 

important cookbook authors (14) with major awards (Beard, Fisher, IACP)

 

working in the area of vegetarian food. More than 100 recipes here come

 

from her personal selection of what she eats today in New Mexico. It's all

 

organized by major ingredient, and each prep has some vegan and gluten-

 

free variations. Consider the basic tomato and red pepper tart in a yeasted

 

crust, or the Japanese sweet potato soup with ginger and smoked salt.

 

She's got lots of cook notes and tips for the preps, complemented by

 

sterling close-up photography. A great gift idea – in fact, buy two and keep

 

one for yourself.

 

--PROVENCE TO PONDICHERRY (Quadrille, 2017, 288 pages, $50 CAD

 

hardbound) is by Tessa Kiros, with photography by Manos Chatzikonstantis

 

and food styling by Michail Touros. It's about the French threads in food and

 

travel, and goes through Provence, Guadeloupe, Vietnam, Pondicherry, La

 

Reunion, and Normandy – all within 300 or so pages. Part memoir and part

 

recipes, with lots of photos. There's rougail tomate, coriander chutney, sticky

 

rice with coconut and ginger, tapenade, fried shallots – and more. A great

 

guide for the traveller.

 

 

--FRANCE: from the source (Lonely Planet Books, 2017, 288 pages,

 

$34.99 CAD hardbound) is by Carolyn Boyd. Each chapter covers  a

 

specific geographical area; there are four of these (northern, central,

 

southeast and southwest France), plus recipe sources. These are the best

 

local dishes from restaurant chefs, such as snails with butter and parsley  or

 

salade lyonnaise or salade nicoise. And, of course, there are cultural notes

 

about the dish, the region, and the chef. One of a very impressive series

 

(which already has Japan, Spain, and Mexico).

 

 

--MEXICO: from the source (Lonely Planet Books, 2017, 288 pages,

 

$34.99 CAD hardbound) is by five different authors, each to a region. There

 

are five  geographical regions (Baja California, Yucatan, Oaxaca, Pacific

 

Coast and Mexico City) plus recipe sources. These are the best local

 

dishes from restaurant chefs, such as habanero salsa, tuna tostados,

 

ceviche, chicken legs with red chile spices, pozole, and turkey soup with

 

meat balls. And, of course, there are cultural notes about the dish, the

 

region, and the chef. One of a series.

 

 

--STREET FOOD ASIA (Hardie Grant Books, 2017, 306 pages, $60 CAD

 

hardbound) is by Luke Nguyen of Saigon who travels through Malaysia,

 

Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, with photography by Alan Benson. It's an

 

oversized tome concentrating on both the street food (such as duck egg and

 

beef martabak) and the vendors, with cultural stories about the food. It is all

 

aromatic fragrant food, full of baguettes and banana leaves, pork and rice,

 

tamarind water, tea and tofu. And now you can make the foods at home with

 

the given recipes.

 

 

--DINNER (Clarkson Potter, 2017, 400 pages, $47 CAD hardbound) is by

 

award-winning IACP and Beard author Melissa Clark, staff food writer for

 

the New York Times. She's got 200 recipes that, in her opinion, "change the

 

game". It's arranged by main ingredient: chicken, meat (but including duck

 

and turkey), ground meats, seafood/fish, eggs, pasta, tofu, veggie dinners,

 

rice, pizzas, soups, salads, and add-ons such as dips/spreads/breads. It is

 

an oversized and heavy tome, very impressive as a gift.

 

 

--ACQUACOTTA (Hardie Grant Books, 2017, 272 pages, $50 CAD

 

hardbound) is by Emiko Davies, who has lived in Tuscany for many years.

 

This is the cuisine of Tuscany's Silver Coast by the Tyrrhenian Sea (Monte

 

Argentario, with its Port Ercole where she lived for awhile:  "Cucina

 

Maremmana"). These recipes and stories are dominated by the water and

 

lagoon, although there are preps from the surrounding woods and cultivated

 

farms. The chapter "Dal Mare e Dalla Laguna" seems to have many ancient

 

seafood dishes from the fishing towns. She's even got a bibliography for

 

further reading. Lots of non-food photos and stories also makes this a travel

 

work.

 

--THE COMPLETE ASIAN COOKBOOK (Hardie Grant Books, 2017, 640

 

pages, $75 CAD hardbound) is by Charmaine Solomon. It was first issued

 

in 1976 and extensively revised in 2011; over its life it has sold more than a

 

million copies. The collection of 800+ recipes from Asiatic countries (India,

 

China, Japan, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma,

 

Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Philippines, Korea, and Thailand) has been

 

translated into other European languages. This is its 40th anniversary

 

celebration edition. It's a huge oversized tome but is very comprehensive

 

and well-written – it is sure to please as a terrific gift.

 

 

--MY FRENCH COUNTRY HOME (Gibbs Smith, 2017, 208 pages, $50

 

CAD hardbound) is by Sharon Santoni,  whose blog is the same as the

 

book's title.  It deals with entertaining through the seasons (beginning with

 

spring), and comes with gorgeous photography by Franck Schmitt.

 

Scattered throughout are easy versions of classic French cuisine, such as

 

cherry clafoutis, quiche Lorraine, fougasse bread, tarte Tatin, and roast duck

 

– about 15 in all. A  definite coffee table tome; indeed, it IS a coffee table –

 

just attach legs (available separately). Her topics are universal: daily life in

 

rural France (here, Normandy) with its ups and downs; French girlfriends;

 

intricacies of village life; and searching for brocante treasure in the flea

 

markets of Paris and the countryside. Well-worth a look.

 

 

--KING SOLOMON'S TABLE (Knopf, 2017, 386 pages, $47 CAD

 

hardbound) is by Jean Nathan, multiple cookbook award winner (Beard,

 

IACP, Child) and host of PBS cookery shows. For forty years she has

 

specialized in Jewish cooking themes, and here gives us a culinary

 

exploration of Jewish diaspora cooking from around the world. It is an

 

informative guide to the international global scope of Jewish cooking,

 

arranged by course and major ingredient: pantry matters, morning dishes,

 

starters, salads, soups, grains, veggies, fish, poultry, meats and sweets.

 

She's got socca, spanakit (Georgian spinach salad) and keftes garaz

 

(Syrian meatballs). Most of the 170  preps are accompanied by detailed

 

cultural notes and photos. There is also an in-depth bibliography and a

 

thorough index. Well-worth perusing.

 

 

 

--PORTLAND COOKS (Figure 1 Publishing, 2017, 226 pages, $37.95

 

CAD hardbound) is by local cookbook author and food writer/blogger

 

Danielle Centoni, who also has a Beard Award. It is another in the great

 

series from Figure 1 detailing recipes from a city's best restaurants and

 

bars. Having done the major cities of Canada, the Canadian publishers are

 

expanding to contiguous locations such as Portland (can Seattle be far

 

behind?). The series is fairly straightforward: there is an introduction to the

 

restaurants and the local food scene, followed by a home version of the

 

restaurant's recipe (usually one or two) and some detail about the

 

establishment with pix. Copyright to the preps is normally held by the

 

restaurant; they are loaded with ideas.   It's a great tome for any fan or

 

resident of Portland.

 

 

--TORONTO EATS  (Figure 1 Publishing, 2017, 238 pages, $37.95 CAD

 

hardbound) is by Amy Rosen, author of Toronto Cooks (2014) in the Figure

 

1 series. That  work sold pretty well, and as she says "now we're back for

 

seconds". Here are 100 signature recipes from 50 chefs (some of whom

 

were in the first one). Restaurants here include Boralia, Byblos, Honest

 

Weight, Lena, Nota Bene, Pizzeria Libretto, Zucca Trattoria. There are

 

stories from the restaurants (who hold the copyrights to the recipes)  and

 

photos, plus pix of plated dishes.  A great addition to the Toronto scene, and

 

a must-read for the Holidays.

 

B. And how about gift books for the beverage drinker? Try –

=====================================

 

--HALLIDAY WINE COMPANION 2018 (Hardie Grant Books, 2017, 776

 

pages, $57 CAD paperbound) by James Halliday, who has been at wine

 

writing for about 47 years. This is the definitive guide to Australian wines.

 

He gives us data about the wineries and their vineyards, deets on

 

addresses, social media, opening hours, names and other numbers,

 

followed by detailed tasting notes, vintage-specific ratings, advice on

 

optimal drinking period, ABV, and prices. There are supposed to have been

 

some 10,000 wines tasted for this edition, and he has full tasting notes for

 

3859 (couldn't he push it up to 4K?), ratings and prices for 2979 other

 

wines, 1237 winery profiles (77 are new wineries), "best of" lists and five-

 

star wineries listed. There are vintage charts and maps plus multiple

 

indexes. But I am sure if he got together with his Kiwi counterpart, they could

 

come up with some antipodean pocket guide at 256 pages to cover both

 

countries and sell it in North America and the UK; it's sure to be a winner.

 

 

--DR. ADAM ELMEGIRAB'S BOOK OF BITTERS (Dog 'n' Bone, 2017, 160

 

pages, $30 CAD hardbound) is "the bitter and twisted history" of one of the

 

cocktail bar's most fascinating ingredient. There is a brief history, followed

 

by the "myth of Angostura". Fascinating indeed is the manufacturing

 

process. Tastewise, a light use of bitters picks up flavours in the cocktail

 

and emphasizes them with a slight tang. Elmegirab, a bar writer and

 

educator who also owns a bitters company, provides us with 50 cocktail

 

recipes created by bartenders (including himself) from around the world.

 

They showcase the different intents of bitters: acidity on the palate, saltiness

 

enhancement, savoury umami, and the like.  A good book to have.

 

 

--THE CURIOUS BARTENDER'S RUM REVOLUTION (Ryland Peters &

 

Small, 2017, 256 pages, $37.50 CAD hardbound) is by Tristan

 

Stephenson, who has authored four other Curious Bartender books

 

(Whiskies, Cocktails, Gin, plus one on Coffee) over the years. This is a

 

guidebook to the rum revival, with cultural and historical notes and photos.

 

Yesterday's grog has become a range, from white rum through aged and

 

spiced varieties – just about all of it premium spirits. Sugarcane and

 

molasses never had it so good! He's got notes on 50 or so rum distilleries

 

throughout the world, 250 tasting notes, plus the stories behind the iconic

 

drinks of Mai Tai, Mojito, Pina Colada, and Planter's Punch.

 

 

--THE CHAMPAGNE GUIDE 2018-2019 5th edition (Hardie Grant Books,

 

2017, 368 pages, $50 CAD hardbound) is by Tyson Stelzer who covers 625

 

Champagnes from 113 important producers. It is as up-to-date as it can be,

 

with new chapters on tips for buying Champagne this year, a  chapter on

 

Champagne and food matching, and updated deets on 95 producers (a few

 

have been dropped but 40 new players have been added). Houses and

 

cuvees that did not make the cut are featured in the index only.  Some wines

 

are tasted on the Champagne site while others were tasted in Australia (and

 

can be indicative of travel and storage). Grape varieties and percentages

 

are indicated as well as long tasting notes and points out of a hundred.

 

Glossaries are also included. Great guide for travellers too. A posh book for

 

a posh wine.

 

 

--ANCIENT BREWS REDISCOVERED AND RE-CREATED (W.W. Norton

 

& Company, 2017, 291 pages, $35.95 CAD hardbound) is by Patrick E.

 

McGovern, an adjunct professor of anthropology  at U Penn who has written

 

two other "ancient" drink books: "Uncorking the Past" and "Ancient Wine".

 

Here he looks at beer and the early experimentation with high-sugar fruits,

 

honey, roots, cereals, herbs and tree-resins. He combines archaeology with

 

science to cover China, Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Scandinavia, Peru – and more

 

– in their attempts at the perfect brew. Along the way he has the original

 

recipes, the re-created preps (not guaranteed, says the publisher), and food

 

pairing. Plus archival illustrations and a chapter-by-chapter bibliography.

 

--NEW ZEALAND WINE: the land, the vines, the people (Hardie Grant

 

Books, 2017, 376 pages, $85 CAD hardbound) is by geographer Warren

 

Moran, professor emeritus at the University of Auckland, which originally

 

published this tome late last year. Here is the international edition published

 

in Australia and now being made available in North America. Moran has

 

extensively covered the rural industries of New Zealand. This is a great

 

introduction to the wines: the terroir, the grape varieties, the families and

 

personalities, the companies, and the wines themselves. There's a brief

 

history and then a swing through the eight wine regions. All with maps,

 

archival photos, panoramic views, and the rise (and importance of )

 

sauvignon blanc on the world stage. Pricey, but definitive – and more than

 

just a coffee table addition.

 

--NATURAL WINE; in introduction to organic and biodynamic wines made

 

naturally. 2nd Edition. (CICO Books, 2014, 2017 $34.95 CAD hardbound)

 

is by Isabelle Legeron, MW

There is a large argument raging in the wine world over what is a natural

 

wine. Some believe that it should be applied only to organic and

 

biodynamic farms; others think it should also mean "sustainable" or "green",

 

etc. The key would simply be to get rid of the word "natural" and just have

 

"organic or biodynamic" and "sustainable". It is only the organic and

 

biodynamic wines that are certifiable. There are no controls over the rest of

 

the "natural" wording on the label. Indeed, some organic wineries just press

 

organic grapes and then use regular winemaking techniques. They can still

 

call their wines organic. I know of many farms who use the term "natural" to

 

reflect their organic practices, because they just do not have the money nor

 

the wait time to apply for certification. Wine is a process, and it is also an

 

industry. Wineries try to be consistent from year to year because they have a

 

product to sell. The weather determines the  "corrections" the winemaker

 

needs to take (more acid, earlier/later picking, more sugar, more irrigation,

 

etc.), but a  natural O or  B winery rolls with the punches and produces wine

 

"as is". The author takes us through the year and discusses wine faults,

 

stability, health issues, taste, fermentation, sulphites, and a load of

 

contentious issues. She gives notes on over 150 wines, sorted by types

 

(bubbly, red, white, orange, rose, sweet). Not surprisingly, France has the

 

most listings, followed by Italy: these are the two leaders by production. 

 

Other additional sections cover a glossary, lists of associations and wine

 

fairs, restaurants and stores for the US and UK, and a bibliography.

 

--THE ESSENTIAL COCKTAIL BOOK (Ten Speed Press, 2017, 342

 

pages, $24.99 CAD hardbound) is by a former wine editor at Food & Wine

 

magazine, Megan Krigbaum. It is a guide to modern drinks with about 150

 

recipes. There is the usual primer on bar essentials covering ingredients

 

and glassware plus garnishes. This followed by the classic recipes (170

 

pages) and then the modern recipes (130 pages), ending with a collection

 

of syrups. All of the modern ones come from current bartenders at current

 

bars, all of the preps being sourced. Good photos for the presentation and

 

the garnishes. You won't need more than this charming tool unless you just

 

want to improvise on your own...and why not?

 

Chimo! www.deantudor.com