Showing titles in Gastronomy

When Suzan Colón was laid off from her dream job at a magazine during the economic downturn of 2008, she needed to cut her budget way, way back, and that meant home cooking. Her mother suggested, “Why don’t you look in Nana’s recipe folder?” In the basement, Suzan found the tattered treasure, full of handwritten and meticulously typed recipes, peppered with her grandmother Matilda’s commentary in the margins. Reading it, Suzan realized she had found something more than a collection of recipes—she had found the key to her family’s survival through hard times.

Author Bruce Jarett has put together a must-have entertaining guide for people who love to cook and want to know the inside scoop when it comes to professional cooking tips. His humorous advice on shopping methods, food preparation, serving guests, understanding recipes, and dealing with common kitchen mishaps, is enjoyably spot on - fun to listen to, and will prove to be an invaluable go-to manual for the home cook and for professional chefs.

Most people don’t expect wood to flavor their food beyond the barbecue, if at all, and gastronomists rarely discuss the significance that wood has on ultimate taste. But trees and wood have a far greater influence over our plate and palate than you might think. A world trip brimming with fascinating encounters, unexpected turns, beautiful landscapes, scientific discoveries, and historic connections, The Flavor of Wood is the story of a passionate flavor hunter, and offers listeners unparalleled access to some of the world’s highest quality cuisine and unknown tree flavors.

Growing up in a vegetarian family, Tara Austen Weaver never thought she’d stray. But as an adult, she found herself in poor health and, after trying cures of every kind, a doctor finally ordered her to eat meat. Warily, she ventured into the butcher shop, and as the man behind the counter wrapped up her first-ever chicken, she found herself intrigued. Eventually, he dared her to cook her way through his meat counter.

Breaking the Chain began with Allyson Reedy wanting to eat better-tasting, more adventurous food. After watching friends, family, and strangers eat unsatisfactory meal after meal at chain restaurants and get fatter as a result, she wondered how we could break this chain of mediocrity, obesity, and commercialism. So in 2009, Allyson Reedy stopped eating meals, snacks, and goodies from the kinds of restaurants that line America’s streets and dominate our stomachs.

In this follow-up book to A Natural History of Wine and A Natural History of Beer, authors Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall yet again use alcoholic beverages as a lens through which to gain a greater appreciation of natural history.

Throughout a career spanning 30 years, well-known food critic and writer (and little-known collector of spice grinders of eclectic origin) Marryam H. Reshii has had a relentless love affair with spices. Such has been her passion that she has travelled across the country and to various corners of the world - crushing, grinding, frying and tasting - in a bid to understand every aspect of these magnificent ingredients.

CREMO! La nova revolució de Maria Nicolau. Columna publica Cremo!, el nou llibre de Maria Nicolau. Reflexions gastronòmiques de la cuinera més revolucionària dels últims anys. El fenomen que ha revolucionat la gastronomia. Cremo! és el crit d'alerta que s'etziba a les cuines professionals quan es carrega una olla que pesa o una paella amb oli roent quan passem pel costat d'un company.

How did a bar like P. J. Clarke’s saloon become the beloved watering hole for Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, Jacqueline Kennedy, Rocky Marciano, and Buddy Holly (not to mention the fictional Don Draper)? And what was it about their bacon cheeseburger that caused Nat King Cole to pronounce it "the Cadillac of burgers"? Established in 1884 and bought in l904 by Patrick "Paddy" Joseph Clarke, this Irish saloon in a beautiful Victorian building on the corner of Third Avenue and 55th Street has captivated generations of New Yorkers.

Join us in this exclusive audio program for candid conversations with luminaries in the food world. Kitchen Round Table brings you inside the homes and hearts of Lidia Bastianich, Madhur Jaffrey, Judith Jones, Betty Fussell, and Deb Perelman. We hear about their earliest food memories and how each slowly made their way into the kitchen and ultimately inspired generation upon generation of home cooks. We'll learn how complicated recipes are translated for those of us who don't dice and julienne in our sleep, but we'll also hear about memorable gourmet feats and culinary fireworks, and unforgettable meals.

A Belgian chocolate cake topped with a velvety homemade mousse catches your eye on the menu. The next thing you know, you've ordered it - despite the hefty price. But do you know why? Through over 40 compelling questions, this book explores how our eating decisions tread the line between conscious and subconscious, and enables us to be more intelligent about food. With expert insights that draw from psychology, neuroscience, popular culture, and more, learn to see the innumerable influences behind your diet and cravings.

Charles E. Hires and the Drink That Wowed a Nation chronicles the humble origin and meteoric business success of this extraordinary entrepreneur. Author Bill Double uses published interviews, correspondence, newspaper reports, magazine articles, financial data, and a small family archive to tell this story of native ingenuity. Here, the rough-hewn capitalism of the gilded age, the evolution of the neighborhood drugstore, the rise of advertising in creating mass markets, and the emerging temperance movement all come together in a biography that fizzes with entrepreneurial spirit.

The 10 Commandments may have had a lot going for them, but they don't offer those of us located in the 21st century much in the way of guidance when it comes to our relationship with our food. And Lord knows we need it. Enter our new culinary Moses, the legendary restaurant critic Jay Rayner, with a new set of hand-tooled commandments for this food-obsessed age. He deals once and for all with questions like whether it is ever okay to covet thy neighbour's oxen (it is), eating with your hands (very important indeed) and if you should cut off the fat (no).

From fish and fiddleheads to salmonberries and Spam, Alaskan cuisine spans the two extremes of locally abundant wild foods and shelf-stable ingredients produced thousands of miles away. As immigration shapes Anchorage into one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the country, Alaska's changing food culture continues to reflect the tension between self-reliance and longing for distant places or faraway homes.

This book explores the idea that table activities - the mealtime rituals of food preparation, serving, and dining - lay the foundation for a proper education on the value of civility, the importance of the common good, and what it means to be a good citizen. The arts of conversation and diplomatic speech are learned and practiced at tables, and a political history of food practices recasts thoughtfulness and generosity as virtues that enhance civil society and democracy.

Cakes are present at all of life’s defining moments. We commemorate the day of our birth, our weddings, our most significant festivals through the medium of cake. It is a source of comfort and joy, a reminder of all that is good.  Across Britain, particular cakes represent the heritage and resources of the communities that created them.  The book will cover twelve cakes that intersect with our lives at important moments and the individuals who have shaped the history of cake in our land; slices of our lives and slices of British life.

Simon Majumdar is probably not your typical idea of an immigrant. As he says, "I'm well rested, not particularly poor, and the only time I ever encounter 'huddled masses' is in line at Costco." But immigrate he did, and thanks to a Homeland Security agent who asked if he planned to make it official, the journey chronicled in Fed, White, and Blue was born. In it, Simon sets off on a trek across the United States to find out what it really means to become an American, using what he knows best: food.

From Michael Pollan to locavores, Whole Foods to farmers' markets, today cooks and foodies alike are paying more attention than ever before to the history of the food they bring into their kitchens - and especially to vegetables. Whether it’s an heirloom tomato, curled cabbage, or succulent squash, from a farmers' market or a backyard plot, the humble vegetable offers more than just nutrition - it also represents a link with long tradition of farming and gardening, nurturing and breeding. In this charming new book, those veggies finally get their due.

When the Khourys and McKissicks meet to share a neighborly meal, an adventure begins.

Living in the changing ethnic landscape of Kansas City, one is a family of Syrian immigrants; the other, African Americans with roots in Louisiana. What brings them together is a love of food. Along with friendship, a dream takes root between the two mothers, Miriam and Tamara - starting a new restaurant that will feature the specialties from both of their traditions, the Caf Deux Mondes, or Two Worlds Cafe.

A culinary memoir that brings to life some of the most fascinating, glamorous food years in France and reveals gastronomical treasures from gifted artisans of the French countryside. From small cafes in Paris to Normandy, Alsace, the Basque country, and beyond, Dryansky takes us on a sweeping sensory journey, with a voice as thoughtful as Kingsolver, as entertaining as Bourdain, and as cogent and critical as Pollan.