Gastronomy Books - Page 13

Arthur Schwartz's New York City Food: An Opinionated History and More Than 100 Legendary Recipes

Arthur Schwartz

Amazon Price: $13.74 List Price: $27.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Stewart, Tabori & Chang Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $13.74

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> History
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> U.S. Regional -> Middle Atlantic
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> U.S. Regional -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Arthur Schwartz is the Big Apple’s official foodie-about-town, a fellow who has fork-and-knived his way through the five boroughs. He knows his knish from his kasha, his bok choy from his bruschetta, his falafel from his frittata. And in Arthur Schwartz’s New York City Food, which won the IACP Award for Cookbook of the Year in 2005, he shared his gastronomic expertise, chronicling the city’s culinary history from its Dutch colonial start to its current status as the multicultural food capital of the world. The affordable new paperback edition is chock-full of the same fascinating lore, along with 160 recipes for American classics that either originated or were perfected in New York: Manhattan Clam Chowder, Eggs Benedict, Lindy’s cheesecake.

Throughout the book, Schwartz’s text is transporting, taking readers back to Delmonico’s, the Colony, and the Horn & Hardart Automats. Whether revealing how an obscure dish known as Omelet Surprise was transformed into the decidedly chichi dessert Baked Alaska; investigating why some Jewish restaurants came to be known as Roumanian steakhouses; or instructing readers on the way to bake a molten chocolate minicake worthy of Jean-Georges Vongerichten, Arthur Schwartz’s New York City Food is the ideal dining companion.

The Berghoff Family Cookbook: From Our Table to Yours, Celebrating a Century of Entertaining

Carlyn Berghoff, Nancy Ross Ryan

Amazon Price: $19.79 List Price: $29.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Andrews McMeel Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $16.98

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> History
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> U.S. Regional -> Midwest
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> U.S. Regional -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The history of Chicago's Berghoff Restaurant spanned three generations and 107 years. It was one of America's oldest family-owned restaurants. To commemorate such a rich culinary history, Carlyn Berghoff and her mother, Jan Berghoff, collected 150 of the restaurant's most popular recipes, including classics such as Creamed Spinach, Berghoff Rye Bread, and Wiener Schnitzel. They paired them up with more contemporary offerings such as the Shrimp Martini, Grilled Vegetables with Red Pepper Aïoli, and Brie and Raspberry Grilled Cheese Sandwiches to create The Berghoff Family Cookbook: From Our Table to Yours, Celebrating a Century of Entertaining.

· Recipes are presented alongside tempting four-color photographs and informative sidebars that offer tips on dressing salads, serving soups, pairing culinary flavors, and more. The book's introductory narrative tells the Berghoff family's story and introduces the next generation of the Berghoff legacy.

Fourth-generation entrepreneur Carlyn Berghoff operates her own catering company, Artistic Events, out of the famous Chicago building at 17 West Adams. Carlyn also has opened 17/West at the Berghoff, more casual fare is still offered at the downstairs Café, and the Berghoff Café still operates out of locations at O'Hare International and Midway airports.

The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine

Rudolph Chelminski

Amazon Price: $4.99 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Gotham Amazon Marketplace: 23 new & used starting at $2.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A lot to like, but a major gripe 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

I agree with virtually all of the reviews, but I found the writing style incredibly irritating. There seems to be no word sufficiently arcane. Peers can only be confreres (and in italics), and some of the analogies are suitable for those with a doctorate in medieval history.
Ironic given that Loiseau's was keen on presenting ingredients in their purest form.

Editorial Review:

On the evening of February 24 2003, an astounding story broke into French radio and TV news bulletins, then raced around the world: Bernard Loiseau, France's most famous chef, had committed suicide. More than a surprise, it was simply unbelievable, because he was a man who had everything: a super luxurious hotel and restaurant holding three stars, the highest rating of the Michelin guide; media star status at home and an enviable reputation worldwide for the daring cuisine des essences he had invented; a great staff, entirely devoted to his cause; an attractive loyal wife and three beautiful young children. He was on top of the world, and yet he chose to end it all or was it was because he was on top of the world? Enigma.

The United States of Arugula: The Sun Dried, Cold Pressed, Dark Roasted, Extra Virgin Story of the American Food Revolution

David Kamp

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Broadway Amazon Marketplace: 80 new & used starting at $1.92

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> Essays
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> History
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

America's obsession with all things culinary. 4 out of 5 stars.
3 of 7 people found this review helpful.

"It's not enough to liberate yourself politically, to liberate yourself sexually--you have to liberate all the senses"--Alice Waters (p. 131).

From the Food Network to the popularity of farmers' markets, from kitchenware stores like Williams-Sonoma to grocery stores like Whole Foods, from restaurant critics to celebrity chefs, from Ratatouille to bestselling books like this one and The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, one thing is certain. Americans are obsessed with food, and not just any food. David Kamp is a writer and editor for Vanity Fair and GQ. In The United States of Arugula, Kamp follows the cultural history of gourmet dining in the U.S., from Wonder Bread to whole wheat, focusing much of his attention on "the Big Three" food visionaries, James Beard, Julia Child and Craig Claiborne, who revolutionized America's eating habits. Kamp reveals how, over the course of fifty years, a few cookbook writers, restaurant owners, and celebrity chefs (including Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck, and Emeril, among others), transformed food into an American obsession for all things fresh, organic, and culinary. Since the 1950s, America has become a country of gourmets and foodies, who search out only the very best food, who are concerned not only about health and nutrition, but about the science, industry, and the personalities surrounding their food. Kamp's fascinating culinary history offers revealing insights into the eating habits that define us as a country, insights that left me wondering if perhaps we're suffering from a national eating disorder.

G. Merritt

Editorial Review:

The wickedly entertaining, hunger-inducing, behind-the-scenes story of the revolution in American food that has made exotic ingredients, celebrity chefs, rarefied cooking tools, and destination restaurants familiar aspects of our everyday lives.

Amazingly enough, just twenty years ago eating sushi was a daring novelty and many Americans had never even heard of salsa. Today, we don't bat an eye at a construction worker dipping a croissant into robust specialty coffee, city dwellers buying just-picked farmstand produce, or suburbanites stocking up on artisanal cheeses and extra virgin oils at supermarkets. The United States of Arugula is a rollicking, revealing stew of culinary innovation, food politics, and kitchen confidences chronicling how gourmet eating in America went from obscure to pervasive—and became the cultural success story of our era.

Reflections of a Wine Merchant

Neal I. Rosenthal

Amazon Price: $16.32 List Price: $24.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Amazon Marketplace: 53 new & used starting at $11.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Memoirs
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A leading importer of limited-production wines of character and quality takes us on an intimate tour through family-owned vineyards in France and Italy and reflects upon the last three decades of controversy, hype, and change in the world of wine

In the late 1970s, Neal I. Rosenthal set out to learn everything he could about wine. Today, he is one of the most successful importers of traditionally made wines produced by small family-owned estates in France and Italy. Rosenthal has immersed himself in the culture of Old World wine production, working closely with his growers for two and sometimes three generations. He is one of the leading exponents of the concept of “terroir”—the notion that a particular vineyard site imparts distinct qualities of bouquet, flavor, and color to a wine. In Reflections of a Wine Merchant, Rosenthal brings us into the cellars, vineyards, and homes of these vignerons, and his delightful stories about his encounters, relationships, and explorations—and what he has learned along the way—give us an unequaled perspective on winemaking tradition and what threatens it today.

 

Rosenthal was featured in the documentary film Mondovino and is one of the more outspoken figures against globalization, homogenization, and the “critic-ization” of the wine business. He was also a major subject in Lawrence Osborne’s The Accidental Connoisseur. His is an important voice in defense of the individual and the artisanal, and their contribution to our quality of life.

Scotland and its Whiskies: The Great Whiskies, the Distilleries and Their Landscapes

Michael Jackson

Amazon Price: $13.57 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Duncan Baird Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $8.39

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Drinks & Beverages -> Spirits
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> History
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> European -> English, Scottish & Welsh

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Truly magical insite to Scotland and her Whiskies 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 16 people found this review helpful.

A couple of years ago I was blessed by being given one of the best, if not the best job in the world. "Brand Ambassador" for one of the finest and best known Scotch Whisky Brands. After an all too brief trip to Scotland, I have dedicated most of my free time to reading everything about Scotland and her Whiskies that I can get my hands on.
Mr. Jackson's wonderfully poetic description of the land that now owns my heart has served to make a return trip much more than a wish.
I so loved this book that I made a gift of it to the library of Cardhu Distillery.
Thank you Mr. Jackson for making Scotland come alive to Whisky lovers everywhere.
Slainte bha
Charles Swett

Editorial Review:

In his Malt Whisky Companion, Michael Jackson—past winner of The Glenfiddich Trophy and no fewer than five Glenfiddich Awards—was the first writer to describe in detail the aromas and flavors of Scotland’s most famous product. Now he goes even deeper into the world of whisky, discussing the terroir that shapes the taste of this classic liquor. Jackson’s passion for Scotland and its whiskies comes through clearly and deliciously, and photographer Harry Cory Wright (Strand: The Shifting Sands of the Outer Hebrides) beautifully captures the landscape’s magnificent colors and textures. Whether studying the ancient forms of barley in the Orkneys, drinking tea with peat-cutters while a storm brews over Islay, or preferring the finished product by the shore at sundown, they bring a personal understanding to the magic of malt.

How to Cook a Wolf

M. F. K. Fisher

Amazon Price: $10.20 List Price: $15.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: North Point Press Amazon Marketplace: 46 new & used starting at $6.93

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Baking -> General
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Baking -> General AAS
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> Essays

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Unusual writing for unusual times 5 out of 5 stars.
42 of 42 people found this review helpful.

M.F.K. Fisher was a superb writer. And she lived in "interesting times" in Europe and California. How to Cook a Wolf pitted her inate love of food and cuisine against some severe times when money might be short or food was rationed. Her strange sense of humor and practical outlook are interesting; for example, she gives a recipe for a sludge to keep body (if not soul) alive. The instructions begin with borrowing 50 cents to buy the ingredients; hamburger, wilted vegetables. The resulting mush can be used as a nutritious dog food, or a staple to survive on. She even claims it can be quite acceptable fried as scrapple, but then you'd have to have some cooking fat (and even that could be hard to come by.)

In these times of plenty, it's hard to relate to this book except to read Fisher's ideas and fantastic prose; the section on "Sue" (really California artist and etcher Nel Coover) who survived and entertained her guests with wild ice plants, seaweed and stolen eggs and potatoes is captivating.

If you have never read any M.F.K. Fisher, start with "The Measure of My Powers", but if you have read her, and if you have developed a taste for her marvelous writing, this is one of her famous works that is unique and interesting.

Editorial Review:

Written to inspire courage in those daunted by wartimes shortages, How to Cook a Wolf continues to rally cooks during times of plenty, reminding them that providing sustenance requires more than putting food on the table. M. F. K. Fisher knew that the last thing hungry people needed were hints on cutting back and making do. Instead, she gives her readers license to dream, to experiment, to construct adventurous and delicious meals as a bulwark against a dreary, meager present. Her fine prose provides reason in itself to draw our chairs close to the hearth; we can still enjoy her company and her exhortations to celebrate life by eating well.

Eat Where You Live: How to Find and Enjoy Fantastic Local and Sustainable Food No Matter Where You Live

Lou Bendrick

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Skipstone Press Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $4.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> Essays
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Natural Foods
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Special Diet -> Healthy

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The description does not do this book justice. 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This is one of the most practical guides to sustainable, delicious, healthy eating I have found.

(Disclaimer: I know Lou Bendrick, but we rarely agree on anything and I am hyper-critical, so she will be shocked if she sees this review)

This book contains really USEFUL, and some times humorous, information and good recipe ideas, too. Ok, I will try the beet sandwich really soon.

Enjoy what you eat 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Lou Bendrick understands the locavore-persona and doles it out in down to earth sections in Eat Where You Live. This book not only made me hungry (for some good, healthy food) but also got my noggin's gears turning. Eat Where You Live, is more than helpful with its lighthearted and funny text which explains that there is more to the frozen food isle at the supermarket and actually there is more to food than supermarkets in general!
Most Americans have lost the food-land connection. Bendrick provides the insight of her experience in gathering what food she can as close to home as possible, depending on the seasons and the landscape.
I read the book over a few days but will likely use it as a reference for certain sections again and again. There are tons of web sites listed throughout for further exploration as well as recipes and little interviews with inspirational sustainable gardeners, farmers and eaters. I especially savored the section on foraging and taking meals at a slower pace. We could all slow down a little. Slow down, and start by reading about how your diet can become more sustainable and more enjoyable.

Editorial Review:

A user-friendly field guide for eating healthy, locally-grown foods regardless of where you live.

Finally--a fresh, funny and positive approach to eating locally! By now you know that everyone is eating locally and sustainable and maybe you want to do it too--to reduce your carbon footprint or just to ensure the freshest, healthiest food for yourself and your family. Whatever the case may be, this easy-to-read, hilarious and informative national guidebook will help you find it, cook it, and enjoy it.

America Eats!: On the Road with the WPA - the Fish Fries, Box Supper Socials, and Chitlin Feasts That Define Real American Food

Pat Willard

Amazon Price: $15.59 List Price: $25.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Bloomsbury USA Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $9.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> Essays
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> History
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> U.S. Regional -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

What the Sterns did for road food, Pat Willard does for festive American group eating in this exploration of our national cuisine, with a never-before-published WPA manuscript as her guide.
In America Eats! Pat Willard takes readers on a journey into the regional nooks and crannies of American cuisine where WPA writers—including Eudora Welty, Saul Bellow, Ralph Ellison, and Nelson Algren, among countless others—were dispatched in 1935 to document the roots of our diverse culinary cuisine. With the unpublished WPA manuscript as her guide, Willard visits the sites of American food’s past glory to rediscover the vibrant foundation of America’s traditional cuisine. She visits a booyah cook-off in Minnesota, a political feast in Mississippi, a watermelon festival in Oklahoma, and a sheepherders ball in Idaho, to name a few. Featuring recipes and never-before-seen photos, including those from the WPA by Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, and Marion Post Wolcott, America Eats! is a glowing celebration of American food, past and present.

Lobscouse and Spotted Dog: Which It's a Gastronomic Companion to the Aubrey/Maturin Novels (Patrick O'Brian)

Anne Chotzinoff Grossman, Lisa Grossman Thomas, Patrick O'Brian

Amazon Price: $12.89 List Price: $18.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton & Company Amazon Marketplace: 44 new & used starting at $10.30

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Gastronomy -> History
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> Regional & International -> European -> English, Scottish & Welsh
Subjects -> Cooking, Food & Wine -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Very well-researched and authentic! 5 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

I haven't cooked anything from this cookbook yet. It's not exactly family dinner fare. But I've flipped through it enough to know that the writers have done a great deal of research into the food, on land and sea, in the times and places of the Aubry/Maturin novels. In several cases, they offer two recipes for one dish, one that tells how it would have been cooked in a ship's galley and one that tells how to cook it in a modern kitchen. My husband has read all of O'Brien's books and has looked through the cookbook to find many dishes he remembers from the books. They're all there. It was everything I hoped it would be. Now if I could just find a good reason to cook this stuff! :)

Editorial Review:

Celebrate the joys of Patrick O'Brian's acclaimed Aubrey/Maturin series with this delightful cookbook, full of the food and drink that so often complement Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin's travels. Collected here are authentic and practical recipes for such eighteenth- and early-nineteenth-century dishes as Burgoo, Drowned Baby, Sea-Pie, Solomongundy, Jam Roly-Poly, Toasted Cheese, Sucking Pig, Treacle-Dowdy, and, of course, Spotted Dog. Also included are historical notes on the origins of the dishes as well as sections on the preparing of roasts, puddings, and raised pies.