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The Nasty Bits
Bestselling chef and No Reservations host Anthony Bourdain has never been one to pull punches. In The Nasty Bits, he serves up a well-seasoned hellbroth of candid, often outrageous stories from his worldwide misadventures. Whether scrounging for eel in the backstreets of Hanoi, revealing what you didn’t want to know about the more unglamorous aspects of making television, calling for the head of raw food activist Woody Harrelson, or confessing to lobster-killing guilt, Bourdain is as entertaining as ever. Bringing together the best of his previously uncollected nonfiction—and including new, never-before-published material—The Nasty Bits is a rude, funny, brutal and passionate stew for fans and the uninitiated alike..-.
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Extremely Pale Rosé
On a sunny day in the south of France, over a typically languorous French lunch, Jamie Ivey, his wife, Tanya, and their friend, Peter, discover the distinct pleasures of drinking a bottle of cool, pale rosé in the Mediterranean sun. Far from the plonk he’s used to in England, Jamie is entranced by a blushing wine that is see as no more than an aperitif by the French, but one that is rising in popularity all over the world. Owing to a translation mishap, Jamie finds himself challenged to the task of finding the palest bottle of rosé in France. Rising to the occasion, he sets off with Tanya and Peter in tow through the vineyards of France to find the elusive bottle. They visit the main rosé producing areas, trawl through every tiny bar and sample the local bistros. Peters noses out the local specialties, as well as the best purveyors for threateningly odoriferous cheeses. Extremely Pale Rosé is food and travel writing in the best tradition as Jamie and his fellow travelers eat, sip, and taste with the colorful vintners, chefs, bakers and townspeople who live in and among the vineyards..-.
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Daughter Of Heaven
New in paperback! Leslie Li belongs to the illustrious Lu family of Guilin, China. Her paternal grandfather, Li Zongren, was China’s first elected vice president, to whom Chiang Kai-shek left control of the country when he fled to Formosa. Leslie’s father was studying in the US when he met and married her American-born mother. Nine years after the Communist takeover in 1949, Leslie’s grandmother, Nai-nai, comes from China to live with her son’s family in New York, bringing a whole new world of sights, smells, and tastes as she quickly takes control of the kitchen. Nai-nai’s wonderfully exotic new cooking opens up the heart and mind of her American granddaughter to her Chinese heritage–and to the world. As Leslie grows into adulthood, taste becomes the keeper of memories, and food the keeper of culture. It is through her grandmother’s traditional Chinese cuisine that Leslie expertly bridges the cultural divide in an America in which she is a minority–and the growing gap at home between her rigid, traditional father and her progressive American-born mother. Interspersed throughout her poignant and moving memoir are the author’s personal recipes, most from Nai-nai’s kitchen, that add a delicious dimension to the work..-.
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We’Ll Always Have Paris
For more than a century, pilgrims from all over the world seeking romance and passion have made their way to the City of Light. The seductive lure of Paris has long been irresistible to lovers, artists, epicureans, and connoisseurs of the good life. Globe-trotting film critic and writer John Baxter heard her siren song and was bewitched. Now he offers readers a witty, audacious, scandalous behind-the-scenes excursion into the colorful all-night show that is Paris — interweaving his own experience of falling in love, with a delightfully salacious tour of the sultry Parisian corners most guidebooks ignore: from the literary cafés of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and de Beauvoir to the brothels where Dietrich and Duke Ellington held court, where Salvador Dali sated his fantasies, and Edward VII kept a sumptuous champagne bath for his favorite girls..-.
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Dirty Sugar Cookies
Ayun Halliday’s fourth book, Dirty Sugar Cookies, takes readers into the unpredictable mind and comical experiences of a true anti-foodie, giving even the most hopeless cooks a moment of relief from self-criticism, and the least discriminating eaters a reality check. Halliday started out a repressed picky eater without so much as a single fast-food-loving sibling to save her from the gourmet ambitions of a mother whose recipe for Far East Celery once received favorable mention in the Indianapolis Star. Her palate has since expanded to the degree that she’ll fork down anything from chili-smothered insects that pass for an exotic destination’s local delicacies to a peanut found wedged between the cushions of a theater seat. From summer camp’s unlimited Pop-Tarts to the post-coital breakfasts of a well-traveled actress-waitress and the frustrating payback of cooking for some finicky offspring of the author’s own, Dirty Sugar Cookies is an omnivorous, hilarious chronicle of culinary awakening..-.
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The World In My Kitchen
A wonderful new memoir with innovative recipes from the James Beard Award-winning food writer who has been called the heir to M.F.K. Fisher. Colette Rossant’s first two books describe her fascinating and exotic–if often unhappy–childhood in France and Egypt. But the biggest adventure of her life began in 1955, when she sailed to New York with her new husband James Rossant, an American architect. At first she found Americans’ manners to be as mystifying as their cuisine. But soon she was raising a family, renovating a town house, and embarking on an extraordinary career. The cooking school for children she started turned into a starring role on a PBS television series, and as New York magazine’s Underground Gourmet, she hailed la nouvelle cuisine, the food revolution that woke up America’s bland palate. With and without her husband and children, she traveled to Africa, China, Japan, and South America, where she learned culinary secrets from master chefs and humble housewives alike (and generously shares their recipes with her readers). Spirited and indomitable, endlessly curious and adventurous, Colette Rossant’s writing, like Ruth Reichl’s, appeals as much to the heart and soul as to the stomach; she inspires us to savor every meal and every day..-.
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Life, Death And Bialys
A mystery writer and his strange (and estranged) father bake their way to truth, reconciliation, and forgiveness. In 2002, Flip Schaffer asked his son to join him in an intensive bread class at a fancy culinary school in New York. At first, the idea seemed considerably less than half-baked. The two hadn’t spent much time together–not since Flip left Dylan and his siblings in the care of their crazy mother thirty years before. Neither knew the first thing about making bread. And Flip’s end-stage lung cancer was expected to kill him long before the class began. But Flip made it. The two spent seven days at the French Culinary Institute becoming artisanal bakers and seven tumultuous nights in a shabby Bowery hotel getting to know each other. And to their mutual astonishment, just in time, they came something close to terms..-.
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Julie & Julia:
New in paperback! With the humor of Bridget Jones and the vitality of Augusten Burroughs, Julie Powell recounts how she conquered every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking and saved her soul. Julie Powell is 30 years old, living in a tiny apartment in Queens and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that’s going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will take her mother’s worn, dog-eared copy of Julia Child’s 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes–in the span of one year. At first she thinks it will be easy. But as she moves from the simple Potage Parmentier (potato soup) into the more complicated realm of aspics and crepes, she realizes there’s more to Mastering the Art of French Cooking than meets the eye. And somewhere along the line she realizes she has turned her outer-borough kitchen into a miracle of creation and cuisine. She has eclipsed her life’s ordinariness through spectacular humor, hysteria, and perseverance..-.
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Mostly True
Former New York Yankee outfielder Paul O’Neill’s big sister is definitely a writer: this reads like shards of family stories, each one burnished to a deep shine of memory and longing. It’s not a family bio, exactly; although she writes of her parents and five younger brothers, each looms large and fades. She writes about being female and tall in her childhood home in Ohio; about what made her parents who they were; about each of the boys, especially golden-haired baby Paulie. She writes, with offhand elegance and bone-deep humor, about the food of the Midwest, her mother’s food, and the food she learned to cook later, in Provincetown and in Paris. Although it starts rather dreamily and slowly, the book’s final chapters, chronicling more recent times–with her as the food writer for the New York Times and Paul as the baseball warrior for the New York Yankees–are like listening to a friend you want to know better reminisce about her incredibly engaging and engaged life. Anyone interested in any of the words of the subtitle will find much to enjoy..-.
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The Short Life And Long Times Of Mrs. Beeton
In Victorian England there was only one fail-safe authority on matters ranging from fashion to puddings to scullery maids: Beeton’s Book of Household Management. In this delightful, superbly researched biography, award-winning historian Kathryn Hughes pulls back the lace curtains to reveal the woman behind the book–Mrs. Beeton, the first domestic diva of the modern age–and explores the life of the book itself. Isabella Beeton was a twenty-one-year-old newlywed with only six months’ experience running her own home when–coaxed by her husband, a struggling publisher–she began to compile her book of recipes and domestic advice. The aspiring mother hardly suspected that her name would become synonymous with housewifery for generations. Nor would the women who turned to the book for guidance ever have guessed that its author lived in a simple house in the suburbs with a single maid-of-all-work instead of presiding over a well-run estate. Isabella would die at twenty-eight, shortly after the book’s publication, never knowing the extent of her legacy. As her survivors faced bankruptcy, sexual scandal and a bitter family feud that lasted more than a century, Mrs. Beeton’s book became an institution. For an exploding population of the newly affluent, it prescribed not only how to cook and clean but ways to cope with the social flux of the emerging consumer culture: how to plan a party for ten, whip up a hair pomade or calculate how much money was needed to permit the hiring of a footman. In the twentieth century, Mrs. Beeton would be accused of plagiarism, blamed for the dire state of British cookery and used to market everything from biscuits to meat pies. This elegant, revelatory portrait of a lady journalist, as she lived and as she existed in the minds of her readers, is also a vivid picture of Victorian home life and its attendant anxieties, nostalgia, and aspirations–not so different from those felt in America today..-.
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Life Uncorked
Hugh Johnson, the preeminent wine writer of our time, now brings to his fans around the world his first major new book in a decade: this stylish, intimate, and delightfully opinionated autobiographical tour through the world of wine. A Life Uncorked weaves Johnson’s wide-ranging ruminations, memories, and observations on his remarkable life together with information on every aspect of wine–from its technical production to its cultural significance. In luminous, utterly engaging prose, he taps into his enormous experience to consider topics such as tasting, cellaring, choosing, understanding, comparing, and buying wine, as well as wine’s more ephemeral and personal pleasures, lures, and mysteries. At the heart of A Life Uncorked is the idea that wine is more than a drink; its characteristics link it directly to memory, to locations around the world where grapes are grown and wine is made, and to the dining rooms, restaurants, bars, and gardens where we consume it. Johnson takes us to all of these places and many more in this delightful and revelatory memoir. Peppered with anecdotes throughout, A Life Uncorked simultaneously educates and entertains with its absorbing perspective on the complex and fascinating world of wine from one of its most well-known and well-liked aficionados..-.
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Making Good:
Tony Allan is a rare breed – a masterful chef as well as a great businessman. He is second only to Sir Terence Conran as Britain’s wealthiest restaurateur and enjoys celebrity status following his primetime BBC cookery show Tony & Giorgio, with best pal Giorgio Locatelli. Packed with entertaining anecdotes, his inspiring biography and business manual, Making Good, gives a real insight into one of the few remaining characters on the UK’s restaurant scene and a template for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to know how it could – but perhaps shouldn’t – be done. Making Good is the fly-on-the-kitchen-wall cookumentary of exactly what Tony Allan did and why he did it the way he did. It is essential reading for wannabe millionaires from all walks of life, including anyone who has ever dreamt of running their own business or opening a successful restaurant. Making Good will inspire anyone hungry for a genuine rags-to-riches story. ‘I call Tony my English brother. He is the man who introduced me to English culture and we have had some wonderful times together. Launching Bank restaurant was a fantastic experience, one I will always remember, so this book is very special.’ –Christian Delteil, Managing Director of Bank Restaurants.-.
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Backstage with Julia
Now in paper. An intimate portrait of Julia Child, from the woman who was at her side for 24 years.From 1980 onward, Nancy Verde Barr was Julia Child’s right-hand woman–the executive chef and friend who helped orchestrate the television shows, cookbooks, and articles that made Julia such a beloved figure. Now, Barr looks back over their long association and brings to life the real Julia–the adventurous, inquisitive, and often mischievous woman who was completely unassuming despite her fame. Sharing vivid anecdotes and stories–from prepping a cooking demonstration on Good Morning America to vacationing with Julia in France–as well as personal notes, letters, and recipes, Backstage with Julia is a delightful read for all of the people who made Julia’s My Life in France a bestseller..-.
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The Vegetarian Myth:
Part memoir, nutritional primer, and political manifesto, this controversial examination exposes the destructive history of agriculture–causing the devastation of prairies and forests, driving countless species extinct, altering the climate, and destroying the topsoil–and asserts that, in order to save the planet, food must come from within living communities. In order for this to happen, the argument champions eating locally and sustainably and encourages those with the resources to grow their own food. Further examining the question of what to eat from the perspective of both human and environmental health, the account goes beyond health choices and discusses potential moral issues from eating–or not eating–animals. Through the deeply personal narrative of someone who practiced veganism for 20 years, this unique exploration also discusses alternatives to industrial farming, reveals the risks of a vegan diet, and explains why animals belong on ecologically sound farms..-.
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Cooked:
Now in paper. Jeff Henderson was just another inner-city black kid born into a world of poverty and limited options, where crime seemed to provide the only way to get out. Raised mostly by his single mother, who struggled just to keep food on the table, Jeff dreamed big. He had to get out and he soon did by turning to what so many in his community did: dealing drugs. But Jeff was no ordinary drug dealer; by twenty-one, he was one of the top cocaine dealers in San Diego, making up to 35,000 a week. Two years later he was indicted on federal drug trafficking charges and sentenced to almost twenty years in prison. Before he knew what had hit him, he was looking at spending most of his life behind bars. The street life had been the only one he’d ever known and even incarcerated he was too hardheaded to realize that no good would come of it.That is, until he was assigned to one of the least desirable prison jobs: washing dishes. That job helped turn his whole life around. It gave him access to the prison kitchen and he became fascinated watching his fellow prisoners cook for the thousands of other inmates and prison officials. Henderson learned to cook in prison. Not cocaine, but food. And his dream was born: Once outside, he would become a chef.It was a tough, seemingly impossible journey for an ex-con. Few chefs would give him the opportunity to cook in their restaurants. And once hired, he endured racism and sabotage in the kitchen. But Henderson refused to accept rejection. Driven by a dream and an unshakable will to succeed, Chef Jeff worked hard to overcome unimaginable adversity and eventually reached the top of his profession, becoming executive chef at Café Bellagio in Las Vegas.Alive with the energy of the streets, the sober reality of prison, and the visceral thrill of being inside the fast-paced kitchens of great restaurants, Cooked is an intense, intimate tale of crime, punishment, and redemption—a deeply poignant story of how the worst wrong can lead to the most extraordinary right..-.
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The Dinner Diaries
“I’d always thought food was pretty straightforward: you’re hungry, you eat; you’re not, you don’t. Then I became a mother.” So begins Betsy Block’s humorous, life-changing book on the ultimate of all makeovers: improving the family meal. But how is her plan even possible when eleven-year-old Zack’s favorite food is Halloween candy; little Maya is so picky that she’ll only eat cut squares of white bread; and her husband’s idea of a gift is an electric fryer?Determined not to give up the good-food fight, Betsy comes up with a creative ten-step makeover plan. She consults experts, visits farms, and shows how she and her family manage the pitfalls, struggles, and triumphs of eating well when busy schedules, surreptitious lunch trades, snack machines, permissive grandparents, and willful temptations intervene.With helpful charts, food lists, recipes, tips, and suggested culinary and farm programs for kids, this book chronicles one family’s intrepid ten-month challenge to change the way they eat–one forkful at a time..-.
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