Feature: Year-end Countdown: Food Writing, Food Guides, and Famous Names

In the last installment of our feature on year-end releases, we’re taking a look at cookbooks from famous chefs and restaurants, as well as the un-cookbooks: books with essays on food, food issues, and guidebooks on specific subjects. You can also access our two previous features:

Part 1: Baking and Christmas Cookbooks
Part 2: Cuisines from Around the World

Here at The Gastronomer’s Bookshelf headquarters we’re constantly on the lookout for new interesting books for all food lovers, and already we’re excited for what 2010 has in store! What books are you looking forward to the most? Be sure to tell us in the comments section.

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Food Guides

Bob Flowerdew’s Complete Fruit Book (UK)
by Bob Flowerdew
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Reference books on fruits are rare, and this new work covers over 100 fruit with a range of species and varieties for each. It also includes information about growing your own, and each fruit’s cosmetic, medicinal, and culinary uses.

Mastering Cheese (US)
by Max McCalman and David Gibbons
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This book is a 22-lesson course for understanding and experiencing cheese, from a world-class Maître fromager. He also has an index of over 300 cheeses and helpful charts for cheese lovers on their way to connoisseurship.

Larousse Gastronomique (US)
by Librairie Larousse
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Larousse Gastronomique is the most renowned encyclopedia of food, written in France and published in several countries around the world. This new edition has new pictorial sections on certain ingredients and techniques. Be sure to read our feature on the evolution of Larousse Gastronomique. The image shown here if of the US edition, but there’s also a more attractive British edition.

Famous Names

Ad Hoc at Home (US)
by Thomas Keller
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The owner and chef of acclaimed Californian restaurant The French Laundry returns with a new book featuring dishes from his new casual family-style restaurant, Ad Hoc. Inside you’ll find elegant but accessible recipes that the whole family can share.

The River Café Classic Italian Cookbook (UK)
by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers
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This book is the product of twenty years’ experience of cooking and traveling to Italy by the chef-owners of London’s River Café, learning alongside grandmothers, mothers, and wine makers who share their family recipes — a celebration of the real, classic food of Italy.

Bill’s Sydney Food (Australia)
by Bill Granger
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Published ten years after the first edition, this new version features new design and photography of the beauty of Sydney. This book is great for fans of Sydney and of course, the food from the restaurant of one of Australia’s most famous food celebrities.

Good Eats: The Early Years (US)
by Alton Brown
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This is the first of two volumes chronicling all of the episodes from the award-winning show from The Food Network’s resident food geek and funnyman Alton Brown. It includes all the facts and more than 140 recipes from the series.

Terre a Terre (UK)
by Amanda Powley and Phillip Taylor
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Terre à Terre is Brighton’s most famous vegetarian restaurant and this is the first cookery book from the owners, featuring over 100 recipes from the restaurant.

Get Cooking (US)
by Mollie Katzen
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James Beard Hall of Fame inductee and author of the bestselling Moosewood Cookbook series, Mollie Katzen compiles 125 basic, foolproof recipes from appetizer to dessert for people of any skill level who want to start cooking fresh, delicious, and satisfying food.

Momofuku (US)
by David Chang and Peter Meehan
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New York media sensation David Chang reveals the story and the recipes behind his Momofuku restaurant, which was awarded two Michelin stars in 2009. All his famous dishes are presented here, including the pork buns, ramen, fried chicken, toasted rice cakes, and bo ssäm.

Top Chef: The Quickfire Cookbook (US)
by the creators of Top Chef
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This anticipated follow-up to the bestselling Top Chef: The Cookbook compiles 75 recipes from the Quickfire Challenges of the first five seasons of the hit US show. There’s even tips on how to throw a Quickfire cocktail party and stage Quickfire challenges at home!

Yes, Chef! (UK)
by James Winter
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Yes, Chef! compiles 100 recipes from 20 of Britain’s best chefs at work today, including Michael Caines, Marcus Wearing, Fergus Henderson, Atul Kochhar, Theo Randall, Rowley Leigh, Mark Hix, Matt Tebbutt, and Nathan Outlaw.

Food Writing

A Visual History of Cookery (UK)
edited by Aimee Selby
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This fascinating volume provides a comprehensive documentation of the history of cooking through images and photographs that spans everything from Ancient Egypt and Rome to the twenty-first century’s culinary renaissance in celebrity chefs.

My Two-Year-Old Eats Octopus (US)
by Nancy Tringali Piho
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Written by a food marketing industry veteran, this book shows parents the necessity of teaching children about food in a way that will benefit their health and well-being throughout their lives. It draws on the research and experience of health professionals and renowned chefs.

Best Food Writing 2009 (US)
by Holly Hughes
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The latest edition of a (US-oriented) series that compiles the finest culinary prose from books, magazines, newspapers, and even the web. Best Food Writing 2009 will include top-notch writers like Colman Andrews, Anthony Bourdain, Frank Bruni, Bill Buford, Madhur Jaffrey, Ruth Reichl, Raymond Sokolov, Calvin Trillin, Alice Waters, and many others.

The Fruit, Herbs & Vegetables of Italy (UK)
by Giacomo Castelvetro
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Giacomo Castelvetro was a refugee, humanist and educator who came to England in 1611. Horrified by the large servings of meat and paucity of vegetables in the English diet, he circulated his manuscript that takes us through the gardener’s year of seasonal fruits and vegetables and how to prepare them.

Food Design XL (Austria)
by Sonja Stummerer and Martin Hablesreiter
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Warum sind Pizzas rund und Fischstäbchen rechteckig? „food design XL” zeigt auf, wie Form, Farbe, Geruch, Konsistenz, Verzehrgeräusche, Herstellungstechnik, Geschichte und Geschichten das Design von Lebensmitteln beeinflussen. Denn mehr als eintausend Mal pro Jahr – vor jedem Essen – zerschneiden, zerkochen, verrühren oder kombinieren, also verändern wir bewusst das essbare Angebot der Natur.

Why are pizzas round and fish sticks square? “food design XL” analyzes how the design of foods is influenced by form, color, smell, consistency, chewing sounds, production technique, history and stories. More than a thousand times a year – before each meal – we cut, cook, stir or combine, that is to say deliberately change the edible gifts of nature. (The publisher’s page contains a link to some sample content.)

The Physiology of Taste (US)
by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin
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First published in France in 1825 and continuously in print ever since, The Physiology of Taste is a historical, philosophical, and ultimately Epicurean collection of recipes, reflections, and anecdotes on gastronomy by the famous 18th-century epicure Brillat-Savarin. This is a new hardcover edition.

The Taste for Civilization: Food, Politics, and Civil Society (US)
by Janet A. Flammang
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Written by the chair of political science at Santa Clara University, 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 Science of the Oven (US)
by Hervé This
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Physical chemist and food science favorite Hervé This launches a wry investigation into the chemical art of cooking. He translates the complex processes of the oven into everyday knowledge for professional chefs and casual cooks; demystifies the meaning of taste and the making of flavor; describes the properties of liquids, salts, sugars, oils, and fats; and defines the principles of culinary practice.

Eating: A Memoir (US)
by Jason Epstein
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Jason Epstein, the legendary editor and publisher of Norman Mailer, Vladimir Nabokov, Gore Vidal, and E. L. Doctorow, and the editor of such great chefs and bakers as Alice Waters, Wolfgang Puck, and Maida Heatter, takes us on a culinary tour through his life, beginning with his childhood summers in Maine, where his decision to improve upon his grandmother’s chicken pot pie led to a lifetime at the stove.

Far Flung and Well Fed: The Food Writing of R.W. Apple, Jr. (US)
by R. W. Apple Jr.
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This book compiles the best food writing from New York Times bureau chief, political reporter and food anthropologist R. W. “Johnny” Apple. Each of the more than fifty essays recount extraordinary meals and little-known facts of some of the world’s most excellent foods.

Why Italians Love to Talk About Food (US)
by Elena Kostioukovitch
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In this entertaining narrative, essayist Elena Kostioukovitch takes us on a journey through one of the world’s richest and most adored food cultures. Organized according to region and colorfully designed with illustrations, maps, menus, and glossaries, Why Italians Love to Talk About Food will allow any reader to become as versed in the ways of Italian cooking as the most seasoned of chefs.

Taste or Taboo: Dietary Choices in Antiquity (UK)
by Michael Beer
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This book looks at the way in which food was employed in Greek and Roman literature to impart identity, whether social, individual, religious or ethnic. Michael Beer looks at several aspects of food restriction in antiquity: for example, the way in which they eschewed excess and glorified the simple diet; the way in which Pythagoreans denied themselves meat; and the way in which the poor were restricted by economic reality from enjoying the full range of foods.

The Food of a Younger Land (US)
by Mark Kurlansky
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Award-winning New York Times-bestselling author Mark Kurlansky takes us back to the food and eating habits of a younger America: Before the national highway system brought the country closer together; before chain restaurants imposed uniformity and low quality; and before the Frigidaire meant frozen food in mass quantities, the nation’s food was seasonal, regional, and traditional.

Tastes and Temptations: Food and Art in Renaissance Italy (US)
by John Varriano
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This beautifully illustrated book explores the interplay between art and cuisine during the Italian Renaissance. Exploring a dazzling array of art works, and drawing from period recipes and menus, John Varriano considers the many, often surprising, ways that cooks and artists converged and drew from each other’s worlds. Among other topics, he considers the significance of culinary images in Renaissance art; traces parallels in the use of ingredients such as eggs and oil in kitchens and in studios; and examines centerpieces by artists that were made of food.

Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef (US)
by Betty Fussell
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Raising Steaks explores perceptions of meat raising and eating, beef traditions, and takes a look at the ethical and environmental complications of modern methods of raising cattle for meat.

Food Studies: An Introduction to Research Methods (UK)
by Jeff Miller and Jonathan Deutsch
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This title is a guide to doing research in the burgeoning field of food studies. Designed for the classroom as well as for the independent scholar, the book details the predominant research methods in the field, provides a series of interactive questions and templates to help guide a project, and includes suggestions for food-specific resources such as archives, libraries and reference works. Interviews with leading scholars in the field and discussions of how the study of food can enhance traditional methods are included.

Over a Red Hot Stove: Essays in Early Cooking Technology (UK)
edited by Ivan Day
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These essays were presented at the seventeenth Leeds Symposium on Food History, of which this is the fourteenth volume in the series “Food and Society”. Their common theme is the way in which we have cooked our food from the medieval to the modern eras and, most especially, how we roast meats. The authors are distinguished food historians, mostly from the north of England.

The Globalization of Food (UK)
by David Inglis and Debra Gimlin
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This book examines the role of global forces, movements and phenomena as they relate to food. It features articles from sociologists and anthropologists such as Carole Counihan, Alan Warde, Pat Caplan, Alex McIntosh, Rick Wilk, Jeff Sobal, Marianne Lien and Krishnendu Ray.

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New release: French Bistro

New release: Deliciously G-Free

Worth a look: Booze for Free

Worth a look: Hawksmoor at Home

New edition: Baking Artisan Pastries and Breads

New release: Smoking Meat

New release: La Tartine Gourmande

New release: Asian Tofu

New release: The Chefs of Belgium

New release: The Weeknight Cook