Food

Charlie Trotter Cooks at Home

by Charlie Trotter.
Noted for his famous collections of challenging yet incomparably lucid recipes, Chicago chef Trotter offers 150 examples of his restaurant fare made considerably more accessible to the home cook. Starters range from the ultraeasy Smoked Salmon Tartare with Horseradish Cream to the more demanding Lobster and Sweet Corn Ravioli with Sweet Corn Broth. True to form, however, Trotter does not forego his customary style of combining unexpected flavors with finesse.--Publishers Weekly

Charlie Trotter's

by Charlie Trotter.
For sheer inventiveness and imagination in the preparation and presentation of food, Charlie Trotter has few equals. Here, in a stunning combination of art and delivery, is the unique cuisine of Chicago's award-winning chef. --Ingram

Cuisines of Hidden Mexico: A Culinary Journey to Guerrero and Michoacan

by Bruce Kraig.
Based on the author's PBS documentary, this riveting account of a journey to two Mexican states reveals how closely each region's tantalizing recipes are interwoven with its history, anthropology and folk art. Covers agriculture, food preparation, the social places of food and eating habits. Contains 75 delicious indigenous recipes along with line drawings by one of Mexico's best-known engravers.

Kitchen Sessions

by Charlie Trotter.
Here is the companion volume to The Kitchen Sessions [television program], a name chosen to conjure up the spontaneity of a jazz session, with the creativity directed toward food rather than music. With that in mind, Trotter suggests variations and alternative ingredients in the headnotes for most of the recipes, which are grouped into 13 chapters by either ingredient or menu category.--Library Journal

Near A Thousand Tables: A History of Food

by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto.
At the heart of this engrossing book are what Fernandez-Armesto calls the eight great revolutions in the world history of food: the origins of cooking, which set humankind on a course apart from other species; the ritualization of eating, which brought magic and meaning into people's relationship with what they ate; the inception of herding and the invention of agriculture, perhaps the two greatest revolutions of all; the rise of inequality; which made food an indicator of rank and led to the development of haute cuisine; the long-range trade in food, which, practically alone, broke down cultural barriers; the ecological exchanges, which revolutionized the global distribution of plants and livestock; and, finally, the industrialization and globalization of food.

Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory

by David E. Sutton.
This book offers a theoretical account of the interrelationship of culture, food, and memory. The author challenges and expands anthropology's current focus on issues of embodiment, memory and material culture, especially in relation to transnational migration and the flow of culture across borders and boundaries.

Return to Paris: A Memoir with Recipes

by Colette Rossant.
This sequel to Rossant's Memories of a Lost Egypt recalls her adolescence in post-World War II Paris. Quickly abandoned by her flirtatious and restless mother, Rossant struggled to get along with her harsh and demanding grandmaman while trying to get reacquainted with her estranged brother. At the same time, she discovered the glories of the local cuisine. Indeed, Rossant's mouth-watering descriptions of her most memorable meals are the best part of the book; her prose is sensuously alive, although the recipes (Roast Goose with Stuffed Neck) are not always doable for the average cook. -Library Journal

Rosemary and Bitter Oranges: Growing Up in a Tuscan Kitchen

by Patrizia Chen.
Through vivid descriptions and charming anecdotes, Chen brings to life the white Carrara marble terraces, the coal-burning stoves, antique roses, and sacks of chestnut flour that fill the family house, kitchen, and garden. This delightful and evocative narrative will welcome you into the heart of Patrizia's Tuscan home and allow you to bring the robust flavors of Emilia's cooking into your own kitchen.

The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen

by Jacques Pépin.
Lest any reader think this is another saga of sex and drugs in the kitchen, it definitely is not. Instead, it's the story of just what it takes to turn a talented young Frenchman into one of the most admired figures in the culinary world. And anyone who thinks that all you need to do to be called "chef" is to survive a few months -- or even a few years -- in culinary school would do well to read it. -- Judith Weinraub, The Washington Post

The Gastronomical Me

by M.F.K. Fisher, Designed by David Bullen.
This memoir is suffused with an intimacy usually reserved for stories of love and loss. And as the reader moves through these tales of extravagant strangers and elaborate meals, this book reveals itself as just that: a story of desire and love. Fisher's narrative weaves together a telling self-portrait through her engagement with new acquaintances and cuisine, all told against a dramatic backdrop of mounting pre-war tension.

The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture

by Rebecca L. Spang.
This fascinating book charts the transformation of the "restaurant" from a medicinal bouillon into the pervasive social phenomenon it is today. In telling this story, Spang sheds light on why we have come to view dining as a leisurely, social activity.

Untangling My Chopsticks: A Culinary Sojourn in Kyoto

by Victoria Abbott Riccardi.
In 1986, two years out of college and restless at her job with an ad agency, Riccardi left New York to spend a year in Kyoto, where she lived with a Japanese couple and attended an elite school devoted to the study of kaiseki, a highly ritualized form of cooking that accompanies the formal tea ceremony....In her delightful and unusual culinary memoir she includes 27 recipes. A few, such as summer somen with gingered eggplant, are for dishes she was served at a Zen temple.