Fall Cookbooks 2013

Cookbooks are released in two big waves - Spring and Fall. Here are the Fall cookbooks I’m looking forward to.
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Northeastern Ohio

Michael Symon’s 5 in 5 by Michael Symon and Douglas Trattner
Schmaltz by Michael Ruhlman
I grew up in Cleveland, and live in Akron. I’m a Northeastern Ohio loyalist. So, I have to mention cookbooks from local writers, even if they're as famous as Michael Symon and Michael Ruhlman. Michael Symon’s Five in Five sounds too good to be true - five fresh ingredients plus five minutes equals a meal? (Five minutes? Really?) But, Mr. Symon has a knack for building big flavors with simple ingredient lists, so maybe he really can do this. Then there’s Michael Ruhlman’s ode to chicken fat. I have the (now unavailable) iPad app version of this book; it sold so well that a major publisher bought the rights and turned it into a physical cookbook.

Portland Travelogue

Le Pigeon by Gabriel Rucker
Pok Pok by Andy Ricker
Last year, I visited Portland for the first time ever. (Hi, Aunt Marcia and Uncle Ray!). Now my ten year old daughter wants to live there, with a single-mindedness only ten year old daughters can have. There were two big name restaurants I wanted to eat at: Gabriel Rucker’s Le Pigeon, and Andy Ricker’s Pok Pok. And…well, I failed. We ate at Little Bird, Gabriel Rucker’s “other” restaurant, a fantastic French Bistro, and I missed all of Andy Ricker’s Thai restaurants. But! Both chefs are releasing cookbooks this fall; I can find out what I missed in my own kitchen. Don’t feel bad for me about missing their restaurants. Portland is overflowing with great places to eat. I made up for it with French brunch at the Brasserie Montmartre, biscuits and gravy at Pine State Biscuits, and Nong’s Khao Man Gai food truck. And the bottle of Aviator Gin we picked up made fabulous gin and tonics for the rest of our trip.

Dreaming About France

Provence 1970 by Luke Barr
One Souffle at a Time by Anne Willan and Amy Friedman
The Art of Simple Food 2 by Alice Waters
Someday, I’m moving to the south of France, buying a Mas in the middle of Provence, with a big pool and a open air grill out back. Until then, I’ll live vicariously through these books. In the winter of 1970, James Beard, M.F.K. Fisher, Julia Child, Richard Olney, Simone Beck, and Judith Jones all found themselves together in Provence - which is a who’s who of American food writing at the time. Next, I’m moving on to Anne Willan’s memoir, about founding the La Varenne Cooking School in burgundy. Finally, I’ll head back home to America to actually do some French cooking, and rely on Alice Waters’s vegetable focused follow up to The Art of Simple Food.

Bloggers I Follow

Duck Duck Goose by Hank Shaw
Saving the Season by Kevin West
I love it when my fellow bloggers get a book published. Hank Shaw is the writer at Hunter, Angler, Gardener, Cook, and his specialty is wild game. I get a lot of questions from people who see my rotisserie duck recipe and ask how it would work for wild duck. I don’t know - but Hank does. Then there’s Kevin West, writer at Saving The Season - I want to see what canning recipes he has created for his coobook.

Favorite authors

Japanese Soul Cooking Tadashi Ono and Harris Salat
Serious Barbecue, 2nd Edition by Adam Perry Lang
Messrs. Ono and Salat are my go-to authors for Japanese cooking - I love their hot pot and grilling cookbooks - and I can’t wait to see this book, which is subtitled “introducing Japanese comfort food to American cooks”. Adam Perry Lang’s Serious Barbecue was of one of my favorite grilling cookbooks - I’m curious what he added to the second edition.

Honorable mention

Pickles, Pigs and Whiskey by John Currence
I know nothing about this book, other than I love the title. I’ve looked at the Harvard Medical School diet, Paleo, Vegan Before Six…why can’t someone create the Pickles, Pigs and Whiskey diet? (That’s what I eat already, and I don’t think I can call it a “diet” with a straight face.)

What do you think?

Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.

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