The 2014 James Beard Book Award Nominees

[Jenise]

Fun to peruse....

American Cooking
· I Love New York: Ingredients and Recipes, Daniel Humm and Will Guidara (Ten Speed Press)
· The New Midwestern Table: 200 Heartland Recipes, Amy Thielen (Random House)
· Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey: Recipes from My Three Favorite Food Groups and Then Some, John Currence (Andrews McMeel Publishing)

Baking and Dessert
· The Art of French Pastry, Jacquy Pfeiffer with Martha Rose Shulman (Knopf)
· Sweet, Valerie Gordon (Artisan)
· Tartine Book No. 3: Modern Ancient Classic Whole, Chad Robertson (Chronicle Books)

Beverage
· The Cocktail Lab: Unraveling the Mysteries of Flavor and Aroma in Drink, with Recipes, Tony Conigliaro (Ten Speed Press)
· The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World's Great Drinks, Amy Stewart (Algonquin Books)
· The New California Wine: A Guide to the Producers and Wines Behind a Revolution in Taste, Jon Bonne (Ten Speed Press)

Cooking from a Professional Point of View
· Historic Heston, Heston Blumenthal (Bloomsbury)
· Manresa: An Edible Reflection, David Kinch with Christine Muhlke (Ten Speed Press)
· René Redzepi: A Work in Progress, René Redzepi (Phaidon Press)

Focus on Health
· Gluten-Free Girl Every Day, Shauna James Ahern with Daniel Ahern (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
· VB6: Eat Vegan Before 6:00 to Lose Weight and Restore Your Health . . . for Good
Mark Bittman (Clarkson Potter Publishers)
· Weeknight Wonders: Delicious, Healthy Dinners in 30 Minutes or Less, Ellie Krieger (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

General Cooking
· One Good Dish, David Tanis (Artisan)
· Smoke: New Firewood Cooking, Tim Byres (Rizzoli New York)
· Try This at Home: Recipes from My Head to Your Plate, Richard Blais (Clarkson Potter Publishers)

International
· Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking, Fuchsia Dunlop (W. W. Norton & Company)
· Return to the Rivers: Recipes and Memories of the Himalayan River Valleys, Vikas Khanna with Andrew Blackmore-Dobbyn (Lake Isle Press)
· Sauces & Shapes: Pasta the Italian Way, Oretta Zanini DeVita and Maureen B. Fant (W. W. Norton & Company)

Photography
· Historic Heston, Photographer: Romas Foord (Bloomsbury USA)
· Mast Brothers Chocolate, Photographer: Tuukka Koski (Little, Brown and Company)
· René Redzepi: A Work in Progress, Ali Kurshat Altinsoy, Ditte Isager, René Redzepi, Lars Williams, and the Noma Team (Phaidon Press)

Reference and Scholarship
· A History of Food in 100 Recipes, William Sitwell (Little, Brown and Company)
· Modern Food, Moral Food: Self-Control, Science, and the Rise of Modern American Eating in the Early Twentieth Century, Helen Zoe Veit, (The University of North Carolina Press)
· Soul Food: The Surprising Story of an American Cuisine One Plate at a Time , Adrian Miller (The University of North Carolina Press)

Single Subject
· Culinary Birds: The Ultimate Poultry Cookbook, John Ash with James O. Fraioli, (Running Press)
· Fish: 54 Seafood Feasts, Cree LeFavour, (Chronicle Books)
· In the Charcuterie: The Fatted Calf's Guide to Making Sausage, Salumi, Pâtés, Roasts, Confits, and Other Meaty Goods, Taylor Boetticher and Toponia Miller (Ten Speed Press)

Vegetable Focused and Vegetarian
· Feast: Generous Vegetarian Meals for Any Eater and Every Appetite, Sarah Copeland (Chronicle Books)
· River Cottage Veg, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (Ten Speed Press)
· Vegetable Literacy, Deborah Madison (Ten Speed Press)

Writing and Literature
· A Fork in the Road: Tales of Food, Pleasure and Discovery on the Road, Edited by James Oseland (Lonely Planet)
· Provence, 1970: M. F. K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste, Luke Barr (Clarkson Potter Publishers)
· Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us, Michael Moss, (Random House)

The New Midwestern Table: 200 Heartland Recipes, Amy Thielen

I don't know why I was surprised at this....I enjoy her show because of the rusticness (is that a word?) of it. It is different! I must admit my mouth watered all the way through her latest episode using her home grown horseradish. She is very "down home" yet a trained chef who is applying her education to kicking up her roots in mid-western cooking and doing it well. She cooks from her own kitchen in a log cabin in the woods. Nothing is put on, the pots and pans she uses show signs of being well used. Plain, neutral cloths hang below her sink to cover what ever is stored underneath. It shows mid-western country life in the true sense. So far, her dinner guests, have been "down home" folks. I think it is her uncle who owns Thielen meats, which reminds me of a country store we have here, not far from our house, and where I was able to find ring bologna after seeing Amy do a show around it. Our kids always loved fried bologna, but hated it in sandwiches, and I had never seen the ring style. Pretty good stuff.
Anyone else seen her show, or have her cookbook?

[Jenise]

Karen, I've never even heard of her. Where's her show?

Karen, I've never even heard of her. Where's her show?

It is on the Food Network...not your type of food...I just like it because it is very different than anything else on FN, plus Amy has a cute personality. Not even sure which day it comes on as I DVR it and watch when I get to it.

[Jenise]

Oh, okay. I just don't watch the Food Network at all any more. We enjoy Chopped, but we DVR it so we don't even see commercials about what else is going on--not that anything much has happened there in recent memory. The pros are all gone and it's been a steady circus of Rachel-Guy-Ina-Paula for far too long, and I have no use for any of them.

Oh, okay. I just don't watch the Food Network at all any more. We enjoy Chopped, but we DVR it so we don't even see commercials about what else is going on--not that anything much has happened there in recent memory. The pros are all gone and it's been a steady circus of Rachel-Guy-Ina-Paula for far too long, and I have no use for any of them.

I knew you would not be interested.

[Jenise]

Actually, the premise sounds VERY interesting. As long as it's really her cabin--that is, as long as she and what she does is authentic, and it's not some set like the car stripes on Guy Fieri's refrigerator. If I stumbled into her show while channel surfing I'd probably stop and watch, though it could take me awhile to get over the shock of finding someone other than the fab four!

· I Love New York: Ingredients and Recipes, Daniel Humm and Will Guidara (Ten Speed Press)
I loved my 3 meals at 11 Mad since Humm took over, will think about getting this

· The New California Wine: A Guide to the Producers and Wines Behind a Revolution in Taste, Jon Bonne (Ten Speed Press)
I find Bonne a good writer

· Manresa: An Edible Reflection, David Kinch with Christine Muhlke (Ten Speed Press)
Gorgeous book. Great looking recipes. Betsy gave me for Christmas, when I find a space $2K for equipment we might try some recipes

· Mast Brothers Chocolate, Photographer: Tuukka Koski (Little, Brown and Company)
We have this, as David works at Mast as a chocolate maker

Culinary Birds: The Ultimate Poultry Cookbook, John Ash with James O. Fraioli, (Running Press)
· Fish: 54 Seafood Feasts, Cree LeFavour, (Chronicle Books)
Both of these appeal to me (never heard of LeFavour, but Ash does great recipes)

· Provence, 1970: M. F. K. Fisher, Julia Child, James Beard, and the Reinvention of American Taste, Luke Barr (Clarkson Potter Publishers)
Just title sounds interesting!

I've had to put a stop to buying cookbooks. I've found that you can bring them up on line and get many recipes. Who needs that many cookbooks, when you can basically read most of them on line, or find their recipes.

Who needs that many cookbooks, when you can basically read most of them on line, or find their recipes.

My wife.

Go easy with her Mike.....I love cook books too, and read them like novels. Getting better, since Amazon allows you to open the book and look at recipes. Being a foodie is a curse....too many recipes, ideas, so little time! I want to do all of it!

Here is a good write-up on The Heartland Table with Amy Thielan. The comments are very good. It seems those who had given up on Food Network are liking this show.

http://www.vita.mn/food-drink/223476441.html?page=all