Best Food Writing 2009

by Holly Hughes (Editor)

Overview

Best Food Writing 2009 authoritatively and appealingly assembles the finest culinary prose from the past year's books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and Web sites. This anthology features both established food writers and rising stars cooking up everything from erudite culinary history to food-inspired memoirs. By turns opinionated, evocative, sensuous, and just plain funny, it's a tasty sampler to dip into time and again.

As in previous editions, 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786746026
Publisher:	Da Capo Press
Publication date:	11/10/2009
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	368
File size:	544 KB

About the Author

Holly Hughes, editor of the Best Food Writing series since its inception, is also the author of Frommer's 500 Places to Take the Kids Before They Grow Up. She lives with her family in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

Editor Hughes skims the cream off a year's worth of culinary journalism in the latest annual. As with previous editions, Hughes captures the gastronomic zeitgeist in a broad range of essays; she opens strong with Timothy Taylor's witty take on connoisseurs and gourmands, an examination of the slow and raw food movements, and a vendor's take on farmers' markets. Though some topics, like legendary steak houses and the neighborhood diner, have been done to death, they're carried by the quality of the writing. John DeLucie's sardonic account of his truffled macaroni and cheese, as well as Tim Carman's brilliant "How Not to Hire a Chef," are the kind of slice-of-life tales that deserve a wider audience, and make up for the volume's misses (Margaret McArthur's take on cooking the perfect soft-boiled egg, Lettie Teague's piece on wine scams). Other crowd-pleasers include Calvin Trillin's quest for the best barbecue in Texas and Robb Walsh's all-too-short examination of a classic pairing: oysters with martinis. This is a sound reader for those looking to catch up on trends in the culinary world, but foodies already immersed in the culture are sure to find some overlooked gems.
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Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly, 10/26/09
“Editor Hughes skims the cream off a year’s worth of culinary journalism in the latest annual. As with previous editions, Hughes captures the gastronomic zeitgeist in a broad range of essays…This is a sound reader for those looking to catch up on trends in the culinary world, but foodies already immersed in the culture are sure to find some overlooked gems.”

Booklist, 12/1/09
“In this collection, just about every level of culinary curiosity gets a chance to shine.”

Entertainment Weekly, 12/4/09
“With 50 delectable essays…the latest installation of the Best Food Writing series is less a literary meal than a stuff-your-face feast of gourmet journalism….all the pieces have a common ingredient: an insatiable, contagious curiosity about all things edible. And as if that weren't enough, their bite-size proportions even seem to anticipate your inevitable need for snack breaks.” 
 
Sacremento Bee, 11/22/09
“This is a book worth devouring.”

The Hippo NH, 12/2/09
“Best Food Writing 2009 is that annual collection of food lust”

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 12/2/09
“The cream of the crop of food writing compilations…The 2009 selections are the best yet.

From the Publisher