Got a spare hundred bucks on hand, a delicious dream in your heart and a keyboard at your fingertips? Then hie thee to jamesbeard.org and download entry forms for the 2010 James Beard Foundation's Book, Journalism, Broadcast Media and Design Awards.
Veteran entrants of the Journalism Awards will note that there are a few alterations from previous ballots (full disclosure -- I'm the vice chair of the committee that oversees the Journalism Awards), namely that the Restaurant Review award has been redubbed the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Review Award, the former Newspaper Feature Writing Without Recipes and With Recipes categories have been combined into single category, and there's no requirement for the Writing on Spirits, Wine, or Beer, Food-related Columns, or Reporting on Health, Environment and Nutrition entrants to have ever appeared in print. Online's just fine.
Why the changes? Funny thing - we cracked a window in the Beard House's Peter Kump Boardroom during our last meeting and noticed it was 2009 outside. Oops.
Restaurant devotees also may submit their favorite chefs and restaurant for inclusion in the James Beard Restaurant Awards via a handy online form at jamesbeard.starchefs.com.
'A Great American Cook: Recipes from the Home Kitchen of One of Our Most Influential Cooks' Jonathan Waxman with Tom Steele Photographs by John Kernick Houghton Mifflin -- 2007 Buy it on Amazon
It's rather hilarious when a chef's cookbook matches his real-life persona.
It shouldn't have been a surprise that the man who trained Bobby Flay in the kitchen some 20 years ago is a pretty darn good teacher, and we were happily producing pretty decent artichoke specimens within minutes.
That same confident, coaxing voice is present throughout Waxman's cookbook, a hodgepodge of his culinary experiences. From the red-pepper pancakes with corn and caviar he introduced at Alice Waters' Chez Panisse to a potato gratin he picked up while training in France, this is a fine compilation from a man who has trained many of the American greats -- and who used to hobnob with the likes of James Beard and Julia Child.
What we tested and whether the book's worth buying, after the jump.
At long last, the wait for the nation's biggest foodie honors is over. Slashfood spent nearly every waking second since Sunday night live-Twittering the James Beard Award winners @slashfood live from the scene.
A New York culinary favorite, David Chang of Momofuku Ko took home the best new restaurant award, while Drew Nieporent of the Myriad Restaurant Group was named outstanding restaurateur.
Dig in to the full restaurant, chef and cookbook winners after the jump along with red-carpet photos.
Whew! We're exhausted post Media Awards and Chefs Night Out Soiree and will be taking a brief nap before live-Twittering the results for Restaurants and Books on Monday evening as @slashfood. In the meantime, congrats to ...
Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants and/or Chefs
Katy McLaughlin The Wall Street Journal "Sushi Bullies"
We'll be live-Twittering tonight's James Beard Media Awards and Monday's Restaurant Awards, so follow along @slashfood. Meanwhile, snack on these links to the nominated articles, recipes, reviews, food sections, sites, blogs and books.
Journalism Awards
For articles published in English in 2008.
Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants And/Or Chefs
Writing on Spirits, Wine, or Beer: Jon Bonné (San Francisco Chronicle), Jay McInerney (Men's Vogue), Alan Richman (GQ)
Food-Related Columns: Dorie Greenspan (Bon Appétit), Corby Kummer (The Atlantic) and Laura Shapiro (Gourmet.com)
Nutrition/Food-Related Issues: Barry Estabrook (Gourmet), Mark Adams, et al (New York Magazine), Rachael Moeller Gorman (EatingWell)
Restaurant Reviews: Jonathan Gold (LA Weekly), Adam Platt (New York Magazine) and Tom Sietsema (The Washington Post)
Magazine Feature Writing w/o Recipes: Alan Richman (GQ), Patricia Sharpe (Texas Monthly), Monique Truong (Gourmet) Magazine Feature with Recipes: Edna Lewis (Gourmet)*published posthumously, David Dobbs and John Ash (EatingWell), James Peterson (Saveur)
Magazine Feature Writing about Restaurants and/or Chefs: Ruth Reichl (Gourmet), Alan Richman (Departures), Anya von Bremzen (Food & Wine)
Newspaper Food Section: Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle and The Washington Post
Newspaper Feature w/ Recipes: Rebekah Denn (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), David Leite (New York Times), Kathleen Purvis (Charlotte Observer)
Newspaper Feature w/o Recipes: Monica Eng (Chicago Tribune), Kristen Hinman (Riverfront Times) and Craig LaBan (The Philadelphia Inquirer) Newspaper Feature about Restaurants and/or Chefs: Monica Eng/Phil Vettel(Chicago Trib), Katy McLaughlin (WSJ), Tom Sietsema (The Wash Post)
MFK Fisher Distinguished Writing Award: Celia Barbour (O, The Oprah Magazine), Aleksandra Crapanzano (Gourmet), Alan Richman (GQ) Restaurant, Cookbook and Media Awards nominees are after the jump.
I'm not gonna pretend that this picture is pretty, or in the least bit appetizing, but I will note that the results are disturbingly delicious. The heart of the matter is that I went to a cookout a few weekends ago and was offered a grilled chicken heart by a friend who has yet to serve me anything that is less than madly tasty. Emboldened by this, I picked up a package of chicken hearts on a shopping jaunt this week, and started perusing my favorite recipe sites for marinades. It didn't take me long to find a 1956 James Beard recipe suggesting that these would make a dandy appetizer for a group of 25. Twenty-five of whom, I'm not entirely sure, 'cause even as staunchly carnivorous as my pals tend to be, few of 'em dig getting their offal on as much as I do, and I wouldn't subject them to it. There are exceptions, though.
Some friends came over this afternoon to serve as panel members for AOL Food's upcoming Hot Dog Taste Test. As I tended the grill between rounds, one of them began holding forth about how methods of barbecuing and grilling really were born of the necessity to bring greater flavor to cheap and previously discarded cuts of meat, and how folks were getting way too fancy-schmancy with the whole thing these days. I left my post at the flames, walked him to the fridge, pulled out the plastic container full of marinating hearts and started putting them on bamboo skewers.
He shut up and started eating.
James Beard's 1956 Grilled Chicken Hearts Recipe on Epicurious
(Note: In the above pic, I was out of sherry and subbed in brandy, which proved perfectly yummy.)
First printed in 1940, James Beard wrote his first book, Hors d'Oeuvre and Canapes, in just six short weeks. He was able to write it so quickly because he had plenty of experience to draw on. Before he became a cooking instructor and food personality, he and a friend ran a catering company that specialized in appetizers and tidbits for parties and events. He went on to write more than 30 volumes about food, cooking and eating.
According to the introduction that appeared in the original volume, Hors d'Oeuvre means food that appears "outside the meal." He states that these bites of food that are served prior to the main event should be designed to "enchant the eye, please the palate and excite the flow of the gastric juices." While this book on its own isn't particularly stimulating, as it was published in 1967 and is a musty-smelling trade paperback, the food described within its pages is enough to make my gastric juices run.
Many of the recipes aren't exact, calling for enough mayonnaise to bind or moisten the ingredients, but I find that to be appealing, as it means that he trusted his readers and believed them to have an understanding as to how their finished food should look and taste. One incredibly useful section is the one in which he offers several pages of lists of spreads and fillings for sandwiches. While they would be wonderful as appetizers, many of them offer terrific inspiration for any mealtime.
I had a great-aunt who's hobby it was to prepare appetizers and canapes. She often had several dozen tucked into her basement chest freezer. As I've flipped through this book, I've noticed recipes for several of her most famous items in its pages. We never knew that she was ripping off James Beard!
This week, the Inquirer is all about Korean food, especially in Philly's burgeoning "Koreatown" (their moniker, not mine). And in the wake of the 10-day revelry that was Beer Week, it's probably best that we load up on some home cooking to soak up all that alcohol.
Foods like kimchi, shabu shabu and bibimbap are holding gaining in popularity as the Korean food craze continues
Echoing the above article, Craig LeBan shares his favorite Korean dishes, especially the marinated beef ribs
Shira Kamm joins the growing number of Pennsylvania's women farmers
Finalists for the James Beard Award, one of the most prestigious prizes in the food industry, were announced on Monday. Awards are given in a number of categories, including Outstanding Restaurateur, Outstanding Chef, Outstanding Restaurant, Best New Restaurant, and Rising Star Chef of the Year, Cookbook of the Year, and Outstanding Service Award.
Here are a few highlights:
Nominees for Outstanding Restaurant: Boulevard and The Slanted Door in San Francisco, Campanile in Los Angeles, and Gramercy Tavern and Jean Georges in New York.
Nominees for Outstanding Chef: Grant Achatz of Alinea in Chicago, Jose Andres of Minibar in Washington, DC, Dan Barber of Blue Hill in New York, Suzanne Goin of Lucques in Los Angeles, and Frank Stitt of Highlands Bar & Grill in Birmingham, Alabama.
An essay in today's New York Times Magazine muses on the cookbooks of James Beard, the pioneering American chef and food writer.
There seem to have been two Beards, writes Aleksandra Crapanzano - the sophisticated gastrophile with a taste for sea urchin mousseline, who awakened mid century Americans to the pleasures of fresh, high-quality ingredients, and the shameless crowd-pleaser and businessman, writing recipes for tomato soup cake and signing countless endorsement deals for kitchen products.
A new edition of "Beard on Food" loses the bad Sloppy Joe recipes found in Beard's seminal "American Cookery," and is instead full of the exuberant eater's musings - tales dining of pheasants in Provence, a digression on the history of fondue in Switzerland, Crapanzano writes.
Since it's the dips and appetizers day of our Super Bowl Week, I thought it would be fitting to feature a cookbook chock full of recipes for appetizers. I headed to my cookbook stash, knowing that I had at least one appetizer cookbook in my stacks. What I came up with is the little book yousee pictured here, A Book of Appetizers. Printed in 1958, this perfectly square volume was written by Helen Evans Brown (she wrote several cookbooks with James Beard).
It contains 145 recipes for appetizers and each is paired with a drink suggestion. Some of the recipes are kitschy and dated, while others are appealingly current. After the jump I've included recipe #144, Spicy Stuffed Onion Rings, which would make a great Super Bowl nibble (although they might unnecessarily tether you to the stove). She pairs these rings with a Columbian Cooler, which is a blend of Jamaican rum and Creme de Menthe. Personally, I think a good lager might be a better pairing.
Just in time for 2008, I'm reviving a Slashfood feature that went fallow sometime last spring. That's right, I'm talking about the venerable Cookbook of the Day! However, I'm adding a twist. In addition to featuring new cookbooks, I'll also be shining the spotlight on an assortment of vintage, kitschy and community cookbooks from my very eclectic collection. And let me tell you, I've got some doozies.
Today's Cookbook of the Day is James Beard's Fireside Cookbook. Written in 1949, it is billed as the "Original basic cook book by America's foremost culinary authority." I think that Joy of Cooking and Fannie Farmer might argue with that particular assertion, but it is does offer a comprehensive assortment of recipes. The best part of this cookbook is the narrative that is interspersed among the many recipes. Beard's voice comes through so strongly in this book that it feels as if he is speaking directly to you.
This volume is currently out of print, but there are a number of used copies available on Amazon.
Several years ago, when my Great-Aunt Flora had to be moved from her Philadelphia apartment to a nursing home closer to family in Brooklyn, I spent a lot of time helping my cousin Betsy clean out her closets and cabinets, in order to get the apartment ready for sale. In the process, I ended up taking a whole lot of stuff home with me, including a Cuisinart (oh joy of joys), several large bookshelves and a stack of Gourmet magazines from the 1960's and 70's.
I use the Cuisinart frequently. The bookshelves stand prominently in my apartment. But for the longest time, that stack of Gourmets sat, dusty and unloved, on the bottom shelf of a cabinet. I pulled them out a few days ago and started flipping through them, realizing that they be fun to write about. So, today I bring you a recipe from the August 1972 (35 years to the month!) Gourmet magazine for a "glazed tart of fresh raspberries." My heart struggles uncomfortably to think of all that glaze on perfect, fresh raspberries, but since it was James Beard's recipe, I imagine it was probably very tasty.
At long last, the wait for the nation's biggest foodie honors is over. Slashfood spent nearly every waking second since Sunday night live-Twittering the James Beard Award winners 
Finalists for the James Beard Award, one of the most prestigious prizes in the food industry, were announced on Monday. Awards are given in a number of categories, including Outstanding Restaurateur, Outstanding Chef, Outstanding Restaurant, Best New Restaurant, and Rising Star Chef of the Year, Cookbook of the Year, and Outstanding Service Award. 
Since it's the dips and appetizers day of our Super Bowl Week, I thought it would be fitting to feature a cookbook chock full of recipes for appetizers. I headed to my cookbook stash, knowing that I had at least one appetizer cookbook in my stacks. What I came up with is the little book yousee pictured here, 
Just in time for 2008, I'm reviving a Slashfood feature that went fallow sometime last spring. That's right, I'm talking about the venerable 
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