"james beard" news and stories

Everyone loves "top ten" lists and the James Beard Foundation has come up with a great one, albeit slightly bigger than usual: They've compiled a baker's dozen (13 books) list of essential baking books.

"The hardest part is narrowing down the list," Kathleen Purvis, chair of the James Beard Foundation Book Awards Committee, told Slashfood."

"We [committee members] all picked five or ten books and then compared lists. Some of them were on everybody's list like Flo Braker, Carol Field and Maida Heatter. Those books immediately made the cut and then we started narrowing down. We had all baked from these books and could name our favorite recipes."

The culinary posse also wanted to ensure that the books selected encompassed not just baking cakes and cookies but savories and breads.

• Science claims that men really can drink women under the table.
• An elderly couple commemorates Veteran's Day with homemade Danish Peppernuts.
• At Parkville's Iron Horse your seating options are "car" or "caboose."
• A roundup of festive, locally made foods, including some non-perishables.
• A blue cheese dip made with turkey bacon, skim cheese and non-fat milk is not so bad for you.
• A Missouri winemaker attempts Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Mourvedre, all on his 10-acre vineyard.
• Students of the Broodmoor Bistro host a James Beard Night.

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.

[Via: jamesbeard.org]

Photo: Amazon.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.

We interviewed Jonathan Waxman -- of recent "Top Chef Masters" fame -- a year or two ago about how to properly cut open an artichoke. He was confident that we'd be able to briskly pick up the trick (which could cause an untrained cook to handily slice off a digit) without much practice.

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.