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Don’t forget to download CookShelf so you can be the first to see my top 10 summer cookbook picks!
Don’t forget to download CookShelf so you can be the first to see my top 10 summer cookbook picks!
When one of my favorite NPR producers emailed me last month to say that, due to budget constraints, NPR would not be running the cookbook roundup this summer, I was terribly sad. The summer cookbook roundup has been a happy tradition here – a parade of festive, partying, grilling, beach-loving books that are publishers’ last hurrah before the slow months of July and August. Now, it seemed, there would be no cocktails and grilled clams and corn fritters and lobster rolls. (And NPR wouldn’t be the only one facing budget constraints.)
But then I thought, what’s to stop summer cookbook roundup from happening anyway? I’ve got the cookbooks. I’ve got a blog. I’ve got a cookbook-rating app. And am I, or am I not, a full-time cookbook reviewer? So I decided I’d run it right here, on the Wednesday before Memorial Day – that’s May 22nd. Save the date! And for those who have the CookShelf app, you’ll be able to see my picks first of all, when the app refreshes late Tuesday night.
So stay tuned, folks. Cookbook roundup may be nothing but a jumble of Alpha-Bits right now. But in five short days, you’ll have the summer’s best cookbook picks on your screen and at your fingertips.
Well, the list has gone live! After about 4 weeks of reading, browsing, asking the 7 questions, and recipe-testing (ask my family), my top 10 choices for summer cookbooks are now public. Read the story on the NPR website.
Following the top 10 is my own shortlist, which includes all the outstanding cookbooks that didn’t make it into the NPR article–lots of terrific choices for newlyweds, new college graduates, parents, and, well, everybody.
The NPR Summer 2012 Top 10:
- The Sunset Edible Garden Cookbook
- The Fresh & Green Table, by Susie Middleton
- Herbivoracious, by Michael Natkin
- Asian Tofu, by Andrea Nguyen
- Pasta Italiana, by Gino d’Acampo
- The Fresh Egg, by Jennifer Trainer Thompson
- Ripe, by Nigel Slater
- Ripe, by Cheryl Sternman Rule & Paulette Philpot
- United States of Pie, by Adrienne Kane
- Humphry Slocombe Ice Cream Book, by Jake Godby, Sean Vahey, Frankie Frankeny and Paolo Lucchesi
The Shortlist:
Outstanding Book for Slow Foodistas
A Girl and Her Pig: Recipes and Stories, by April Bloomfield with J.J. Goode
Outstanding Seasonal-Eating Cookbook
The Farm: Rustic Recipes for a Year of Incredible Food, by Ian Knauer
Best Kitchen Gardener’s Book:
Grow Cook Eat: A Food Lover’s Guide to Vegetable Gardening, Including 50 Recipes, Plus Harvesting and Storage Tips, by Willi Galloway
Best Reboot-Your-Salad Book:
Salad for Dinner: Complete Meals for All Seasons, by Jeanne Kelley
Exquisite Gluten-Free Book
La Tartine Gourmande: Recipes for an Inspired Life, by Béatrice Peltre
Ingredient-Focused Book from a Hunky Newcomer
Hero Food: How Cooking with Delicious Things Can Make Us Feel Better, by Seamus Mullen
How-to-Cookbook with an Emphasis on Lots of Recipes
How to Cook Everything the Basics: All You Need to Make Great Food, by Mark Bittman
How-to-Cook Book with an Emphasis on Helpful Process Photographs
What to Cook and How to Cook It: Fresh and Easy, by Jane Hornby
Food of Many Nations Primer
Cindy’s Supper Club: Meals from Around the World to Share with Family and Friends, by Cindy Pawlcyn
Buzz-Free Liquid Refreshment Book
Sip and Savor: Drinks for Party and Porch, by James T. Farmer III
Mouthwatering Ice Cream Book
Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones: 90 Recipes for Making Your Own Ice Cream and Frozen Treats from Bi-Rite Creamery, by Kris Hoogehyde, Anne Walker, and Dabney Gough
Multiethnic Comfort Food from a Talented Newcomer
Comfort and Spice, by Niamh Shields
Fun Trend Cookbook for Bedside Reading
The Truck Food Cookbook: 150 Recipes and Ramblings from America’s Best Restaurants on Wheels, by John T. Edge
Giftworthy-Design DIY Book
A Country Cook’s Kitchen: Simple Recipes for Making Breads, Cheese, Jams, Preserves, Cured Meats, and More, by Alison Walker
Make-Your-Own-Snacks Book:
The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You can stop Buying and Start Making, by Alana Chernila
French Country Fantasy Book:
Nature: Simple, Healthy, and Good, by Alain Ducasse
Seasonal Cookbook Best Suited for an Art Gallery
The Perfect Ingredient: 5 Fantastic Ways to Cook Apples, Beets, Pork, Scallops, and More, by Bryn Williams
Even-in-the-Summer Baking Book
CakeLove in the Morning: Recipes for Muffins, Scones, Panckaes, Waffles, Biscuits, Frittatas, and Other Breakfast Treats, by Warren Brown
Attractive Glossary for a Dwindling Food Supply
Fish: Recipes from the Sea, by C.J. Jackson and Barton Seaver
Perfect Gift in Lieu of a Bouquet
Edible Flowers: 25 Recipes and an A-Z Pictorial Directory of Culinary Flora, by Kathy Brown
Good New Idea for a Regional Cookbook
The New Middle Eastern Vegetarian: Modern Recipes from Veggiestan, by Sally Butcher
Just-For-Fun, Not-a-Book Cocktail Guide
Mrs. Lilien’s Cocktail Swatchbook
And don’t forget, summer is the season for narrative! now that you have time to read, take a moment to savor tales of food forays, quests, and misadventures. You can find them in my own book, A Spoonful of Promises: Recipes and Stories from a Well-Tempered Table.
It’s the beginning of the month, which means – time to update the “recipes tested” page! Click here to see what we’ve been testing – some of our favorites, anyway, as many were vetted for full-length review and I can’t yet disclose the dozen or so recipes we tried.
Next month will be a much bigger listing, as I’m now speed-dating cookbooks for NPR summer roundup…
They’re here! they’re here! the best of a sizzling, sun-kissed, sea-splashed swarm of summer cookbooks. Get them for yourself or for your friends or your recent graduates or anyone else you think needs more great food in their life during the season when they actually have time to enjoy it. Congratulations, best-of winners. Well-deserved, and mouth-watering.
Click here–or on the lobster–for the official NPR summer cookbooks roundup. If you missed the accompanying interview on Weekend Edition Sunday and would like to hear it, click on the audio link at the top of the story.
For those of you who’ve been wondering–it’s coming, never fear! I understand the 2011 summer cookbook roundup will go public on Sunday 6/5, when there should also be a taped interview running on Weekend Edition.
After much agonizing and testing, as usual, I have a shortlist for the NPR summer cookbooks roundup. Who made the cut!?
For now, that’s for me to know and you, dear readers, to speculate upon . . . at least for another two weeks when the story will run.
