40 Years of Chez Panisse : The Power of Gathering by Alice Waters and Friends, an album that chronicles the life of Chez Panisse from germination to the maturity with “archival material and photographs—menus; invitations; pictures of Alice at the restaurant and around the world, with those who have passed through her life—and interviews from public figures and cooks who have been inspired by or mentored at the restaurant.”

The “30 Minutes” part provoked some controversy on the other side of pond.

I suspect the change in title came about because advanced British cooks claimed it took up to 90 minutes to prepare some of the book’s featured dishes.

A Covert Affair

Jennet Conant has written extensively on World War II and the intelligence community in her previous books:  The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington; Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II; and 109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos. Her articles have appeared in Vanity Fair, Esquire, GQ, Newsweek, and The New York Times.

Read this informative piece regarding the author and A Covert Affair at the History News Network.


 

Today is the release date for Martha Stewart’s new book, Martha Stewart’s Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook.

Check the “Cooking School Book Tour” listing on Martha’s website to see if she’ll be visiting your neighborhood bookstore.

Kancigor, Judy Bart. (1999). Melting pot memories: the Rabinowitz Family cookbook and nostalgic history. Fullerton, CA: Jan Bart Publications. 259 pp. Index. Printed in sepia on cream colored paper and with matching sepia photographs.

I compared a fourth printing (2001) of Melting Pot Memories (MPM) with Kancigor’s latest book Cooking Jewish (CJ). The copyright page of CJ lists the years 1997, 2003 and 2007. I speculated that CJ was a mainstream publisher’s (Workman) version of the privately published MPM.

Kancigor says, “. . . every time I reprinted MPM, which was a self-published book, I made changes and improvements. There were 8 printings! Now, the difference between my self-published book and my new cookbook, COOKING JEWISH, published by Workman is huge!! Cooking Jewish has 704 pages, over 500 family photos, tons more stories and is totally revamped. There are many new recipes, but even where I used a recipe that was in MPM, it is totally rewritten, because my new publisher really taught me how to write a recipe! And in the thorough, more professional test kitchen many adjustments were made.”