Best Food Writing 2000 [Paperback]

What's more fun: eating food or reading about it? Justifying the latter proposition in style, Best Food Writing 2000 offers an enticing selection of the year's best book, magazine, newspaper, newsletter, and Internet food prose. It culls the work of a wide range of authors, including Maya Angelou, Madhur Jaffrey, Calvin Trillin, and John Thorne--writers associated with food and not. Foodies and nonfoodies alike will welcome Best as a rich source of literary snacking.

Within its five parts, which include "Stocking the Larder," "Dining Around," and "Personal Tastes," the book offers delights such as Eric Asimov on America's most expensive restaurant; Grace Young exploring wok cookery; Anthony Bourdain recounting a chef's day in the life; and Anne Willan on the Burgundian table. Readers will also enjoy Vince Staten on barbecue, Jim Quinn's "Recipes for Dummies," Laura Fraser on giving up vegetarianism, and Trillin on the perfect bagel. What emerges finally from the book is a sense of how we feed ourselves, in every way. A look at this compelling question, plus a host of other food-related matters, makes this collection a small joy. --Arthur Boehm

Although this debut addition to the annual "best of" books offers some fine writing about food, its most likely audienceAfoodies who subscribe to cooking magazines and purchase cookbooksAwill have already read at least half of these essays when they originally appeared in Gourmet, Bon App?tit and similar publications (e.g., R.W. Apple Jr.'s ode to high-quality bacon first appeared in the New York Times, and in a piece from Vogue, Jeffrey SteingartenAthe self-described "man who ate everything"Awrites of his search for pig's blood). However, as Hughes points out, she culled her selections from a variety of media including culinary memoirs, social histories, profiles of chefs, essays on trends and techniques, and odes to individual foodstuffs such as Marlena de Blasi's nostalgic tribute to an especially satisfying plate of pasta. In one of the more engaging articles entitled "Bottom-Drawer Blues," Kim Severson of the San Francisco Chronicle interviews Chuck Williams of Williams-Sonoma about kitchen gadgets (e.g., egg separators and Williams's three-pronged hot-boiled-potato peeler) that just don't sell. Other successful pieces are Anne Mendelson's Gourmet essay against celebrity-chef cookbooks and Laura Fraser's rationale from Salon.com for quitting vegetarianism after 15 years that initially appeared on Salon.com. (Dec. 1)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

So many food magazines and so many cookbooks crowd the contemporary marketplace that an annual digest of the best of them has become inevitable. Holly Hughes has gathered more than 50 short pieces from books and periodicals that reflect the Best Food Writing, 2000. What they reveal is a passion for getting it right: the perfect knife, the perfect egg, the perfect dinner party. Anyone not so obsessed will nevertheless find a lot of useful cooking information beyond mere recipes, of which only a handful appears. Readers not regularly perusing the nation's food press will find this a valuable distillation of the current state of food culture. Mark Knoblauch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Best Food Writing 2000 brings together the most exceptional writing culled from the past year's top books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and web sites. Within its five sections-Stocking the Larder, Home Cooking, Someone's in the Kitchen, Dining Around, and Personal Tastes-read our best writers on everything from the year's most celebrated chefs to extraordinary restaurant experiences, from the latest trends in ingredients and equipment to unforgettable memoirs inspired by cooking and eating. Neither cook nor food lover should be without the debut of this remarkable collection.

Contributors include:
Maya Angelou
R.W. Apple, Jr.
Eric Asimov
Anthony Bourdain
Rick Bragg
Betty Fussell
William Grimes
Amanda Hesser
Madhur Jaffrey
Nancy Harmon Jenkins
Lynn Rossetto Kasper
Jumpha Lahiri
Eileen Yin-Fei Lo
Ruth Reichl
Phyllis Richman
Michael Ruhlman
Kate Sekules
Jeffrey Steingarten
Jane and Michael Stern
John Thorne
Sallie Tisdale
Calvin Trillin
James Villas
Anne Willan
Alex Witchel
and 24 others

Holly Hughes is a writer and the former executive editor of Fodor's Travel Publications. She lives in New York City.