Which Cookbook Author Is Now in the Smithsonian?

Plus: Gavin Kaysen's All-Star Chef Cookbook!!

Author

Paula Forbes
April 25, 2024

Howdy cookbook fans!

How is everyone doing this week? I am well, if busy‚ enjoying the last blast of nice weather before the heat descends and we’re trapped inside all summer, sigh. Anyway it’s lovely out right now and that’s enough!

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On to the cookbook news!

Today’s issue of Stained Page News is brought to you by Hardie Grant North America and Around Our Table: Whole Recipes to Feed Your Family and Friends by Sara Forte, the force behind the beloved Sprouted Kitchen blog. Around Our Table is a collection of 120 recipes that embody Sara’s generous approach towards cooking, making it an indispensable resource for timeless, family-friendly meals you’ll make again and again. Pre-order today.

ON AUCTION In Brussels this week, “a sizeable collection of gastronomic books from the 17th to the 20th century” will be auctioned off, including a well-preserved, legible recipe book in old Dutch from 1788 that was hand-written by a housekeeper in Antwerp. Per flandersnews.be, recipes include strawberry cake and a mussels soup. (Plus ça change etc etc.)(Sorry for mixing languages, Belgium.) View the full auction here. [Flandersnews.be, Arenberg Auctions]

Marcella Hazan’s Cooking Tools Acquired by the Smithsonian

Victor Hazan via press release

Move over Julia Child, there’s a new cookbook author in the Smithsonian. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of renowned Italian cookbook author Marcella Hazan’s birth, the National Museum of American History has acquired 20 “specialized Italian cooking tools” as well as some of Hazan’s recipe notebooks. According to a press release, the equipment includes “a passatelli press, garganelli pasta comb, a mattarello for rolling out pasta, her wood cutting board, lasagna pan and her cotton apron.” I don’t know what those first three things are!!! The recipe notebooks, which are written in Italian, will be stored in the museum’s archives. No word when they will go on display.

Coming Attractions: Gavin Kaysen and Friends! Benoit Blin! Shuka! Vedge! Gris-Gris! MAKE WAY FOR DUMPLINGS! More!

  • Above: Minneapolis chef Gavin Kaysen announced his second self-published cookbook on Instagram, teasing a concept that will “celebrate each chef who came through our doors and cooked” at his restaurant Spoon and Stable. The photo tags a murderers row of chefs like Daniel Boulud, Missy Robbins, April Bloomfield, Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz, Sean Brock, Michael Solomonov, Michael Anthony, and Michael White. (Sorry for tossing all the Michaels in there together at the end.) Co-authored by Bonjwing Lee, Alison Arth, and Kimberly Belle; photos by Lee and @designbylibby on Instagram (couldn’t find her last name). Love this as a concept, more restaurants should do similar books. Gramercy Tavern comes to mind, as does Uchi here in Austin. Here’s my interview with Gavin about his last self-published book! Spoon Thief Publishing, “later this year.”

  • Any fans of Bake Off: The Professionals in the audience? Judge and pastry chef at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons Benoit Blin will write his first-ever cookbook, Bake With Benoit. According to the Bookseller, “during lockdown Blin adapted his favourite pastry and cake recipes to suit a home kitchen,” the fruits of which are in this book. Quadrille, July 2024.

  • New York City chef Ayesha Nurdjaja (Shuka, Shukette) to write an as-yet untitled book of seasonal, veg-forward Mediterranean recipes. Clarkson Potter, pub date TBA.

  • Philadelphia chefs Kate Jacoby and Rich Landau to write their third cookbook, The Vedge Bar Book, written with bartenders Brian Bolles and Ginevra Reiff. Seasonal vegan cocktails! 75 recipes! Small plates and bar snacks! The Experiment, fall 2024.

  • Jacquy Pfeiffer, author of The Art of French Pastry, to write The Art of the Crust, along with co-author Martha Rose Shulman. 100 recipes for sweet and savory tarts, pies, tortes, and galettes alongside step-by-step photos, which ain’t cheap. Knopf, pub date TBA. 

  • Make Way for Dumplings! (Great title.) Margaret Li and Irene Li are back for their third cookbook, with recipes for dumplings as well as “folding techniques, weeknight hacks, dinner party menus and more.” Norton, pub date TBA.

  • Eric Cook, chef at Gris-Gris in New Orleans, has announced Modern Creole, a collection of “his signature Southern, Cajun, and Creole recipes, along with a side of New Orleans culture.” Written with Jyl Benson, foreword by Gordon Ramsay! Gibbs Smith, September 2024.

  • And last but not least, food writer and SPN contributor Georgia Freedman to write Snacking Dinners, which sounds like girl dinners but for everybody? Hardie Grant NA, pub date TBA.

$$$$$$ The American Booksellers Association periodically puts out bestseller lists of specialty titles compiled through indie booksellers, and April’s list is cookbooks! Based on sales over an 8 week period, the top sellers were: 1. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat, 2. Start Here by Sohla El-Waylly, 3. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, 4. 5 Ingredients Mediterranean by Jamie Oliver (which honestly kind of surprises me), and 5. Zaytinya by José Andrés. The rest of the list here! [ABA]

Okay that’s everything! Off to CHICAGO, we’ve got quite the packed schedule but if you have bakery recs near Wicker Park, gimme. See ya soon!

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