Howdy cookbook fans!
Hi from Austin, where everyone is mourning SXSW being cancelled, but we’re thankful safety measures have been taken. Sending good and healthy thoughts to you and yours.
Bunch of news today that has nothing to do with elections or viruses or anything like that! Just good old fashioned recipes. Let’s get on with it, but first a reminder that if you want to see me in your inbox again on Friday (for $5/month or $50/year), click the big red button below.
Harris to Receive JBFA Lifetime Achievement Award
Cookbook author and scholar Jessica B. Harris will receive the 2020 James Beard Lifetime Achievement Award. Harris, who won the James Beard Award Cookbook Hall of Fame Award just last year, has written 12 books on the foodways of the African diaspora. Titles include 2011’s High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, 1998’s The Africa Cookbook: Tastes of a Continent, and her 2017 memoir, My Soul Looks Back. Congrats to Dr. Harris! [JBFA/press release]
Aussie Chefs Launch Australian Culinary Archive
Extremely cool project alert: With the help of a bunch of celebrity chefs, Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum is launching the Australian Culinary Archive. According to Good Food, the archive will house “oral histories, recipes, critic reviews, customer complaint letters and restaurant designs; and objects such as artworks, restaurant furniture, food moulds and awards” and will take two years to compile.
The Archive will be spearheaded by publisher Julie Gibbs, and will begin with 1968’s influential The Margaret Fulton Cookbook. The goal of the Archive, which will work in conjunction with the museum’s indigenous collections, is to help define Australian cuisine. (Do we have any Australian readers out there? Care to comment on how cool this is? Because as stated I think it sounds EXTREMELY COOL but you tell me.)
New Jamie Oliver Announced
“This is probably the most user-friendly cookbook that I’ve ever written,” says Jamie Oliver in the video above, announcing his new cookbook, 7 Ways. As the title suggests, the book will be a collection of recipes for every day of the week, “based on the stuff that you always buy.” The food is “comfort food-based, but also stuff you don’t know you love yet.”
Oliver describes the book as the final in a trilogy of simple home cooking books, the other two being 5 Ingredients and Veg. Out August 20 in the UK and, per Amazon, November 3 in the US, from Flatiron.
Behold the Cover to the New Ina Garten Book
Behold! The cover for Ina Garten’s Modern Comfort Food has been revealed. October 27, Clarkson Potter.
Check this out!
“I see cooking for others as a service. I don't know if it's a religious service, or a spiritual service or ritualistic service. But I know that by gathering ingredients, and preparing them and serving them with a modicum of implied, if not explicit love, I'm giving something of myself to other people that I think they can accept in kind. And their acceptance is important to me, and I think makes our family and friendship dynamics work better.” —NYT food editor Sam Sifton discusses Sunday suppers and his new cookbook. [Salon]
This is just a nice essay about falling in love with cookbooks. [Miami Student]
Cookbook review: The Beginning by Naqiyah Mayat [Times Live]
Cookbook review: Drag Queen Brunch by Poppy Tooker and Sam Hanna [Marin Independent Journal]
Cookbook review: Dimes Times by Alissa Wagner and Sabrina de Sousa [Vogue]
8 cookbooks for International Women’s Day. [Vogue]
Epi’s spring cookbook preview. [Epicurious]
New cookbook explores the cuisine of California wine country through women chefs and food professionals. [Press Democrat]
“Keep it simple. Make it special.” Inside All-Time Favorite Recipes from Ohio Cooks. [Toledo Blade]
That’s all for today! Comments open to everyone because I want to hear from Australians, but feel free to comment if you are not Australian, too. See Friday people Friday. WASH YOUR HANDS. Okay, bye.
Australian resident here - hadn't heard about the Australian Culinary Archive which I also think is extremely cool! The Powerhouse is a wonderful museum and this is a stunning array of chefs supporting the project. The Powerlab Kitchen sounds pretty cool too.