Oh hey we’re back! I hope everyone had a lovely end of December/early January and is currently enjoying (“enjoying”) 2020. Here in Austin we are blessed with temps in the 60s and…the worst cedar pollen the city has seen in a quarter century. Win some, lose some, sneeze a lot.

ON WITH THE COOKBOOK NEWS! Gonna be a great year.

Barefoot Contessa Memoir

inagarten

We just photographed the Banana Rum Trifle for my next cookbook. Good enough to eat?? @quentinbaconphoto

December 4, 2019

I came across this post where an internet detective tries to sleuth out Ina Garten’s next cookbook (based on Instagram above), and in turn did some of my own sleuthing. And while I didn’t turn up anything on the cookbook, I did find mention that Garten is working on a memoir, for Celadon. It was announced in October but is news to me. Garten has had quite the life, from her long romance with husband Jeffrey, to working in the White House under presidents Ford and Carter (!), to of course her extremely successful cookbook-writing career and Food Network show. Should be a good read.

Six Seasons Sequel: Grains!

jj__mc

It’s been a year with @avagenes kitchen expansion, the start of @avagenes brunch, desert trips and Oaxaca with @modernadventurists, partnerships with @brewdr and @newseasonsmarket, second anniversary of #SixSeasons—and now all things 2020!! Excited about a second cookbook in the works, @cicoria’s opening, some new @submarine_hospitality projects...and to taking better care of our earth, our farmers, our people 📸: @brewdr #xoxoxo ✌🏿✌🏾✌🏽✌🏼✌🏻✌️ ✌🏾✌🏽✌🏼✌🏻✌️✌🏿✌🏾✌🏽✌🏼✌🏻✌️

January 1, 2020

Normally I cover book deals in paid issues (~true nerds only~), but I think this is one everyone will be excited about: Portland chef Joshua McFadden and co-author Martha Holmberg are teaming up for a sequel to 2017’s Six Seasons. Called Grains for Every Season, the book will feature “175 simple weeknight recipes both savory and sweet” as well as intel on whole grains/whole grain flour. Artisan, no pub date available just yet. [Publishers Marketplace]

Six Seasons won the James Beard Foundation Award for Vegetable-Focused Cookbook. It pretty much lives in my kitchen, and I wrote a rave review of it in 2017 for Lucky Peach (r i 🍑). There was a big old scandal when it won Cookbook of the Year at IACP in 2018, because Holmberg…was director of the organization at the time. Oops. The award ended up getting revoked but the book, as the kids say, still slaps. Looking forward to Grains.

The Experiment Acquires Appletree

The Experiment, publisher of nonfiction titles including vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free/etc cookbooks, has acquired Appletree Press, a publisher of nutrition-focused cookbooks. According to Publishers Weekly, Appletree’s biggest hits are Cooking à la Heart and The Essential Arthritis Cookbook, both of which have sold over 100,000 copies (!). Congrats to the happy couple.

Check This Out

Tejal Rao on Usha Prabakaran, whose 20-year-old self-published Indian pickles cookbook has become a cult classic: “Ms. Prabakaran worried that without documentation, the gradual loss of this knowledge was inevitable — that more and more people would make fewer and fewer pickle varieties, until eventually, the expertise was lost. ‘The reason for writing the book was to ensure that the vast culinary heritage of this land stays on the map,’ she said.” [NYT]
I talked to cookbook author Toni Tipton-Martin about her new book Jubilee, over at Texas Monthly. [TxMo]
What one woman learned from starting a cookbook club. [Bangor Daily News]
Philadelphia woman publishes two cookbooks of family recipes, earns herself a role as an extra in…The Irishman? [Fox 29]
“Maybe there’s a teacher who wanted to teach comics but didn’t feel like they could draw themselves or just somehow thought, because they weren’t a professional cartoonist, they couldn’t teach comics. I wanted to have a book that shows that they could — it’s sort of like everybody can get together and cook this particular meal. So I thought more about a cookbook when I was putting it together, and these exercises as the recipes.” — cartoonist Lynda Barry on her new drawing book, Making Comics. [Vox]
The books that changed how Australia cooks. [Good Food]
Behind the scenes with the Alinea Group’s Directors of Media and Publishing. [Notre Dame Magazine]
What’s the deal with sheet-pan dinners? [Eater]
Confessions of a cookbook hoarder. [Observer-Reporter]

That’s it for today! Send me scoops! And become a paid subscriber below, if you like!

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Ina Garten Memoir, Six Seasons Sequel