Friend
You know it is spring when asparagus and
broad beans are available again. Our girls
are shelling broad beans their way which
means one for the pot and one for them!
We've been using them in a warm salad with
Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon (an oxymoron - we
know!), fennel and bitter greens. Amanda has
also been having fun with baby artichokes and
the bbq has been dusted off in readiness for
the summer.
Spring also coincides with the start of the
Christmas cookbook rush. We worked out last
year that almost 80% of our new releases come
in the next 8 weeks. Our heads are spinning
from the range & volume of books this year,
which means that you will probably hear from
us again fairly soon.
This Spring, as well as the new, the old is
fashionable again. With the release of the
movie 'Julie & Julia', Julia Child's
Mastering the Art of French Cooking has
become available again (as well as her
biography, autobiography and her other books
including 'The French Chef' and 'Julia's
Kitchen Wisdom'). And if you prefer a
British classic cookbook, Elizabeth David's
'French Provincial Cooking' & 'An Omelette &
a Glass of Wine' are available again in
hardcover. see more below...
As usual, a steady trickle of unusual and
interesting titles are arriving on a regular
basis. In particular:
Mud Puddle Books publish exquisite
facsimile editions of antique & rare cocktail
books. We have an exciting (& beautiful just
to hold) set of 10 of their replica books
ranging from New York in the 1880s to Paris
in the 1930s available in store; more
below....
Hsa*Ba, an award winning Burmese
restaurant in London, has published a
definitive & beautiful book on Burmese
cuisine. This is one of the few books in
this area, and it is a beautiful full colour
book $50.
Michel Bras' seminal book 'Essential
Cuisine' has been reissued in English and we
have limited copies available. $145.
Larousse Gastronomique has been reissued
in a new 5th edition, yet again enlarged - $145.
Escoffier & Le Repertoire are also available
for the francophile
New histories & retrospectives on Ardberg
& Laphroig Whisky for the 'peat-o-phile' -
$79.95 each. Feel free to ask for a list of
our extensive collection of whisky books.
and of course, much more...
And, as usual at this time, we have a few
instore events to coincide with book launches
leading up to Christmas.
First up will be
Luke Nguyen from the Red Lantern in Sydney
who is currently appearing on Thursday nights
on SBS.
Early in November we will be hosting
the authors of 'MoVida Rustica', the new book
from MoVida, Peter Kuravatis, author of
'Serendip: a Sri Lankan culinary journey' and
later in the month, a few other
guests. Our next newsletter will be
out shortly with details of these events and
books.
Oh, and don't miss our special to help you
get your food life organised at the bottom of
this newsletter
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...event - Tuesday 27 October ..
The Songs of Sapa with Luke Nguyen
Join us this coming Tuesday for an evening
with chef, author & TV presenter Luke
Nguyen.
As usual there will be tastes
from the book and an opportunity to chat
intimately with the author.
In The Songs of Sapa, Luke, of Secrets of the Red
Lantern fame, is going home. Travelling
on a personal and culinary tour through
Vietnam, Luke visits his family and friends,
and is invited into the homes of local
Vietnamese food experts and cooks, to learn
more about one of the richest, most diverse
cuisines in the world.
Starting in the northwest of Vietnam, in the
villages and hills around Sapa, Luke explores
the roots of traditional cooking. Moving
south, he travels to the capital, Hanoi,
renowned for its French-Vietnamese cuisine.
He explores the imperial cooking of Hue,
discovers the famed cau lau noodles in Hoi
An, and tastes a host of simple seafood
dishes of coastal Nha Trang and Quy Nhon, his
journey culminating in Saigon, where he is
reunited with family.
The Songs of Sapa is a vibrant, visual essay
of Luke's journey, the stories and recipes
from each region, with stunning photographs
bursting with colour and texture, capturing
the beauty of Vietnam, her people and their
deep connection to food.
Luke Nguyen opened his award-winning
restaurant, Red Lantern, in 2002 with his sister
Pauline and her partner chef Mark
Jensen.
Luke has appeared on 'Food
Safari' and 'Heat in
the Kitchen' and he is also hosting a new
series on SBS, which commenced on 15th
October 2009,
called 'Luke Nguyen's Vietnam'.
An Evening with Luke Nguyen
Date: Tuesday 27 October
Venue: Books for Cooks
Time: 7pm
Charge: Free
Bookings Essential (only 30 places available)
'The Songs of Sapa'
by Luke Nguyen
ISBN: 9781741964653
Format: Hardcover 366pp (over 100 recipes)
RRP $69.95
Also Available:
Secrets of the Red Lantern
by Pauline Nguyen
RRP: $59.95
Signed copies are
available to order if you can't join us on
the night.
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North African Cookery
by Arto der Haroutunian
New this month, is the re-release of this
long out of print classic. The author was
born in Aleppo in 1940 but moved to England
and became an architect. In 1970 he opened
an Armenian restaurant which went on to
become highly succesful and the first of a
number of restaurants. He was a painter of
international repute, a translator and a
highly regarded
cookery book author.
Since his death
in 1987, his books, all out print, have
become rare and highly sought after, often
selling for many hundreds of dollars. Over the
past year or so, his books have been
re-released as hardcovers: 'Vegetarian Dishes
from the Middle East', 'Middle Eastern
Cookery' and now 'North African Cookery'.
All three are written with a dry wit
and authentic notes.
Here you are taken on a tour of the cuisines
of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya in
this comprehensive guide to North African
food. There are over 300 recipes for
traditional dishes such as tagines, stews,
soups, and salads using classic ingredients
such as fiery spices, jewel-like dried
fruits, lemons, and armfuls of fresh herbs.
Simplicity is at the heart of the medina
kitchen. The exotic fuses with the domestic
to produce dishes that are highly flavoured
yet quick and easy to prepare. Vegetables are
prepared in succulent and unusual ways while
dishes such as chicken honey and onion
couscous, and 'gazelle horns' filled with
almonds, sugar and orange blossom water
provide a feast for both the imagination and
the palate.
Tunisian cuisine is perhaps the hottest of
the region-due in large part to the
popularity of the fiery chilli paste,
harissa. As well as a strong French
influence, pasta is a passion in Tunisia.
Morocco's great forte is its tagines and
sauces-with meat and fish being cooked in one
of four popular sauces. And Libya, although
less gastronomically subtle than Tunisia and
Morocco, excels in soups and patisserie.
This collection represents the cooking of the
region with refreshingly uncomplicated
techniques, short lists of ingredients and
the comforting, elemental flavours of various
spices and seasonings. Recipes are easy to
follow, and evoke the spicy, sumptuous
flavours of the region. This culinary journey
creates some of the world's most
extraordinary gastronomic cultures.
With a sumptuous range of dishes from simple
street fare to elaborate banquet food, this
book is a wonderful introduction to North
African flavoured with a slice of history, an
anecdote or a fable that brings this land of
the sunset' vividly to life.
North African Cookery
by Arto der Haroutunian
ISBN 9781906502348
Format: Hardcover (no illustration)
RRP: $50
Also available:
Middle Eastern Cookery RRP $50
Vegetarian Dishes from the Middle East RRP:
$39.95
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Melbourne Wine & Food Masterclasses 2010
- book now - or regret it
The Langham Melbourne MasterClass 2010 schedule
has now been released and a number of
sessions are selling fast. For full details
of the program, check out the website.
A constant refrain we heard last year was,
'we missed out' or 'we didn't get to see the
chefs we wanted to' so if you want to see
Alex Atala, Massimo Bottura, Claude Bosi,
David Chang, Mads Reflund, Ana Sortun, Nancy
Silverton, Michael Psilakis, Thomasina Miers
and many others, check it out now!
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Forthcoming - Thai Street Food - 26 October
by David Thompson
We first heard about this book a year or two
ago when a customer leant across the counter
and in a conspiritorial whisper asked 'Is it
really true? Is he doing a new book?' A few
calls later, we were just as
excited...
Writing a follow up book to
what is widely considered the best book ever
written on Thai food was always going to be a
challenge, but now we have seen it, we think
David has risen to the challenge and succeded
admirably.
The book is unusually large and the graphic
design, Earl Carter photography and paper are
very striking; their strength complimenting the
boldness of the food....
There is
little crossover with 'Thai Food'; with a range
of fascinating street food recipes that
capture the
excitement & bustle of Thai street life.
Renowned chef David Thompson first went to
Thailand by mistake: a holiday plan had to be
changed at the last minute and he ended up in
Bangkok, where he was seduced by the people,
their culture and cuisine. Since that fateful
trip some 20 years ago, Thailand has become
his second home. Working alongside cooks who
had perfected their craft in the Thai royal
palaces, he began to document the traditional
recipes and culinary techniques that have
been handed down from generation to
generation - before they were eroded, altered
and modernised beyond all recognition. The
result was Thai Food, the most comprehensive
account of this ancient and exotic cuisine
ever published in English.
David
Thompson writes with passion and conviction
about a unique style of cooking that he
believes to be one of the world's greatest
cuisines. Widely acclaimed as an expert on
Thai food, David Thompson is one of
Australia's foremost chefs, restaurateurs and
cookery writers. He is also an eloquent
ambassador for Thai culture. His Sydney
restaurants, the acclaimed Darley Street Thai
- now closed - and the perennially popular
Sailors Thai, have increased the awareness
and appreciation of authentic Thai cooking.
In July 2001 he opened nahm, in London's
Halkin Hotel. Seven months later, it gained a
Michelin star, making nahm the first Thai
restaurant to attain such an award. Currently
David Thompson is consulting with the
prestigious Suan Dusit College in Bangkok on
the preservation of Thai culinary heritage.
David will be in Melboure next week and will
be signing copies of his books for us. If
you would like
a signed copy please let us know.
Thai Street Food
by David Thompson
ISBN: 9781920989071
Format: Very large Hardcover 372pp
RRP: $100
Also available the classic (in limited
quantities)
Thai Food: arharn Thai
by David Thompson
$79.95
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Rotis: roasts every day of the week
by Stéphane Reynaud
From Stéphane Reynaud, the bestselling French
author of Pork & Sons, Terrine & lately
Ripailles, comes this book about roasts.
Pot-roasted or oven-roasted, Rôtis turns up
the heat on cooking a butcher shop window's
worth of meat.
There's a roast for every day - Monday's
beef, Tuesday's veal, Wednesday's poultry,
Thursday's pork, Friday's - you guessed it -
fish, Saturday's lamb and Sunday, well,
that's leftover night. Stéphane also includes
a clever and diverse selection of vegetable
dishes - perfect accompaniments to the main
event.
We particularly loved the sound
of whole roast duck with sugared almonds;
roast racks of lamb with pistachios, and
roast monkfish with smoky bacon and black
olives.
Rotis: roasts every day of the week
by Stéphane Reynaud
ISBN: 9781741965377
Format: Hardcover (no jacket)
RRP: $49.95
Also Available:
Pork & Sons rrp$ 59.95
Terrine rrp $45
Ripailles rrp $79.95
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Encyclopedia of Pasta
by Oretta Zanini de Vita
Spaghetti, gnocchi, tagliatellea, ravioli,
vincisgrassi, strascinati-pasta in its myriad
forms has been a staple of the Mediterranean
diet longer than bread. This beautiful volume
is the first book to provide a complete
history of pasta in Italy, telling its long
story via the extravagant variety of shapes
it takes and the even greater abundance of
names by which it is known.
Food
scholar Oretta Zanini De Vita traveled to
every corner of her native Italy, recording
oral histories, delving into long-forgotten
family cookbooks, and searching obscure
archives to produce this rich and uniquely
personal compendium of historical and
geographical information.
For each
entry she includes the primary ingredients,
preparation techniques (but note an actual
recipe), variant names for the
same pasta, and the locality where it is made
and eaten. Along the way, Zanini De Vita
debunks such culinary myths as Marco Polo's
supposed role in pasta's story even as she
serves up a feast of new information.
Encyclopedia of Pasta, illustrated throughout
with original drawings by Luciana Marini,
will be the standard reference on one of the
world's favorite foods for many years to
come, engaging and delighting both general
readers and food professionals.
We fell in love with the scholarship and
depth of this book when we showed it to a
friend who comes from an obscure village in
Sicily. She promptly looked up the equally
obscure version of a pasta exclusive to her
village and not only was it in there, but it
also included the name in dialect and the
variations her family used...
The
reviews for this book are equally effusive...
"This is an amazing and deeply valuable work
of culinary scholarship-an anthropology of
Italian pasta that is also a major
contribution to Italian cultural history.
Maureen Fant's fine translation does complete
justice to Oretta Zanini's scrupulously
detailed and lovingly presented compendium. I
defy anyone to read this book and not want
immediately to board a plane for
Italy."-Nancy Harmon Jenkins, author of
Cucina del Sole and The Essential Mediterranean
"This handsome book will be the authority for
settling bets about the history of pasta.
Every ambitious cook will covet these
authentic and exciting entries."-Paul Levy,
co-author of The Official Foodie Handbook and
Out to Lunch
"Zanini's singular achievement in this book
has been to shine a light into every Italian
kitchen where a different kind of pasta is
made, entertaining us with pertinent
historical anecdotes, instructing us with
explicit details and techniques, and making
us powerfully hungry."-Victor Hazan, author
of Italian Wine
Encyclopedia of Pasta
California Studies in Food and Culture, 26
by Oretta Zanini De Vita
Translated by Maureen B. Fant; with a
Foreword by Carol Field
ISBN: 9780520255227
Format: Hardcover, red cloth 374pp
RRP: $59.95
Other volumes in the
California Studies in Food & Culture are also
available on request.
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Greek Cookery from the Hellenic Heart
by George Calombaris
George Calombaris' second restaurant,
Hellenic Republic, is just around the corner
from home and but for the fact that it is
permanently full, it would be our local.... We
love George's white taramosalata, and the
chargrilled cuttlefish to order is to die
for. So, to have it all in a book so we can
do it at home is great - the only problem is
having to do the dishes....
According to George, the taverna is the
kitchen table of the village or the street -a
place for family and friends to gather; a
watering hole; a debating hall; a gambling
den, and a café rolled into one.
George's Hellenic Republic
restaurant captures that mood and combines it
with a menu that champions the full breadth
and myriad influences on peasant cuisine
across the Greek islands, territories and
regions. You could eat all day, from a
breakfast rich in yoghurt and Cypriot
sausage, to plates of tzatziki and
peppered figs, then onto the slow cooked
pork, moussaka and wash down the saganaki
with a crisp white wine.
Family is everything to George and he has
included his Mum's fabulous authentic recipes
that have been handed down through the
generations - from Cypriot pies, meat balls
and hummus to the tender Afelia (braised pork
and coriander) and the fabulous Kolokassi
with pork and taro.
Greek Cookery from the Hellenic heart
by George Calombaris
ISBN: 9781741108590
Format: Hardcover, 296pp
RRP: $50.00
Also available:
The Press Club
by
George Calombaris
RRP: $45
We regularly have signed copies, so if you
want one, please ask.
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Dessert: recipes from le champignon sauvage
by David Everitt-Matthias
Dessert is an extraordinary book from
two-Michelin-starred chef, David
Everitt-Matthias. Following on from his
critically acclaimed debut Essence, this
stunning second book explores the world, and
pushes the boundaries of the dessert chef's
art. Each of the book's five main chapters
focuses on a specific family of ingredients:
chocolate & nut; fruit; vegetable; roots,
pods, seeds & bark; and wild ingredients.
There is also a section outliniing the
essentials and
basics from which his craft begins and
several pages of petits fours.
With no specific pastry chef training, David
approaches, the idea of dessert free from
doctrine and perceived wisdom. A great
originator and writer of recipes - someone
who is able to instruct with precision and
passion - he has created a book that is
singular in its content, style and
technique.
Each recipe can be deconstruted into its
component parts, enabling individual elements
from within - such as a pureee, ice cream,
sabayon, sorbet or cream - to be enjoyed on
their own or alongside other
desserts.
We particularly liked the
sound of bitter chocolate and black olive
tarts with fennel ice cream; or fig carpaccio
with fig ice cream and baked figs; or, for the
adventurous, white asparagus creme caramel,
white asparagus cararmelised with maple syrup;
and for sheer comfort, mace junket with lemon
myrtle madeleines. And in case you are still
hungry, how about green tea cream with
lapsang jelly and milk mouse....
Dessert: recipes from le champignon sauvage
by David Everitt-Matthias
ISBN: 9781906650032
Format: Hardcover 160pp
RRP: $69.95
Also Available:
Essence: recipes from le champignon sauvage
by David Everitt Matthias
Format: Hardcover 192pp
RRP: $69.95
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Julia Child
...back in vogue...and back in print...
The power of the media was proven this month!
For years we have been praying for a reprint
of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by
Julia Child - with no avail. But with the
release of the movie Julie & Julia (which we
highly recommend)(and yes, in which at least
50 ducks were 'harmed' during the making of
the film), all things Julia Child are now
available again.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking is one of
the classic cookbooks of all times, in its
entirety-all 524 recipes.
'Anyone can cook in the French manner
anywhere,' wrote Mesdames Beck, Bertholle,
and Child, 'with the right instruction.' And
this is 'the' book that, for more than forty
years, has been teaching Americans (and
people around the world!) how.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking is for
both seasoned cooks and beginners who love
good food and long to reproduce at home the
savory delights of the classic cuisine, from
the historic Gallic masterpieces to the
seemingly artless perfection of a dish of
spring-green peas.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol 1
$39.95
Due 23 November...
Mastering the Art of French Cooking Vol 2
$39.95
Also available:
My Life in France by Julia Child $24.95
Julie & Julia by Julie Powell $24.95
Julia's Kitchen Wisdom by Julia Child $34.95
The French Chef by Julia Child $34.95
Julia Child: a life by Laura Shapiro $19.95
The Way to Cook by Julia Child $65
Baking with Julia by Julia Child & Dorie
Greenspan $79.95
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That's all from us for now, but we will have
another
newsletter out shortly.
Regards & Best Wishes
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Situated in the hip foodie enclave of
Sydney's Surry Hills is the original Bourke
Street Bakery, a cosy nook selling artisanal
baked goods of the highest order. The
bakery's long queue of customers waiting for
their daily fix is testament to the
popularity of their utterly delicious wares -
from rustic breads such as their famous spelt
sourdough to the flaky pork and fennel
sausage rolls and the most addictive sweet
pastries like ginger brulée and pistachio
tart.
We have recently received a new shipment from
New York and now have a lovely collection of
facsimile antique cocktail books for the
cocktail afficiniado.