I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.
Currently, Hugh Acheson is appearing as a judge on Top Chef Texas which I’ve been watching with hometown pride. He was also a recent competitor on Season Three of Top Chef Masters. When he’s not on TV, he’s busy as chef/partner of Five and Ten, The National, Gosford Wine, and Empire State South in Athens, Georgia. Hailing from Ottawa, Canada, he’s not a native to the US South, but over the years, he has developed his own approach to Southern cooking with a European influence. He was a Food and Wine Best New Chef in 2002, has been a James Beard nominee for Best Chef Southeast in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010, was a 2007 Rising Star chosen by StarChefs.com, and was included as one of the 100 contemporary chefs in Phaidon Press' Coco: 10 World-Leading Masters Choose 100 Contemporary Chefs. His new book is A New Turn in the South which offers 120 recipes showcasing his fresh take on Southern cuisine. With his busy schedule, I was lucky to steal a moment of his time to ask: what are you reading?
Hugh:
Vegetarian by Alice Hart I think there is a health movement afoot in the food world that is going to embrace vegetable based diets more than ever. I am a huge proponent of a shrinking meat protein size on our dinner plates and filling in with an abundance of great local vegetables and grains. This beautiful book is a great generator of ideas for me these days, served up in a beautiful layout. Cool book. The North American edition is coming out in April, but I bought my fine copy at Omnivore Books, in San Francisco, one of the best cookbook stores in the whole wide world.
The Taste of Country Cooking by Edna Lewis Edna was ahead of her time. She was a true woman chef in a male dominated trade. She was a refined voice that defined Southern food in a whole new light. This book recounts the flavors of her youth and is an essential read in realizing why Southern food is so pertinent now and how it has long been misunderstood. It’s less about lard than about blackberries and fresh eggs. Lovely book.
The Frankie’s Spuntino Kitchen Companion and Cooking Manual by Frank Falcinelli, Frank Castronovo, and Peter Meehan Who else gets a bible printer to produce their book in a very old-timey edition that reads like a long lost primer of seasonal Italian food? The Franks are so stylish and current and curate the best little neighborhood spots, spots you would long to have in your hood. The book is great, and the words bounce off the page in such a happy way with the crafty sensibility of Pete Meehan, who co-wrote the Momofuku cookbook.
Ottolenghi: The Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi I love the flavors of the Eastern Mediterranean and not since Wolfert’s The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean have I been this excited about a book focusing on the region. This book is getting used in our home kitchen. Soiled and dog-eared like all good cookbooks. The restaurant that it comes from is changing the way London eats with great to-go food and a really thought-through menu. Vegetable heavy again. The world is changing.
Lisa Fain, author of the well-loved food blog Homesick Texan started in 2006, has just written her first book The Homesick Texan Cookbook. I have the book in front of me now, open to the Morning Food chapter, and I’m getting distracted. The breakfast relleno, huevos rancheros, Mexican fried potatoes, and pecan coffee cake are making my toast look especially bland this morning. Some of the other chapters are Appetizers, Chilis Soups and Stews, Tex-Mex Classics, Beef Pork and Fowl, Seafood, Sides Hot and Cold, Breads, and Sweets. Just like the blog, the book presents the best of Texan cuisine with beautiful photos. Over the years, the Homesick Texan blog has been lauded repeatedly. It was named as one of the top fifty food blogs by the Times of London, the Best Regional Food Blog by Saveur, and received recognition from the New York Times, Bon Appetit, and Gourmet. Fain is an active member of Foodways Texas and the Southern Foodways Alliance, and is a certified barbecue judge. And, she’ll be visiting Austin soon. This Saturday, at the Texas Book Festival, Fain will be discussing her new book at 12:45 pm in the Capitol Extension Room E2.036. Then, on Monday, October 24, she will be at BookPeople for an Edible Austin book signing event starting at 7:00 pm. I recently asked her, what are you reading?
Lisa:
Larry McMurtry has long been one of my favorite writers, but I’d never read his first novel,Horseman, Pass By. It’s a spare yet poetic look at West Texas ranch life and the conflicts between the traditional and the new. There’s lots of arguing in the novel, but one thing that all the characters can agree upon is good food. Many scenes are spent amidst skillets of warm biscuits, bowls of freshly churned peach ice cream, or platters of sizzling, juicy steaks. It’s Texas home cooking at its best, and I was often hungry while reading.
The First Texas Cook Book, which was published in 1883, is filled with lots of fascinating recipes that you don’t often see anymore, such as snow pudding, pigshead mash, and pickled brains. Of course, there are lots of old favorites such as biscuits, chow chow and macaroni with cheese. I’m not sure I want to make all of these dishes, but it is interesting to see how our Texan ancestors cooked.
Thank you for participating, Lisa. Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.
Virginia Willis’ book Bon Appetit, Y'all: Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking appeared in 2008, and her new book Basic to Brilliant, Y'all: 150 Refined Southern Recipes and Ways to Dress Them Up for Company will be on shelves next month. A graduate of L'Academie de Cuisine and Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne, Willis’ wide and varied food career started in Atlanta as an apprentice to Nathalie Dupree. She worked with Dupree on four PBS series and cookbooks, including the James Beard award-winning Comfortable Entertaining. She also spent several years as an editorial assistant with culinary authority Anne Willan on various projects including Cook It Right. Willis honed her attention to detail as the Kitchen Director for Martha Stewart Living Television where she supervised the food segments for the Emmy-award winning television show. As Executive Producer for Epicurious on The Discovery Channel, she traveled the world taping fantastic stories about food. You can find her product line My Southern Pantry on her site and follow her blog for great recipes and stories. She currently has a proposed TV series Starting from Scratch as well. I managed to steal a moment from her busy schedule to ask what are you reading?
Virginia:
1491 - about life before Columbus --I started reading this because my friend, Chef Deb Snow owner of the Blue Heron, told me about it. A lot of this book is not about food so far, but so much of it in terms of culture, politics, and anthropology does involve food. The most intriguing parts of the book are about corn and other vegetables from South America vs those from Europe. I've learned from this book that old world vs new world doesn't really work anymore. That kind of language is indicative of prejudice. The "new world" had been a world for at least as long as the "old world."
I've purchased, but not yet startedTomatoland (by Barry Estabrook).
Also on my bedside table: Good Fish (by Becky Selengut) Beautiful, beautiful book about sustainable seafood of the Pacific. Sustainable seafood is a passion and a cause for me. I was designated a seafood ambassador with Seafood Watch this year. I am thrilled to be a small part of a greater cause for improving the situation and educating readers about why sustainable seafood is so important.
Ideas in Food (by Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot) I mostly shy away from molecular gastronomy, but I am somewhat curious about it. And, for those folks completely dragging their heels, my question is would you prefer calves hooves instead of gelatin sheets? As cooks, as people, we should always strive to learn and grow.
Speaking of... The Spirituality of Imperfection (by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham) As I grow older I find it increasingly necessary to find more balance and focus. One practice I have returned to doing is saying a prayer of thanks before eating a meal. Even if someone has an issue with traditional religion, I think it is important to take a moment. To seriously, just take a moment in your day out of this busy, hectic world we occupy. In that moment I think it is important to give thanks for the food one is about to receive, the hands that put it in front of you, and the hands that grew or harvested the food. It takes a lot of work to get that food on your plate.
As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto I was fortunate enough to spend time with Julia Child when I lived and worked in France. It's a real pleasure to see behind the scenes of the making of one of the greatest culinary educators and culinary icons of our time.
Thank you for participating, Virginia. Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.
Gesine Bullock-Prado followed a dream and turned her passion for baking into a business. The story of how she made a big change in her life, going from heading up her sister Sandra’s production company in Hollywood to operating a baking and confectionery shop in Vermont, was told in her book My Life from Scratch previously titled Confections of a Closet Master Baker. Her latest book, Sugar Baby, is a recipe book for cooking with sugar. The stages of cooked sugar, going from thread stage to hard-crack and the stages in between, are explained with a chapter and delectable recipes for each. There’s rock candy, a few variations on fudge, fruit gummis, taffy, fleur de sel caramels, cotton candy, and several more ideas I can’t wait to try. And, at the end of the book, there’s a chapter for combining different techniques and components like topping the meringues in an ile flottant with heart-shaped pralines. A book full of sugar treats is naturally fun to peruse, but this one is also written in a way that entertainingly conveys the details and instructions for sugar work. You can catch Gesine on the Today show on June 28th when she’ll be demonstrating some patriotic treats in time for the fourth of July, and she’s already busy at work on her next book, Pie it Forward, which will be released next April. I had a few questions for Gesine about sugar work, treats in Austin, and books, and she was kind enough to answer:
I live in Austin, so I wanted to ask you about Walton's Fancy and Staple. Were you involved in developing the bakery menu?
I developed the pastry menu and shared many recipes that I developed for my pastry shop in Vermont, Gesine Confectionary, including the ginger cookies (which are in Sugar Baby), chocolate mousse towers (also in Sugar Baby) fruit mousses (also in Sugar Baby), golden eggs (in my first book) and parisian macarons, among other things.
Any plans to open a Gesine Confectionary shop in Austin?
I don't plan on opening my own shop in Austin. My pastry life is spent writing cookbooks, teaching, and operating my mail order business.
Speaking of Austin, I have a question about making taffy. You shared a story in Sugar Baby about your grandmother’s fun taffy pulling parties, and I’d really like to try to do this. Do I need to wait for an elusive non-humid day in Austin? Or, any tips for humidity and taffy?
It's the same for any sugar work, humidity plays a large part in success or failure. The book is divided into stages of "heat." As sugar gets hotter, it sloughs off moisture, and the more moisture that's sloughed off, the hotter it gets, the more concentrated the sugar becomes and the harder the solution becomes. Taffy falls in the firm/hard ball range. The issue with humidity is that once you get your sugar to temperature and you begin to work with it, the moisture in the air decides to settle in and wreak havoc. You've gone to all the trouble to get rid of moisture and there it is, in the air, just waiting to creep back into the sugar and make it all kinds of soft and soggy. I demo the taffies in the book at pretty much every signing, even in Austin. It's always spot on but I'm just waiting for summer to really hit its stride and mess up all sugar work entirely.
Making rock candy looks like such an interesting process. How did you learn to do it?
I made rock candy as a child in elementary school. Through the years, as I've actually studied sugar work, I was able to "troubleshoot" the process. I have even more tips on the sugarbabycookbook.com blog. For something so simple, it's alarming how much can go wonky. The process is right up there with poking an avocado seed with tooth pics and watching it sprout (in about a year!). In Europe, rock sugar is often presented in a bowl with a tea service instead of granulated sugar and is quite common to make.
And, one more question. I have to ask, what are you reading?
Strangely,Born to Run had an impact on me as far as my bread baking is concerned. I'm a marathon runner and am always looking for a way to incorporate baking into my training and there are ideas and foods mentioned in the book that I've brought into my baking world to help with carbo loading and long runs.
Tina Fey'sBossy Pants brought back my years at UVA and the fabulous crud we'd eat late night. It led to me making homemade donuts, grilling them and making an ice cream sandwich a la our corner diner, The Spot's "grillswith." It brought me back to my days of debauchery.
In Late Winter We Ate Pears by Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber: It's beautifully done, this gem of a cookbook. But they're locals. They have a wonderful restaurant, Pane e Salute in Woodstock, VT that's unbelievable. They walk the walk.
Good Meat by Deborah Krasner. It's THE guide to sourcing sustainable meat AND it's gorgeous, respectful and informative.
Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman. I teach a few times a year at King Arthur Flour, I love their flour, I live just five minutes away from their headquarters and the DANGEROUS Baker's store, so I have a soft spot for everything associated with it. Jeffrey Hamelman is KAF's resident grand poobah of levain; the GURU of bread. We're so lucky to have the reigning king of bread in our hood. He won't steer you wrong.
Thank you for participating, Gesine. Check back to see who answers the question next time and what other books are recommended.
. His new book is A New Turn in the South
appeared in 2008, and her new book 
will be on shelves next month. A graduate of L'Academie de Cuisine and Ecole de Cuisine LaVarenne, Willis’ wide and varied food career started in Atlanta as an apprentice to Nathalie Dupree. She worked with Dupree on four PBS series and cookbooks, including the James Beard award-winning 
. She also spent several years as an editorial assistant with culinary authority Anne Willan on various projects including 
. Willis honed her attention to detail as the Kitchen Director for Martha Stewart Living Television where she supervised the food segments for the Emmy-award winning television show. As Executive Producer for Epicurious on The Discovery Channel, she traveled the world taping fantastic stories about food. You can find her product line My Southern Pantry 
- about life before Columbus --I started reading this because my friend, Chef Deb Snow owner of the Blue Heron, told me about it. A lot of this book is not about food so far, but so much of it in terms of culture, politics, and anthropology does involve food. The most intriguing parts of the book are about corn and other vegetables from South America vs those from Europe. I've learned from this book that old world vs new world doesn't really work anymore. That kind of language is indicative of prejudice. The "new world" had been a world for at least as long as the "old world." 
(by Barry Estabrook). 
(by Becky Selengut) Beautiful, beautiful book about sustainable seafood of the Pacific. Sustainable seafood is a passion and a cause for me. I was designated a seafood ambassador with Seafood Watch this year. I am thrilled to be a small part of a greater cause for improving the situation and educating readers about why sustainable seafood is so important. 
(by Aki Kamozawa and H. Alexander Talbot) I mostly shy away from molecular gastronomy, but I am somewhat curious about it. And, for those folks completely dragging their heels, my question is would you prefer calves hooves instead of gelatin sheets? As cooks, as people, we should always strive to learn and grow. 
(by Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham) As I grow older I find it increasingly necessary to find more balance and focus. One practice I have returned to doing is saying a prayer of thanks before eating a meal. Even if someone has an issue with traditional religion, I think it is important to take a moment. To seriously, just take a moment in your day out of this busy, hectic world we occupy. In that moment I think it is important to give thanks for the food one is about to receive, the hands that put it in front of you, and the hands that grew or harvested the food. It takes a lot of work to get that food on your plate. 
I was fortunate enough to spend time with Julia Child when I lived and worked in France. It's a real pleasure to see behind the scenes of the making of one of the greatest culinary educators and culinary icons of our time. 
previously titled 
. Her latest book, 
, is a recipe book for cooking with sugar. The stages of cooked sugar, going from thread stage to hard-crack and the stages in between, are explained with a chapter and delectable recipes for each. There’s rock candy, a few variations on fudge, fruit gummis, taffy, fleur de sel caramels, cotton candy, and several more ideas I can’t wait to try. And, at the end of the book, there’s a chapter for combining different techniques and components like topping the meringues in an ile flottant with heart-shaped pralines. A book full of sugar treats is naturally fun to peruse, but this one is also written in a way that entertainingly conveys the details and instructions for sugar work. You can catch Gesine on the Today show on June 28th when she’ll be demonstrating some patriotic treats in time for the fourth of July, and she’s already busy at work on her next book, Pie it Forward, which will be released next April. I had a few questions for Gesine about sugar work, treats in Austin, and books, and she was kind enough to answer:
had an impact on me as far as my bread baking is concerned. I'm a marathon runner and am always looking for a way to incorporate baking into my training and there are ideas and foods mentioned in the book that I've brought into my baking world to help with carbo loading and long runs. 
brought back my years at UVA and the fabulous crud we'd eat late night. It led to me making homemade donuts, grilling them and making an ice cream sandwich a la our corner diner, The Spot's "grillswith." It brought me back to my days of debauchery. 
and 
are perennial favorites and always good for inspiration. 
by Deirdre Heekin and Caleb Barber: It's beautifully done, this gem of a cookbook. But they're locals. They have a wonderful restaurant, Pane e Salute in Woodstock, VT that's unbelievable. They walk the walk. 
by Deborah Krasner. It's THE guide to sourcing sustainable meat AND it's gorgeous, respectful and informative. 
by Jeffrey Hamelman. I teach a few times a year at King Arthur Flour, I love their flour, I live just five minutes away from their headquarters and the DANGEROUS Baker's store, so I have a soft spot for everything associated with it. Jeffrey Hamelman is KAF's resident grand poobah of levain; the GURU of bread. We're so lucky to have the reigning king of bread in our hood. He won't steer you wrong.