Earlier this week, the International Association of Culinary Professionals announced the 2010 IACP Cookbook Award finalists. These awards recognize excellence in many categories: American; Baking: Savory or Sweet; Chefs and Restaurants; Children, Youth and Family; Culinary History; Health and Special Diet; International; and more. View the complete list here. The winners will be announced at a gala on April 22.
Here’s what BookPage cooking columnist Sybil Pratt has to say about a few of the selections (click the book titles for more information):
Bottega Favorita by Frank Stitt
Nominated for “Chefs and Restaurants”
Stitt’s take on Italian cuisine is infused with his Southern sensibility—you can take this boy out of the South, but you can’t take the South out of the boy and that’s what makes these recipes sing with a unique culinary harmony. Shell beans replace cannellini beans and pair with wild American shrimp and lump crabmeat in a Southern take on a classic Italian summer salad.
Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller
Nominated for “Chefs and Restaurants”
Keller cooks at home! Hard to believe that the high priest of haute cuisine in the U.S. (and author of three cookbooks that are the quintessence of chic, sophisticated armchair cooking) has put together a collection of approachable family meals. Ad Hoc at Home has over 200 recipes that you and I can cook without a battalion of sous-chefs and cutting-edge culinary equipment—a slice of the sublime accessible to mere mortals.
Gourmet Today by Ruth Reichl
Nominated for “Compilations”
This one is orchestrated to suit “the on-going revolution in the American kitchen”—our wonderfully eclectic, international appetites, the ever-increasing ease in getting ethnic, organic and healthy ingredients and our concern about ethical eating. And, with 650 recipes that can be made in 30 minutes, it invites the time-challenged (and who isn’t?) to share in our current culinary adventures.
Besides its encyclopedic collection of recipes, we’ll root for this cookbook for sentimental reasons; our hearts book when Gourmet folded in October.
Got any favorites of the bunch? Or a recommendation for a tried and true cookbook you use all the time?
Related in BookPage: Browse our cookbook archives.
