LTHForum.com

Spent yesterday at the Great Lakes Bookseller's Association conference in Schaumburg, and got a few food-related books from the publishers: one on silent auction for their canti-censorship fund, and a bunch as they were packing up to go (they don't want to haul samples). We have oodles of non-food books, too, but here's the chow-oriented swag:

1) Advance Reading Copy of The Prairie Table Cookbook by Bill Kurtis with Michelle M. Martin. This was a bit of a disappointment, as much of the book seems to be a commercial plug for Kurtis' Talgrass Prairie grass-fed beef. There are a few interesting recipes, ranging from native american and cowboy originals from the 1800s to modern beef interpretations from Rick Bayless, Paul Katz, Sarah Stegner, George Bumbaris and others.

2) Alice Waters The Art of Simple Food. Surprisingly lacking a dust jacket, nevertheless a beautiful book. The first 200 pages are basic lessons on technique, such as roasting a chicken, four essential sauces, and the second half of the book covers a larger number of recipes. Not all are simple -- her Bolognese is a rich, complex recipe, but it is all elegant and not overblown piles of food. Only a few line drawings, no photos. This looks like a good read.

3) Anthony Bourdain No Reservations - Around the World on an Empty Stomach. I haven't had time to go through this much, but it's mostly travel photo stuff. The chapters are divided by continent, with a separate one for Beirut, then some additional ones with titles such as "Food Porn", "Indigenous Beverates" and "Bathrooms Around the World". The last chapter has a list of recommended restaurants in remote locations (or not -- six of the nine in the US are in NYC). Looks like a nice coffee table book, not so much educational.

4) My Last Supper - 50 Great Chefs and Their Final Meals, by Melanie Dunea. Beautiful photos of chefs (well, I could skip the one of a naked Tony Bourdain with just a large bone in front of his, uh, you get the idea). The interviews I've flipped through go against the previous similar articles I've read where chefs inevitably request childhood favorites, like mom's pot roast and mac'n'cheese. Here there's a lot of "many courses of perfect seafood" and truffles, foie, etc. About a third of the book is recipes, a number of which (such as chai creme brulee) look worth trying, but there are a few too many raw seafood and gussied up potato dishes to really make it a meal planner. I'll enjoy reading and thumbing through this more than cooking from it.

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What is patriotism, but the love of good things we ate in our childhood?
-- Lin Yutang

i just finished thomas mcnamee's bio of alice waters and chez panisse. it was fascinating and ambitious - i want more. alice's vision, stubborness, determination and optimism have taken her a long way. and the success and longevity of chez panisse is nothing short of miraculous considering the chaotic nature of the kitchen and alice's extravagance and lack of business sense. she has long been a hero of mine, but i learned a lot after reading this book. what a life, what a story!

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"the only things money can't buy are true love and homegrown tomatoes" (guy clark)

I really enjoyed The Elements of Cooking by Michael Ruhlman, which was released on November 6.

=R=

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I just wanna live until I gotta die. I know I ain't perfect but God knows I try. --Todd Snider

Spit out the gum, sister!

Twitter: ronniesuburban

I work closely with Bill Kurtis on the board of a nonprofit documentary production foundation - www.harranproductions.org. His very existence is an advertisement for Tallgrass Beef, in the most fervent and earnest way. He embodies Kansas and the steer trade and I've been lucky enough to participate in events at which he's provided the recipes and elbow grease. I eagerly await the book but can appreciate that he comes across larger than life in print the same way he does in person and on film.

pardon me, the "content" behind that link is an emetic, and hopefully nothing worse...

the virtual pabulum is enough to make "me" hurl

what does grass fed beef have to do with it all?

cod-academic, wussie, can't we all get along, PC, evanstonian-BS...barf...

...yuck




the more I read on that site...feh... "Yusef Islam! There's A Winner!"

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"Johnny thought when all purpose had been forgotten the world would end this way, with a dance. He slumped back in a corner, drew his knees up to his chin, and watched."-Derek Jarman

What does your dislike of the site have to do with Tallgrass Beef?

Give me a break. His mention was an aside, explaining the relationship, but you just spammed us all with a half-witted rant about it, a ten times bigger waste of space and time.

Feh.

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Ed Fisher
my chicago food photos

RIP LTH.

yeah...relatively halfwitted...

I *like* Tallgrass Beef (or, at least the idea of it...I've yet to partake)

what I don't like is that link to utter pabulum

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"Johnny thought when all purpose had been forgotten the world would end this way, with a dance. He slumped back in a corner, drew his knees up to his chin, and watched."-Derek Jarman