Best of the Books

The husband-wife cookbook writing team of Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid came away from the country’s most prestigious back-to-back cookbook awards with top prizes in both. Their “Flatbreads and Flavors: A Baker’s Atlas” won Cookbook of the Year from the James Beard Foundation on Monday; two days earlier, it won the special Julia Child Award (First Book) from the International Assn. of Culinary Professional’s Julia Child Cookbook Awards.

Marie Simmons and the late Richard Sax also won awards at both events. Their “Lighter, Quicker, Better: Cooking for the Way We Eat Today” won the James Beard Healthy Focus category and the Julia Child Health and Special Diet category. Sax was also honored posthumously Saturday with the IACP Humanitarian Award.

Mimi Sheraton’s “The Whole World Loves Chicken Soup” was the other book that won awards--in the Single Subject category--in both contests.

The Best Cookbook of the Year in the Julia Child Awards went to John Ash and Sid Goldstein for their “From the Earth to the Table: John Ash’s Wine Country Cuisine”; the book also won the American category.

Three TV cooking show hosts won cookbook awards: Julia Child won a James Beard award in the Restaurants and Chefs category for “In Julia’s Kitchen With Master Chefs”; Jacques Pepin’s “La Technique” and “La Methode” was placed in the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame, and Marcel Desaulniers won the Bread, Other Baking and Sweets category of the Julia Child Cookbook Awards and the IACP Cook’s Choice Award for his “Desserts to Die For.”

High-temperature roaster Barbara Kafka won in the General category of the Julia Child Awards for her “Roasting: A Simple Art.” “Jim Fobel’s Big Flavors” won the General category in the James Beard Awards.

Other Julia Child Cookbook Award winners were Kasma Loha-Unchit’s “It Rains Fishes: Legends, Traditions and Joys of Thai Cooking” (International), David Mas Masumoto’s “Epitaph for a Peach” (Literary Food Writing), Sandra Oliver’s “Saltwater Foodways” (Jane Grigson Distinguished Scholarship), “Oz Clark’s Wine Atlas” (Wine, Beer and Spirits), Maury Rubin’s “Book of Tarts” (Design) and James Trager’s “The Food Chronology” (Food Reference).

Other James Beard Foundation Book Award winners were Nick Malgieri’s “How to Bake” (Baking and Desserts), “Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine” (International), Steven Raichlen’s “High-Flavor, Low-Fat Vegetarian Cooking” (Vegetarian), Andrew Dornenburg’s and Karen Page’s “Becoming a Chef” (Writing on Food), Jack Czarnecki’s “A Cook’s Book of Mushrooms” (Fruits, Vegetables and Grains), Cheryl Alters Jamison’s and Bill Jamison’s “The Border Cookbook” (Regional American), James Laube’s “Wine Spectator’s California Wine” (Wine and Spirits) and Anne Willan’s “In and Out of the Kitchen in Fifteen Minutes or Less” with photos by Sara Taylor (Best Food Photography).