Newsletter: What to read with your dinner
Welcome to the last weekend of August, which means that the Labor Day holiday is next weekend — for those who anticipate being bored and hungry, might we suggest coming to the Taste, our annual three-day food festival, held next weekend at Paramount Studios — football season is fast approaching, your children are going back to school, and it’s time to talk about cookbooks.
This year’s impressive stack is heavily loaded with Los Angeles cookbooks, terrific debut books from local chefs and food writers. Which means it’s a great time to hole up and read the back stories of some of your favorite restaurants, as well as try your hand making some of the dishes you’ve been obsessively eating for the last few years. If you need some additional help with that, we have a story about how to make Starry Kitchen’s famous Singaporean chili crab (one of the new cookbooks out), as well as a look at the Altadena independent publishing house that has been putting out local cookbooks for years.
We also spotlight a handful of the best cookbooks out or coming out from non-L.A. folks. And yes, we have recipes: pancake and frittata recipes, if you’re making brunch this weekend; meatloaf recipes, if the cheffy stuff is a little too daunting; or just what to do with all those cucumbers loading the market stands right now. So enjoy your Saturday, make another pot of coffee and maybe go find a book.
THE YEAR OF L.A. COOKBOOKS
The dining scene in Los Angeles has finally been getting the national attention it has long deserved, not only from the media and from out-of-town diners, but also the publishing houses. The evidence is on the shelves, with a very strong crop of cookbooks just out or coming out from L.A. chefs and writers. Food writer Tien Nguyen checks out seven terrific new books, and considers the reasons why this has been such a great year on the page as well as on the plate.
10 MORE GREAT NEW COOKBOOKS
And yes, there are some pretty great books out from folks outside of Los Angeles: 10 new cookbooks in particular. Among a very impressive stack on this fall’s lineup are first books by chefs Wylie Dufresne and Sean Sherman, new books by chefs Andy Ricker and David Tanis, an all-dessert book from Yotam Ottolenghi, and an all-cookie book from the folks at America’s Test Kitchen. Also hitting the shelves, or about to: a new book from the Moosewood restaurant collective, a book about flavor from Daniel Patterson, and a collection of must-cook Asian dishes from Jet Tila.
AN ALTADENA PUBLISHING HOUSE
While it may seem as if big publishing houses like Ten Speed Press and Ecco have all the fun putting out cookbooks, small houses are also getting into the game. Prospect Park Books, a tiny independent publisher in Altadena, has been quietly publishing local cookbooks for a decade, thanks to Colleen Dunn Bates, a sixth-generation Southern Californian. Food writer Margy Rochlin talks to Bates about how she got into the food game.
MORE FUN WITH STARRY KITCHEN
If you’ve spent much time eating out in L.A. over the last few years — or on local social media — you’ll likely know about Starry Kitchen and the couple behind it, Nguyen and Thi Tran. They started cooking out of their apartment, moved into a series of pop-ups and finally a permanent restaurant, all the while cooking deeply addictive dishes and keeping their diners entertained with occasional costume parties. Now they’ve written their first cookbook, which is as lively as you’d expect. Test Kitchen Director Noelle Carter chronicles their recent visit to the Times Test Kitchen, where they demoed their famous Singaporean chili crab — and yes, we have the recipe.
The Taste, our annual Labor Day food festival (this one is three days, not a whole month!) is returning to Paramount Studios. Check out the lineup, the demos and panels, the chefs and bartenders, and of course all the food. Tickets are on sale.
Goldbot: You can now talk to Jonathan Gold any time you want — or at least the robot version of him that now lives on Facebook Messenger. You can ask Goldbot for a personal restaurant recommendation based on location, type of food or price. The bot will also deliver Jonathan Gold’s latest reviews straight to your device.
The Daily Meal, the food and drink website under the editorial direction of Colman Andrews, is now one of our partners. Check out their city food guides, restaurant lists, food stories, recipes and videos.
Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants, the authoritative annual guide to local dining, is online for subscribers and now features his 2016 Best Restaurants. If you didn’t get a copy of the booklet, you can order one online here.
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