Monday 21 December 2009

books of the year

well everyone else is doing their lists and best ofs. One of the perks of Tourism and Food is the amount of eminently readable books that we order in, unlike say faculty of engineering.... - books that you would consider taking home for a bit of light christmas reading.

Guinness toasted 250 years a brewin' and 2 recent publications Guinnesses - the untold story (cant wait for the movie) and The Guinness story, a smaller more pictorial history, from the Obrien Press retell the tale. TV celebrity chefdom remains as popular as ever, so Shooting the cook: a true story about food television and rise of TV's superchefs is timely and apt. 2 contrasting books published this year chart the influence of the french kitchen. 1st Susan Pinkard's A revolution in taste: the rise of French cuisine 1650- 1800. and then came Au revoir to all that: the rise and fall of French cuisine by the American columist and journalist Michael Steinberger. So take your pick
The godfather of molecular gastronomy, Herve This, published Construisons un repas (Building a meal) in english during the year and we saw a new expanded ed of A history of food by Toussaint-Samat.
Best Reference work: The devil's food dictionary: a pioneering culinary refwork consisting entirely of lies.
Best memoir: Anna del Conti's portrayal of growing up in fascist Italy, Risotto with nettles. though The settler's cookbook by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown isn't half bad either
Best compilation: Eat memory: a collection of essays from the New York Times.
Best escapist non fiction: Out of the East:spices and the medieval imagination by Paul Freedman
On the other side of the food pyramid, RTE journalist Philip Boucher-Hayes published Basket case: whats happening to Ireland's food? And in similar vien, equally sobering, Waste: uncovering the global food scandal by self confessed "freegan" Stuart Tristram. And iIf you want to get away from all this food at this time of year, how about Famine: a short history by Cormac O Grada.
Thats me done for the year. Time for down time with caviar , cocktails and chocolate under the tree

2 comments:

Barry Foy said...

Thanks for including my book THE DEVIL'S FOOD DICTIONARY: A PIONEERING CULINARY REFERENCE WORK CONSISTING ENTIRELY OF LIES on your Best Of 2009 list. I'm very flattered, though how a copy found its way into the DIT library, I can't begin to imagine. As it happens, I lived in Dublin myself many lifetimes ago, and in connection with that, I'm also author of a book called FIELD GUIDE TO THE IRISH MUSIC SESSION. For excerpts, reviews, etc., of both books, please visit www.frogchartpress.com. As for where to buy them in Ireland, I know amazon.uk sells them, and maybe elsewhere too. Thanks again, and all the best.

briang said...

gastronomy and culinary arts, anthropology sociology of food and food culture are an important part of our collection and the esoteric, the offbeat and bizarre are as important as the academic - the wider shores