Best Food Writing 2003 [Paperback]

Holly Hughes (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 29, 2003 | Series: Best Food Writing

Best Food Writing 2003 assembles, for the fourth year, the most exceptional writing from the past year's books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters, and websites. Within its six sections—Stocking the Larder, Home Cooking, Someone's in the Kitchen, Dining Around, The Recipe File, and Personal Tastes—read our best writers on everything from celebrated chefs to extraordinary restaurants, from histories of vital ingredients to food-inspired memoirs. Included are pieces from such stars of the genre as John Thorne, Amanda Hesser, and Calvin Trillin. Selected as required reading by the Culinary Institue of America for all of its undergraduate students, neither cook nor food lover should be without this remarkable annual collection.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Reflecting on her selections for this amusing and informative anthology, the fourth she's edited, Hughes explains that she's attracted to good prose, to things that are humorous and to pieces that resonate: "Just as I want a meal that satisfies my hunger, I look for food writing that stays with me." In magazines, newspapers, books and websites, she found 50 such articles on topics from bacon and caviar to Cheez Whiz and Sloppy Joes. She also came across essays on take-out, butter and burgers by New Yorker and Vogue veterans Calvin Trillin and Jeffrey Steingarten and Saveur editor Colman Andrews. Witty and wistful, their pieces have become staples in these compilations over the years. Among the other standouts in this year's edition are New York Times reporter Joyce Chang's examination of the fondness, at once peculiar and practical, that chefs and chefs-to-be have for their knives-"the haves talk about what kind of knives they own," she writes, "the have-nots stand stupidly silent, making a mess of carrot bits at their stations"-and Los Angeles Magazine senior editor Dave Gardetta's meditation on the Awesome Blossom-"a giant onion sliced into neat tiny quadrants, battered, and then deep-fried." A signature dish at Chili's restaurant, the Awesome Blossom is used by Gardetta as a culinary metaphor in his trenchant analysis of the way corporate chains currently dominate the rural American restaurant scene. Wry, investigative pieces such as these give Hughes's collection depth, even as she satisfies readers' cravings for a well-wrought tale.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (September 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1569244405
• ISBN-13: 978-1569244401
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,054,524 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Stuff Here, April 5, 2004

By 

Chris Frost (Ingalls, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best Food Writing 2003 (Paperback)

This compilation of food writing is perfect for the foodie who doesn't have the time to sift through enormaous piles of literature to find a handful of good essays. Especially interesting was the article entitled "Josiah & the Giant Onion", describing America's pathetic passion for gigantic chain restaurants.