Best Food Writing 2014

by Holly Hughes (Editor)

Overview

For fourteen years, Best Food Writing has served up the creme de la creme of the year's food writing. The 2014 edition once again offers the tastiest prose of the year, from a range of voices: food writing stars, James Beard Award winners, writer-chefs, bestselling authors, and up-and-coming bloggers alike. With new sections devoted to "A Table for Everyone" and "Back to Basics," you'll find a topic and a flavor for every appetite—the cutting-edge, the thoughtful, the provocative, and the hilarious—a smorgasbord of treats for the foodie in all of us.

Contributors include: Elissa Altman, Dan Barber, Monica Bhide, Sara Bir, John Birdsall, Jane Black, Frank Bruni, Albert Burneko, Tom Carson, Brent Cunningham, John T. Edge, Barry Estabrook, Amy Gentry, Adam Gopnik, Matt Goulding, John Gravois, Alex Halberstadt, Sarah Henry, Jack Hitt, Steve Hoffman, Ann Hood, Silas House, Rowan Jacobsen, John Kessler, Kate Krader, Francis Lam, David Leite, Irvin Lin, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, Daniella Martin, Dave Mondy, Erin Byers Murray, Rick Nichols, Kim O'Donnel, Josh Ozersky, Kevin Pang, Ben Paynter, Michael Procopio, Jay Rayner, Besha Rodell, Anna Roth, Adam Sachs, Eli Saslow, David Sax, Oliver Strand, Laura Taxel, JT Torres, Molly Watson, Joe Yonan, Eagranie Yuh

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738217925
Publisher:	Hachette Books
Publication date:	10/14/2014
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	752 KB

About the Author

Holly Hughes, former executive editor of Fodor's travel publications, is the author of Frommer's 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers. She lives with her family in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

11/01/2014
Hughes has been the editor of this annual anthology since its inception in 2000. Among this year's contributing writers are: Frank Bruni, Adam Sachs, Laura Taxel, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, and Monica Bhide. The pieces are arranged into sections on "The Way We Eat Now," "Extreme Eating," "A Table for Everyone," "Back to Basics," "Home Cooking," "Stocking the Pantry," "Someone's in the Kitchen," and "Personal Tastes." Even Hughes's introduction is absorbing, telling of her brother's hospice stay and how delicious, carb-filled treats sustained her during that difficult time. The authors address trends such as $4 toast, the satisfaction of a meal after a day of hunting, and health or ethical issues related to food. Each narrative has its own feel but most bring to the forefront the emotions brought out by cooking and eating. VERDICT Recommended for all libraries, this collection has something for connoisseurs, short story fans, and anyone hungry for a good read.—Jane Hebert, Glenside P.L. Dist., Glendale Heights, IL

Library Journal

Booklist, 10/1/14
"This book is a menu of delicious food, colorful characters, and tales of strange and wonderful food adventures that make for memorable meals and stories.”

Kirkus, 10/15/14
"Consistent in quality and enthusiasm, Hughes again delivers a cornucopia of varietal amusements for foodophiles whose palates crave invigorating interpretations and perspectives.”

Hudson Valley News, 9/17/14
"Browse, read a bit, browse some more and then head for the kitchen.”

Bookviews, November 2014
"Plenty to enjoy.”

Library Journal, 11/1/14
"This collection has something for connoisseurs, short story fans, and anyone hungry for a good read.”

Taste for Life, November 2014
"The finest in culinary prose is offered in this new anthology…these pages delight and inform readers with entertaining and provocative essays…This book ultimately opens readers' eyes to honest, real food and the personal stories of the people behind it.”

Beverly Citizen, 11/13/14
"[A] gem of an anthology…Though this is most definitely a book that can satisfy in small bites-like a box of good chocolates-it's hard to stop at one piece.

From the Publisher

2014-09-28
The 14th installment of a series known for dynamic, immersive food writing. Longtime editor Hughes was challenged with the task of scouring books and magazines for "thoughtful, meaty" material while being a humble sentinel at her dying brother's bedside. The entertaining essays she's collected range in theme from home cooking, extreme palates and industrialized product developments to Cronuts and pickled baloney. A section on contemporary food trends examines the dust-up over big flavors and $4 toast being elevated to the "artisanal plane." Particularly savory and eye-opening pieces include an entomophagist's ingestion of insects as a source of both concentrated nutrition and inspiration; investigative journalist Barry Estabrook's list of five foods plagued by historically questionable sanitization histories and overfarming; and a short report on Monsanto's unsettlingly futuristic vegetable crossbreeding. Updates on prison commissary provisions and the sensationalized "last meal" as an "irresistible blend of food, death, and crime that drives a commercial and voyeuristic cottage industry" are also especially riveting. Among the more charmingly insightful gastronomical nuggets are John Birdsall's perky analysis of American cuisine's ostensive "gay sensibility," food columnist J. Kenji López-Alt's mouthwatering anatomy of a chocolate chip cookie and an exotic tour of street food in Asia from former Men's Health food editor Matt Goulding. Humor and compassion, which Hughes admits sustained her throughout the book's editing process, appear in satisfying doses in essays by self-taught baker Irvin Lin's hilariously tongue-in-cheek recipe for boiling water, memories of homemade ketchup by David Leite and beloved New England novelist Ann Hood's rediscovery of tomato pie. For Hughes, this particular edition of thoughtful food pondering "offered its own path of healing and comfort." Consistent in quality and enthusiasm, Hughes again delivers a cornucopia of varietal amusements for foodophiles whose palates crave invigorating interpretations and perspectives.

Kirkus Reviews