Best Food Writing 2013

September 1, 2003
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.

January 6, 2014
Editor Hughes's annual anthology has once again successfully captured the mood in today's food world. "The season of foam and gels has passed," she reflects in the introduction, "and the Year of the Pork Belly has given way to the Year of Kale." What follows is a collection of essays by bloggers, journalist, big name chefs and foodies alike all published within the last year. Highlights include Michael Pollan's "Step Two: Saute Onions and Other Aromatic Vegetables," Jonathan Gold's profile of Kogi co-founder Roy Choi entitled "The King of the Food Trucks Hits Hawaii," and Brett Martin's GQ article "Good Food Everywhere." Edward Behr meditative essay "Slow Cooking, Slowing Eating" is especially powerful. He writes, "Slowness really means living at the right speed for whatever you are doing, living more in the present moment, rather than looking always ahead to the next thing⦠It means you pay attention." This eclectic anthology would not be complete, however, without occasional paeans to questionable food items. Katharine Shilcutt, for example, writes about McDonald's in "I Ate My First McRib, and I Regret It." Dan Barry bemoans the Hostess bankruptcy in "Back When a Chocolate Puck Tasted, Guiltily, like America." Pieces like these add lightness and levity to the volume as a whole. They provide necessary balance, making it informative as well as entertaining.

November 1, 2013
Longtime editor Hughes once again compiles a tasty collection of culinary essays for those who love to eat, cook and read about food. "With such an insatiable audience," she writes in her introduction, "there are more outlets for food writing than ever, in print and on-line and on the airwaves. It's an embarrassment of riches, not unlike those overstuffed CSA bags of produce." Hughes scoured bookstores, magazines, newspapers, newsletters and websites, including GQ, the New York Times, Edible San Francisco, the Chicago Reader, Tin House, Fire and Knives, Graze and GiltTaste.com before selecting the essays included here. Together, they represent the diverse tastes, quirks and passions of America's burgeoning food culture. Organized within categories such as The Way We Eat Now, Farm to Table, The Meat of the Matter, Home Cooking and To Be a Chef, the essays surprise, educate and highlight the trends within the food movement. A short sampling includes: the merits of seasonal eating; celebrating Thanksgiving on the Chesapeake Bay; how saying grace can offer a different take on a meal; the rigors of tossing pizza; how to make real New England clam chowder; food trucks in Hawaii; the Southern pleasure of combining cola and salted peanuts; and the demise of Hostess Bakeries. Michael Pollan opines on the chemistry and heavenly benefits achieved while sauteing aromatic vegetables. Investigative journalist Tracie McMillan explores the stories we tell ourselves about the joys of home cooking. Houston Press writer Katharine Shilcutt bemoans America's industrialized agriculture and food production systems and deconstructs her first taste of a McDonald's McRib sandwich. "I felt so hollow afterward," she writes, "that it was as if my stomach had shifted outside my body, as though my abdominal cavity was rejecting it in shame." Other contributors include Edward Behr, Gabrielle Hamilton, Rowan Jacobsen and Eddie Huang. A literary trek across the culinary landscape pairing bountiful delights with plenty of substantive tidbits.

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December 1, 2013

In the latest edition of this series, Hughes once again has found well-written articles that depict the current interests of foodies. New this year were the popularity of food trucks and kale and continued interest in tasting menus and community-supported agriculture. There are articles that will result in tears, such as "His Saving Grace" (the success story of Curtis Duffy), and those that will result in laughter, for example, "Beer and Smoking..." which chronicles a barbecue cook-off. For animal lovers, "Hogonomics," a graphic portrayal of growing supermarket pork, will be difficult to read. Other strong pieces are Matt Goulding's lavish description of a 26-course meal at Noma's in Copenhagen and Katharine Shilcutt's grotesque account of her first time eating a McRib. Seven of the articles feature recipes (e.g., New England clam chowder, marinara sauce, and poached eggs). Hughes draws from a variety of sources, such as magazines (Food and Wine; the Atlantic), newspapers (the New York Times; the Financial Times), books (Michael Pollan's Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation; Eddie Huang's Fresh off the Boat: A Memoir), and websites (Food for the Thoughtless; Serious Eats). VERDICT This series remains a recommended source for public and academic libraries with patrons who enjoy current food writing.--Christine E. Bulson, emeritus, Milne Lib., SUNY Oneonta

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2013
No doubt about it, twenty-first-century Americans are obsessed with food. The only things they apparently enjoy more than eating it are watching it being cooked on television and reading about it on blogs and in magazines and newspapers. This latest annual anthology of short writings reveals a nation sorely conflicted about food's nutritional benefits versus the sheer sensual pleasures of the table. Americans (and increasingly a worldwide audience) support a vast impersonal, international food-service industry while simultaneously lionizing chefs who work only with local meats, cheeses, and produce. Distressed with the gastronomic mediocrity of the McRib, Katherine Shilcutt acknowledges its evident allure to a vast swath of citizens. Those determined to live off land closer to home should consider squirrel as meat of choice, writes Mike Sula. Many essays cite Copenhagen's Noma, reputed to be the world's greatest restaurant, so Matt Goulding meticulously guides readers through its dinner's 20-plus courses.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

January 10, 2011
Mourning the demise of Gourmet magazine, series editor Hughes asks "is food writing a dying art?" Readers of this year's anthology will offer a resounding "nowhere close." Ethical concerns of organic and locavore movements and free range meats are tidily summed up by now-famous vegetarian Jonathan Safran Foer. Whereas MIT grad J. Kenji Lopez-Alt shares a recipe for making French fries as good as what McDonalds makes: "salty, crisp, light, and not greasy." At the other end of the spectrum, New York Times restaurant critic Sam Sifton offers a version of Nora Ephron's meat loaf recipe to die for. Pulitzer prize winner Jonathan Gold tracks the shifting locations of Los Angeles' street vendors and Tod Kliman hunts down Peter Chang, the elusive "perfect chef" who moves between Chinese restaurants, from D.C. to Atlanta, to avoid celebrity. Along the way Kliman learns that innocuous Chinese restaurants can have secret menus for the cognoscenti and experiences the exquisite pleasure of hot peppers that scorch and even numb. And travelling to Tokyo, Kevin Pang discovered to his great surprise that eating a bowl of ramen "satisfied every taste sense man is blessed to experience." A sparkling collection.

September 25, 2006
In this excellent collection, Hughes brings together an eclectic mix of writing by restaurant reviewers, chefs, food writers and food lovers that succeeds in connecting distinctly different writing styles with a common thread of respect for and fascination with eating. Hughes separates the essays according to such themes as "The Food Chain," "Home Cooking," "Someone's in the Kitchen" and "The Restaurant Biz," and culls from publications as well-known as Bon Appétit
to the lesser-known enRoute
. The pieces range from technical ("The Blowtorch Gourmet" by Par Chris Johns) to intensely personal (Floyd Skloot's "Jambon Dreams"). In "Mama's House," Jason Sheehan cruises the streets of Denver in search of "Mama," a Ghanaian refugee who operates a kitchen out of her home, cooking at all times of the day for whoever shows up on her doorstep. Frank Bruni, the New York Times
's dining critic, gets a look at how the other half lives in his humorous and humble "My Week as a Waiter." Other standout pieces include "A Mentor Named Misty" by Gabrielle Hamilton, and "The Egg Men" by Burkhard Bilger, which explores the cavernous kitchens of the Las Vegas hotel industry.

October 15, 2001
Following last year's initial anthology, which she also edited, Hughes (Frommer's New York City with Kids) serves up this year's offerings like a satisfying, well-rounded meal. The selections are divided into six sections: Stocking the Larder, Food Fights, Home Cooking, Someone's in the Kitchen, Dining Around and Personal Tastes. The contributors include food industry insiders as well as professional writers who are lay foodies in their spare time, Jeffrey Eugenides and Malcolm Gladwell among them. From notable food critics like Colman Andrews and Ruth Reichl to such writers as Derek Cooper and Mort Rosenblum, the anthology
provides engaging insight into food, cooking, eating and various relevant cultural and emotional phenomena. With extracts culled from books, magazines, newspapers and the Internet, the compilation ranges from the serious "Toro, Toro, Toro" by Jeffrey Steingarten to the amusing "Abstinence Makes the Taste Buds Grow Fonder"
by David Leite. Short, light pieces provide welcome interludes to the longer, denser fare. All are enjoyable and worthwhile. Foodies will recognize many of the selections from magazines such as Gourmet
and Food & Wine
and books such as The Last Days of Haute Cuisine
by Patric Kuh and Reichl's Comfort Me with Apples. (Dec.)Forecast:Foodies browsing extracts such as Rosenblum's delightful "Another Roadside Attraction," taken from
A Goose in Toulouse, will likely walk away with a copy—and may probe the shelves for books excerpted in this volume.

Starred review from November 3, 2008
A culinary cross-section of the latest news and trends in food, the latest collection from series editor Hughes covers all corners of the kitchen. Jason Sheehan masterfully recounts the painful trials and tribulations of molecular gastronomy; John Kessler's all-too-relatable essay on the moral dilemma of cheap grocery store tenderloin will have foodies nodding along; and rhapsodic accounts of the quest for the perfect fried clams, biscuit, and patty melt will get readers salivating. Not all is sweetbreads and light, as contributors pull back the curtain on cloned meat, detail a lauded salumeria's lengthy and expensive battles with the health department, and respectfully convey the kaleidoscope of emotions a restaurateur feels when closing a restaurant. The most important essay in the book, which deserves reading by any American who eats out, is "Guess Who's Making Your Dinner," from veteran food writer Robb Walsh (Legends of Texas Barbecue), an exploration of the Mexican-American contribution to dining in America. An exceptional collection worth revisiting, this will be a surefire hit with epicureans and cooks.

November 2, 2009
Editor Hughes skims the cream off a year's worth of culinary journalism in the latest annual. As with previous editions, Hughes captures the gastronomic zeitgeist in a broad range of essays; she opens strong with Timothy Taylor's witty take on connoisseurs and gourmands, an examination of the slow and raw food movements, and a vendor's take on farmers' markets. Though some topics, like legendary steak houses and the neighborhood diner, have been done to death, they're carried by the quality of the writing. John DeLucie's sardonic account of his truffled macaroni and cheese, as well as Tim Carman's brilliant "How Not to Hire a Chef," are the kind of slice-of-life tales that deserve a wider audience, and make up for the volume's misses (Margaret McArthur's take on cooking the perfect soft-boiled egg, Lettie Teague's piece on wine scams). Other crowd-pleasers include Calvin Trillin's quest for the best barbecue in Texas and Robb Walsh's all-too-short examination of a classic pairing: oysters with martinis. This is a sound reader for those looking to catch up on trends in the culinary world, but foodies already immersed in the culture are sure to find some overlooked gems.